Found on Facebook

Nerdy Pickup Lines:
1. You're like an exothermic reaction, you spread your hotness everywhere!

2. I wish I was your derivative so I could lie tangent to your curves

3. You’re like a dictionary, you add meaning to my life!

4. If i was an enzyme, i'd be helicase so i could unzip your genes

5. I'm attracted to you so strongly, scientists will have to develop a fifth fundamental force.

6. Baby, you overclock my processor.

7. Be my queen and mate me with your knight moves.

8. Baby, you make my floppy disk turn into a hard drive

9. You make me want to calibrate my joystick without the latest drivers

10.You defragment my life

11. Do you think we can make it a step more serious and disable network sharing?

12. You must be auxin, cuz u r causing me to have rapid stem elongation.

13. Baby, let me find your nth term

14. I don't have a library card, but do you mind if I check you out?

15. Baby i'll treat you like my hw- I'll slam you on the table and do you all night long

16. Hey baby, can i see what's under your radical?

17. If I were an integral, I'd fill you up.

18. I'm a fermata... hold me

19. I think my heart just lagged.

20. I wish I were your second derivative so i could fill your concavities.

21. did you just combust?? Because you're HOT!

22. By looking at you I can tell you're 36-25-36, which by the way are all perfect squares.

23. It doesn’t take a genius to see how gorgeous you are, but if it did, I would be overqualified.

24. Baby, if you were words on a page, you'd be what they call FINE PRINT!

25. What do you say we go back to my room and do some math: Add a bed, subtract our clothes, divide your legs, and multiply

26. Baby, you're a 9.999999999...but you'd be a 10 if you were with me.

27. Baby, everytime i see you, my cardiovascular system gets all worked up

28. I wish I were adenine because then I could get paired with U.

29. What's your sine? It must be pi/2 because you're the 1

30. If my right leg was christmas and my left was Easter, would you like to spend some time between the holidays?

31. You have nicer legs than an Isosceles right triangle.

32. Your so cute you make my zygomaticus muscles contract. (Muscles that make you smile)

33. When you and me get together it's like superposition of 2 waves in phase.

34. Want to meet up so I can excite your natural frequency?

35. If I was sin^2 and you were cos^2 together we would be 1

36. You know.. it's not the length of the vector that counts... it's how you apply the force

37. If I move my lips half the distance to yours... and then half again... and again... etc.... would they ever meet? no? Well in this specific case i am going to disprove your assumption.

38. Your name is Leslie? Look, I can spell your name on my calculator!

39. If i was an endoplasmic reticulum, how would you want me: smooth or rough?

40. I wish I was an Ion so I could form an exothermic bond with you.

41. If my right leg is the cell wall and my left the membrane, do you want to be the cytoplasm?

42. Our love is like dividing by zero.... you cannot define it

43. Lets meet somewhere... you bring your beaker and I'll bring my stirring rod

44. Baby let me be your integral so I can be the area under your curves

45. Hey baby, what's your tanx cosx?

46. Lets get together and test the spring potential of my matress

47. Let's discover our coefficient of friction

48. Baby, you're so gneiss I'll never take you for granite.

49. I less than three you..... (i < 3 you)

50. I heard you're sin because you're always on top when we make tangent

51. You be Flourine and I'll be Francium and maybe later I can give you an electron

52. My sudden protracted cardiac arrhythmia tells me I love you

53. Whoops, I think my binomials just expanded

54. I must be Earth and you must be the Sun, cause the closer I orbit, the hotter you get.

55. Baby I wish I could live on a [integral of 1/cabin d cabin] with you.

56. Excuse me, ma'am, but can I get your seven significant digits?

57. I'm overheating because you're stuck in my head like an infinite loop.

58. You must be chlorine cause you are polarizing my bond!

59. Baby if you let your acid react with my base, you can count on getting 100 MOLES of my water and salt

60. *i'll be the one over your cosx an baby, we can have secx!

61. Would you like to enjoy my laptop, I promise I don't have any viruses...

62. i'm relativistic: the faster I go, the longer I last.

63. That dress would look better accelerating towards the floor at 9.8 m/s/s

64. I'm a star. Wanna taste the Milky Way?

65. I'm attracted to you like the Earth is attracted to the Sun-with a large force inversely proportional to the distance squared.

66. YouTube Myspace and I'll Google your Yahoo

67. I wanna stick to u like glue-cose

68. Baby, I can feel an attraction between you and me, and it's more than just our universal gravitation...

69. I'll "eye" your pod! ;)

70. B equals T x N. I think you and I should study the T and N planes in depth

T and N = osculating plane, which literally means the 'kissing' plane.

71. If I could rearrange the periodic table, I'd put Uranium and Iodine together.

(Uraniums symbol is U
and Iodines symbol is I)

72. Baby, we've got chemistry together... next period.

73. At absolute zero, you would still move me.

74. Hey baby, your Body and Love waves are rocking my bedding

75. How about we make like the change of base law, with you on the bottom, and me on top?

76. Baby if you were a 6 I would want to be your (reflection about the x-axis + then reflection about the y-axis) -->9

77. Hey baby if i supply the voltage and you a little resistance, imagine the current we can make together. (V=IR => (V/R)=I)

78. Baby stop with diet coke, you've got plenty of ASSpertame

79. Yo baby, you want to see me solve a quadratic?

80. Baby, lim (u->me) ∫ e^x = f(u)^n.

81. On a scale of 1-10, you're a solid e to the power of pi

82. I think that convex butts are ALWAYS better than concave butts..you look toned

83. I wish I was your secant line so I could touch you in at least two places!

84. Baby ill be your asymptotes so i can shape your curves...

85. Would you like to see the exponential growth of my natural log?

86. If you were a graphics calculator, i'd look at your curves all day long!

87. Question: Wanna integrate my natural log?
Answer: I'll have to be one over first...

88. hey girl, let's get together and figure out our heat of fusion

89. it's a good thing you've got evaporative cooling, cause i'm gonna make you sweat

90. hey baby, lets figure out the torque of your mass on my rod

91. baby i just drew a pic of you on my ti83 but ur sooo hot my screen melted

92. The way the light reflects off the angles of your head is extremely enchanting.

93. in Old English:
Ich grethe Þae, maec Cwen.

(I greet you, my Queen)

In latin:
You can't decline quinque sex, baby.

(Note: quinque is pronounced "kinky")

94.I don't know if you're in my range, but I'd sure like to take you home to my domain.

95. Hey baby. Want to squeeze my theorem while I poly your nomial?

96. Hey baby, I'm like a rubix cube. THe more you play with me, the harder I get.

97. You're so hot, you must be the cause for global warming.

98. Since distance equals velocity times time, let's let velocity or time approach infinity, because I want to go all the way with you.

99. Your body has the nicest arc length I've ever seen."

100. I hope you know set theory because I want to intersect you and union you.

101. You and I would add up better than a Riemann sum.

102. Can I be the phasor to your electron and take you to an excited state?

103. Let's make like a transcription factor and response element and turn things on.

104. If I were a Shwann cell, I'd squeeze areound your axon and give you a fast action potential.

105. You must be an asymptote, because I just find myself getting closer and closer to you.

106. You're as sweet at 3.14.

107. You must be massive because I'm attracted to you.

108. I won't stop bugging you until I get the address to your home page!

109. You fascinate me more than the fundamental theorem of calculus.

110. My love for you is like a concave function's positive first derivative, because it's always increasing.

111. Let's convert our potential energy to kinetic energy.

112. Why don't we measure the coefficient of static friction between me and you?

113. You're hotter than a bunsen burner set to full power!

114. Baby, together U and I make uranium iodide (UI3)

115. If I were an assembly language, I'd jump to your address, shift right a bit, push it in, pop it out, load a byte into your accumulator, then jump if you're negative.

116. In Euclidean geometry two parallel lines never touch ... let's go back to my place and study some non-Euclidean geometry.

117. My vector has a really large magnitude. Would you care to normalize it?

118. Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF. All my base are belong to you.

119. I 1-sin(theta) you.

120. You and I must have the same natural frequency, because we resonate together.

121. The surface of my cylinder is not a compact metric space.

122. Most women are so complex. They're always like "i! i! i!" But you - you're just so real. (Note: i! does not mean i factorial.)

123. My love for you is like the slope of a concave up function because it's always increasing.

124. Can I plug my solution into your equation?

125. The volume of a general cylinder was known for thousands of years, but you won

126. i want to go through your every procedure, Do your Loops, and program your Booleans

127. I wish I were a predicate so I could be the direct object of your affection.

128. I think if you and i had Hex we'd be a perfect OA

129. Can I bombard your singularity with my rocket ship until you supernova?

130. you are the log(base 10) 10^1...


131. Let's work out our orbicularis oris muscles together!
*orbicularis oris = kissing muscles

132. I've been secant you for a long time

133. The direction fields of my heart all point to you

134. Want to be my substrate/enzyme?

135. You have 206 bones in your body... want one more?

136. Chem students do it on the table periodically

137. If you let me work hard enough, I can give you a dipole moment

138. I love you like an unspoken metaphor. That's why I had to use a simile.

139. Instead of being the derivative, id much rather be the secant so i can touch u not only once, but twice

140. Lets make love like pi; irrational and never ending

141. I've been secant you for a long time

142. The direction fields of my heart all point to you

143. baby lets measure the amplitude of our physical wave

144. baby you're the basis of my mind. no matter what i think of, it all comes back to you

145. Maybe later we can go over to my place and titrate until you reach your end-point...

146. The word of the day is "Legs", lets go back to my place and spread the word

147. Baby, you must be a pile of dinosaur bones, cause I dig you!

148. Baby, you're body is like a hyperbola

149. Baby, you're like a pendulum... you'll only stop when I damp you

150. Are you the square root of 2? because I feel irrational when I'm around you

151. Being with you is like switching to polar coordinates: complex and imaginary things now have a magnitude and direction.

152. Our love is more perfect than 6.
(Six is the first perfect number)

153. You can put a Trojan in my Hard Drive anytime

154. Baby you must be a modulus sign, 'cos whenever you wrap your arms round me i always feel positive!

155. Baby, I'm like an oceanic plate on a gravity slide - I can't wait to subduct beneath your crust!

156. You're so hot you denature my proteins

157. Baby you know this shit isn't USB2.0..it's firewire!

158. Let's just cut to the chase, I wanna hotsync your PDA.

159. Nobody turns me on from a cold boot like you.

160. Don't worry honey, they call it my dual-channel RAM.

161. If you were Anatomy, then I'd be Physiology because they always go together!

162. Want to make the Cold War hot?

163. My court packing plan isn't my only packing plan...

164. Want to play War of 1812? I'll light your White House on fire...

165. There's a reason they say I started the Era of Good Feelings...

166. Can I annex your territory after class?

167. Do you want to help me with my project on the tit- I'm sorry, TET Offensive?

168. I'll be your Secretary of the Interior...

169. I bet if Jefferson had met you, he would have vetoed the Non-Intercourse Act.

170. Want to go back to my place and discuss Big Stick Diplomacy?

171. Want to reenact the Battle of the Bulge?

172. If you were Anatomy, then I'd be Physiology because they always go together!

173. Hey, up for some high-energy quantum tunnelling tonight?

174. If you were a concentration gradient I'd go down on you

175. Girl whenever I am near you, I undergo anaerobic respiration because you take my breath away

176. If you were C6, and i were H12, all we would need is the air we breathe to be sweeter than sugar...

177. we've been differentiating for too long, lets sum it up and integrate

178. you and i add up better than a riemann sum

179. my love for you is a monotonically increasing unbounded function

180. Your beauty defies real and complex analysis.

181. Your hottness is the only reason we can't reach absolute zero.

182. I use my rod of infinite length for more than just simplifying calculations...

183. You must be a magnetic monopole because all i get from you is attraction

184. My love for you is like pi, it's never-ending.

185. I wish we were in telophase, cause then I could admire your cleavage."

186. Let's make our slopes zero (slope of zero means horizontal => bed)

187. baby you must be O2 cuz i m about to combust all over you

188. I just bought a molecular model kit, want to play with my stick and balls?

189.√-1) 2-2sinθ ∫du
√-1) = i
2-2sinθ = cardiod graph (heart)
∫du = u

190. Forget hydrogen you're my number one element

191. You're cute, I'm cute, together we're 2cute!

192. you are like a proton in my core--without you i could never be the same.

193. Hey baby, wanna form a synapse with me and exchange neurotransmitters?

194. Baby, if you were oceanic crust and I was a continent, I'd let you subduct so we can make hot hot magma.

195. I do believe I am your reciprocal; we will be one when we multiply.

196. Hey baby, wanna form a zygote?

197. If I'm the Riemann zeta function, you must be s=1.

198. You're a moving electric charge, and I'm a moving magnetic charge... Wanna flux?

199. If I toss a fair coin, what are my chances of getting head?

200. hey baby, do you need an anatomy tutor? They say i'm the best because i prefer to use a more HANDS-ON approach.

201. Baby, if they made you in Java, you'd be the object of my desire.

202. Baby, if they made you in C, you would have a pointer to my heart.

203. Baby, if they made you in Haskell, it would infer that you were just my type.

204. You're like a Universal Turing Machine; you're the only one that I'll ever need.

205. Like a quantum computation, our paths are entangled.

206. You're like an NP-hard problem of significant size; I could spend the rest of my life with you.

207. If I could program the universe, I would allocate you and I in contiguous memory blocks.

208. If I was an operating system, your process would have top priority.

209. Like a graph with n^2 edges, you complete me.

210. Are you a non volitaile particle? Because you raise my boiling point.

211. If I went binary, you would be the 1 for me.

212. my hypothalamus must be secreting serotonin because baby, i want you!

213. i'm sine and you're cosine, wanna make like a tangent?

214. I sure hope our coefficient of restitution is 0, 'cos when we make contact i never want to part!

215. My love is like communism; everyone gets a share, and it's only good in theory.

216. You + Me = The number of sides in a Mobius Strip

217. Hey baby, let's make a stress-strain curve together.

218. I don't need neurons to stimulate your sensory system.

219. Let 'u' and 'i' be irrational integers such that a real non-monotonic relationship exists for all T = {0 ... infinity}

220. you must be absolute, because every time you're around me, i feel positive

Misc.

I am 42% Addicted to Coffee

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

How caffeinated are *you*?

So I didn't get to sleep as early as I wanted to last night. I did managed to get to bed by 11:00PM at least! I'll try harder. In any case, the 6 hrs I managed to sleep did help a bit. But I was still pretty tired at work.

19 days before I leave on vacation. 17 days if you count the weekend before I fly out of here. I have some mixed feelings about the trip. Part of me is excited about taking a trip to Italy. A part of me is a little nervous because I am going solo. And another part of is sort "Eh." about the whole thing. I guess I've always been more of a "I'll become excite the day I leave." type of person. I might get a little nervous a few days before due to concern over whether I have everything I need. Other than that, it's all good.

Sleeplessness

I still don't know why I'm doing this to myself. I am letting myself get distracted most evenings and staying up until around midnight. I still have my alarm set for 5AM. Right now, I feel very exhausted. I also have a lot of stuff I need to get done this week at work. I think coffee will be my close friend.

I'm tired enough that if I am not doing something I am readily able to just close my eyes and sleep. If I didn't force myself to stay awake and do something I probably would fall sleep right there at my desk. I've really got to go to bed earlier. :p Tonight, 10:00PM, I will go to bed. If I don't, will someone trout me?

Anyway, that aside, there have been asome interesting reading coming from Matthew Good. First off, anyone who is a fan of his music and/or has been a frequent visitor of his web site for at least the past year would probably already be familiar with his condition. This week, in light of a documentary hosted by Stephen Fry, Matthew Good has decided to put into his own words his experience with bipolarity. It's some pretty heavy stuff. It's also quite personal and real. I think it took a lot of strength and courage to come out into the open with this. However, a great number of people really appreciate his sharing of his experiences. From my side, I found it very informational as I do not really know of anyone close to me who suffers from this or any other similar mental illness.

So I salute you, Matthew Good. So many people admire you for your music, your opinion and your honesty. I think they will admire you more now for the strength and courage you have shown in opening yourself to us. I think you've become a greater hero for many. Stay real.

Self-Analysis

To sort of continue something I briefly touched upon yesterday, I find that I am more self-aware of how I am as a person. I feel that I have a better understanding of how I am as well as how I react to things. I'm sure there are still certain aspects of myself that I have yet to figure out, but within time I will realize them.

In some ways, it's rather amusing to be so introspective. Yet, I think that it's good to know these things.

The few of you who read this on a regular basis must think I'm some sort of headcase at times. And I wonder about the same too! But, I think if I really had any major or serious issues, I would probably seek professional help. However, so far, I think I'm doing alright for the most part. Occasionally, I do need to keep myself grounded and wake up to the reality of my environment/surroundings.

That said, I do find that on occasion I probably think a bit too much about things. Thinking is good, don't get me wrong. However, it comes to a point when the thinking becomes a runaway imagination. That's when it becomes bad. When you start to go in that direction, then you start to lose perspective. You start to speculate. You start to go off on different tangents. At some point, the thinking might become more of an obsession. This is not good or healthy. With an obsession, you really start to lose your focus on other things around you. Priorities get shifted. You start to lose control. Emotionally, things may become a runaway train.

Anyway.. I'm not a psychologist or a shrink. However, maybe I should have studied to be one. But as it is, I ended up studying engineering. I'm okay at it, not great. I manage to perform well enough in my job. Am I happy with my job? I suppose it has it moments. As far as my overall satisfaction with what I'm doing is concerned, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate my job at about a 6. But keep in mind that I do put my all into my work. I don't ever want to come off looking like a slacker. I put the effort necessary to get things done.

I think I rambled enough for now.

Some times I think that I need to save me from myself. Why do I say that? Well, from the logical side of things I have come to terms about some things in life. However, because I am still human, this thing called emotions and the associated illogical thoughts come into play.

And why am I bringing this up? Well, without going into too much detail, I got an email (in response to one I had sent) that sort of indicates something that from a logical stand point should not bother me, yet for some reason I got a slight knot in my stomach. There wasn't a whole lot of details in the email, so it's based on an assumption, but still...

I suspect that I am going through yet another of those recurring phases. I was doing fine for a while there. I was doing my own thing. However, it just creeps up on me and I am back to doing some things that I told myself to stop doing. I suppose I need some other distractions. But what else could I do? Of course, this damn weather is a factor too. I am getting tired of this dreary, wet, cold weather. I need some sunshine and warmth! Of course, it doesn't help that I am going through a little bit of anxiety.. :-p

Gotta love self-analysis. You can figure out eventually what's going on, but how to fix it all? That's a whole other kettle of fish!

Online Course

Oh yeah. It's been about a week since I registered and paid for this online course with O'Reilly. I've completed about 6 lessons of this first course. I'm just waiting for a couple of the objectives and quizzes to be graded. I guess the "instructor" doesn't work on weekends. :-p

There are 19 lessons on this first course. I'm going at a pretty good speed, I think. Of course, most of this File System stuff I'm not a total stranger to, so that makes things a bit easier. But we'll see later on...

Slug

I really, really dislike rainy, dreary days. I find that they somehow manage to zap the energy out of you. I really did not feel like doing a whole lot today. There were a few things that I did manage to do and got done. Aside from that, not much else. With the raininess, I did not feel like going to the Hash today either. Considering the cold and dampness, it would not have been good for my left knee.

Meanwhile, I find that my washing machine is leaking a little. Great. Just what I needed. Optimistically, I am hoping that it's something simple that can be fixed easily. Pessimistically, it might be easier to just buy a new washer, but this one is just over 5 years old. Plus, I am such a girl when it comes to stuff like this. I know that there's a panel you can open to check out stuff underneath the drum (this is a front load washer), but I'm afraid of doing something stupid. Maybe one of the guys at work could give a hand with such things.

Yesterday, I had my appointment to get my hair done. It's been such a long time since I had my hair done. I decided to just stick to my natural color in covering up the greys. I got my hair trimmed and layered. The ends were starting to thin and become brittle and split. Since I last had my hair done in September, it had also gotten rather long. It was also starting to annoy me. Anyway, I always find it nice to relax and get some pampering.

Yes, another rip-roaring, exciting weekend.

Sometimes we need to be reminded...

.. As well as to think about this when things seem a bit down in the dumps. I referenced it when it was first posted, but the original post has since been deleted. However, someone in the MG Community asked about it and luckily someone had kept a copy of it. And here I will help to immortalize those words. I think quite a few people were really moved by this.

"I Fall Down. You Get Up. Not A Sound Between Us.

Good love is a few months. Of bliss, of nothing wrongs, of sparkle, of tight gripping hands, of the inability to get close enough.

Bad love is a lifetime.

Bad love is the greatest test known to us. It is our most prized pain - so sought after, so hard to find. Bad love is work, giving-in, compromise, forgiveness, the unflinching support for another even at their most humiliated, their most vulnerable. Bad love is not on television, at the movies, on vacation, or at the bank. Bad love is not in the church, the temple, or under the dome. Bad love is not all around us.

Bad love is what we find when we let go enough to actually be found by someone else."

- Matthew Good, February 14th, 2007

Constantly working at doing something

Well, I went ahead and did it again. I registered for more classes. Now hang on a second! This is not yet another classroom type of class! I decided to take the plunge and enroll in one of the online certificate programs at O'Reilly. I decided to go for the Linux/Unix System Administration Certificate Series. It looks like something I can handle. Plus it's something that I am interested in.

There's about 19 lessons to complete in the first course. I've already finished 3 of them and taken 2 quizzes. It's not that bad. The way it's designed, you learn by doing and trying things out repeatedly. I think for some people, this is the best way to learn. I know that I would probably go out of my mind if I sat through another theoretical technical course. I found that the classes where you had exercises to do during the class were more helpful than the ones where you just listened to a lecture.

Other than that, I've been pretty busy at work with some testing. I think that I have been concentrating on getting the testing done that I am somewhat mentally drained and exhausted. I need a really good solid night's sleep to recover.

In the meantime, I went ahead and planned the next social gathering. I figure on doing an 80's movie night. I'm thinking of making some ribs in the slow cooker. I'd have the folks bring drinks and dessert to round things out. :-) I hope enough people come. It'd be more fun that way.

Assumptions that annoy me

Well, I've sort of started to prowl the dating sites again. However, I really try to limit my time on them as I've found in the past that they can eat up a lot of your time. In any case, I had recently updated my pic and profile on one of the sites. The other day, I received this message.

Date: Apr 06 at 3:38 PM EDT
Subject: opposite of...

what i used too read in asian profiles... readind you, look more western than asian....

i am not critical at all.... i am just observative... i even like...

asian are more pragmatic normally.... and more live to work....


First of all, it pisses me off to no end that just because I'm Asian that I just immigrated here. Secondly, I wish that some people would at least proofread what they wrote. Maybe they've been communicating in broken English too often? :-p Needless to say, I did not bother to reply back to this guy. Plus, it also seems like he's got a thing for Asians.

Mid-Life Shopping Continues

Gaah! I've done it again.. And I think I *was* doing alright... I think?

Recent purchases...

- Yamaha DVD player
- Viewsonic 20" LCD TV
- Deuter Day Pack
- some clothes

Oh, of course this is on top of the trip... :-p

Hooray for plastic!!

Wheee!

I think I've lost it.

Now, I like to check out what's happening in my old home town. This usually means checking out boston.com. Occasionally there's some interesting rumors about the Red Sox or something. Today, I came across a special report that was done recently with regards to the soldiers who've returned from serving in Iraq. It's sad to read about the lack of treatment or help the veterans are getting after they have come back home. This is in light of the fact that their own government is trying to push off a pullout timeline. This same government has allocated millions into this war against terrorism. Did they forget to take care of their own when they come back from fighting? Apparently so, it seems.

And here's another tidbit I found. It's nice to know that there are still people out there who believe that they can make a difference. Now, what really ends up happening down the line, one can only hope. I wish this kid much luck in his future endeavours.

Aside from the political bullshit that we see pretty much on a daily basis now, not much has really been happening on a personal level. I get up, go to work, do my thing, go home, sleep. Repeat as necessary. Today is a rather rainy and dreary day so it increases any already exisiting tedium.

More petfood recalls. I don't know what to do any more. I noticed that IAMS put out a full page ad to declare that none of their dry petfoods contain wheat gluten. I suppose to some degree that is a comfort. My dilemma now is what to feed these guys. There's still a big tin of Prescription Science Diet w/d. Do I let them finish this? Or do I get a bag of some other food instead? *sigh*

I have a weakness. My weakness is shopping. I was having this discussion with a friend of mine. He has his own weakness. His weakness is this need to hit on/pick up every hot chick he sees. The sad thing is that he's relatively successful at it. The other day he told me that he managed to collect 5 phone numbers from different women. I told him he needed help. He's out of control.

I'm part Geek.

Mingle2.com: Free Online Dating67% GeekMingle2.com - Free Online Dating

So I'm only about 2/3 Geek. :p

World's Longest Undefended Border

Well, I find it ironic that with the US on occasion complaining about potential terrorists coming into the US via Canada, that they cannot even afford to maintain their share in the upkeep of the border. For a country that is able to allocated billions for their war against terror they cannot afford to mow the lawn, so to speak. To me this means that the US will complain about things when it suits them. I suppose this also means it would be easier to jump the border under cover of tall grass and shrubs.

Go figure.

New one from Matthew Good

Well, the man did it! He made available one of the songs from his upcoming album Hospital Music. It's pretty good! It'll sound better when I get a chance to listen to it from the other computer. I'm afraid the speakers on the ibook just don't cut it. :-p

Have a listen, folks! (Link to Matthew Good's website is on the right.) :-)

Untitled

Sometimes I don't feel like coming up with a title for an entry. I know I don't need to have one, but at times you feel that you need to put something meaningful there. So tonight, I am just going to leave it untitled. I just can't be bothered tonight.

So what's new and exciting in my world? Uhm, I'm afraid not much really. I had my Mandarin class tonight. I talked to my friend that I take the class with. I seriously think (and another friend agrees) that he's going through a mid-life crisis. And without going into too many details, I think he knows it himself. Anyway, he's gone ahead and signed up for some charity organization that sends people out to the Ukraine to help the homeless and the needy. His trip is planned for June. He said that he had always want to do something like this. Aside from that he also is taking a course on religion. He assured me it wasn't an attempt to recruit people.

If it means anything, he's also in his late 30's He's divorced and had been travelling a lot for work for the past few years. Only recently has he actually stayed in town for more than a few weeks. His new role does not have him travelling as much now. I think he's at a loss as to what to do next in his life. That would explain him getting involved with stuff to fill up the time. Not too different from what I have been doing.

My other friend (who agreed with the above diagnosis) is currently living on the other side of the world. He's also in his 30's but slightly younger. He's also single. We have some rather frank discussions about stuff. He's currently on some secret 6 month plan. He can't tell me anything about it until it's over. I guess if I do make it out there in November he will have to tell me just what the f* he's been doing. I have some idea, but I won't jeopardize things by mentioning my theories here.

In the meantime, I think I'll just continued to coast along. See if anything interesting happens along.

Life on the 'Net

I find it incredible how there seems to be a parallel universe of sorts. I'm talking about the Internet: the virtual world that many of us partake in.

I think those of us who have been on the 'Net for any length of time should be savvy enough to know how things work. It's still a bit the wild, wild west out there. You have to be careful where and how you tread.

For those who have made themselves a name and a presence on the Internet know that with the recognition there would be both detractors and admirers. They have to deal with both kinds of people.

I think that one very good and recent example is Matthew Good. He's been an active Netizen for a number of years. This past weekend he launched his newly redesigned website. As well, he made a couple of entries on his blog. One entry referenced the recent launch of a blog by his ex. Needless to say, given what the public knows of the whole affair, all sorts of backlash was unleashed on the woman. Now, I certainly don't condone this sort of behavior, yet I don't think it was entirely unexpected.

I think that after at least a day or two of really nasty comments being posted on her blog, the website was taken down.

Well, not wanting to rehash the whole story, you can go check it out yourself (see links on the right). I'm quite proud of the fact that Matthew Good has managed to keep himself composed throughout this whole sordid affair. His comment to David Gratton demonstrates this. Taking the high road is the way to go. No need to stoop down to the level of some people.

----

Meanwhile, I've been on a sort of 80's music kick tonight. I went through all the stuff i had in iTunes and came up with a playlist with just over 4 hours of music. :)

Alt/Indie/Rock

I've been updating my iTunes with some stuff recently... Dinosaur Jr., Modest Mouse, Tom Waits, The Replacements. I guess to some degree I am rediscovering alternative/indie/rock. Coincidentally, Dinosaur Jr and Modest Mouse have shows coming up here in Montreal. Should I buy tickets? Or should I wait until I find someone to go with? I dunno.

The weekend wasn't too bad. I caught up on a few things Saturday. And during the course of some IM'ing with a friend from work, got invited to join him and a few friends for sushi. Yum!! I hadn't had sushi for a while. The place we went to is suppose to be one of the nicer sushi places. I ordered a few standbys plus one of the house specials. Well, in the end my bill came close to 3 digits before tip! Ouch! I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be cheap, but I just didn't pay attention. Anyway, I was REALLY stuffed in the end.

I could have gone to the Hash on Sunday, but since I had a pretty late Saturday (we went to Starbucks after dinner), I sorta slept in and was still rather tired. I think I will try to make it to this weekend's Hash.

Otherwise, nothing too exciting...

Oh yeah, well, there was the election today.. The current results seem to indicate a minority government with the Liberals in charge. The race is still very tight. I guess we'll know in the morning when the dust settles.

More inane babblings

So here I am on a Friday evening sitting in front of my computer. I'm chatting with a few friends online. I am listening to some music. I am burning a few DVDs... What's wrong with this picture?

Anyway...

So I peruse Craig's List from time to time. Sometimes there's some interesting posts. Sometimes not. Tonight, for whatever reason, I decided to respond to a couple of them. I really didn't care if they wrote back or not. If they did, great! If not, oh well.

Well, one of them did write back. After a few email exchanges, he asks for a picture. Oh well. Fair is fair, I guess. He did post a picture of himself on CL. But being somewhat cynical these days, I figure, whatever. If I don't hear back from him, then I know. If he does write back, there might be a polite response. In any case, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Heh! I did send him a picture of me after a hash. Hair's a bit askew and I've already had a beer there. That would explain the stupid-ass smile on my face!

I think I have for a while been saying to myself that I really should just take things in stride. Not to take things too seriously and just live! I guess it's one thing to say it and it's another to actually start believing it. I think I have finally come to the point where I am starting to believe what I'm saying.

I am just going to plow on ahead and move forward. Whatever happens happens. I cannot control that which I can't control. You know. The usual stuff. :-) So it's onward and upward (I guess?).

Aside from all that, I don't think I'll be doing anything TOO exciting. I might go out and do a little shopping. I might also do some baking! :-o

So, I am capable of keeping myself well entertained. :) For the time-being anyway.

Slightly Bored

It's a bit quiet at work this week. But they seem to have come up with stuff for me to fill in these gaps. My latest is to work at updating a 162-page Word document that I've complained about. Since I am currently the main user of said document, who better to update than me? Oh well. I suppose I just couldn't avoid that much longer.

My exam on Tuesday went better than I thought it would. It wasn't that much different than the project assignment given, but I think the instructions for the exam was better. Anyway, towards the end I started to get a bit fed up and wanted to finish up. I know the last part was not completed 100%, but I think I got most of it done.

The camera class last night was fun in that we got to shoot in a studio environment. After the instructor gave some explanation of the use of lighting, we were left to do what we could. It was fun to try all of this. I think I took some good shots.

Pet Foods
Since the news broke out late last week about the tainted pet food killing pets, I started to wonder about the soft/canned food I was feeding Finster towards the end. I know that I had fed him some of that Iams Select Slices. But in thinking about it, I think Finster was already on the downslide when I fed him the soft foods. The canned Royal Canin I was feeding him in the end was not affected by the recall. So, I really believe now that Finster's decline was due to kidney failure due to age and not by bad food.

Monday night, I had started to watch Noir. It's an anime I picked up a while ago. I got the entire box-set. I think I will watch another disc tonight.

Wow! It's kinda nice not to have class tonight! :-o

Flurries

That's what I see outside my window at work at the moment. I don't exactly have a nice view of anything. In fact, I have a view of the roof. Just lovely. But at least I can see what the weather is like out there!

Yes, I survived the pub crawl Friday evening. Well, it did help that I did not have more than 2 pints of anything the entire evening. I do know my limits. Even after the 2 pints, I did start to feel a bit woozy at the 4th pub where I had just a coke. :-p I guess walking around after downing the pints goes straight to your head. I really needed some air otherwise I probably would have lost it. I had wanted to do half pints, but at the first place (which was actually the 2nd because we were late), they accidentally poured me a full pint. At the next place, they just didn't do half pints, so I had a full pint of Guinness there. After that it was Coke, water, then nothing. I think I started to head home around 11PM. I know. It's not terribly late, but I wasn't going to drink much more and I was planning to drive home (car was at work).

And the rest of the weekend? Well, I was a total slacker. I did next to nothing. I did not go out anywhere. I also realized yesterday that there wasn't much I needed from the supermarket either, so I did not need to get any groceries. Scary, huh? I did at least take care of some usual household chores like laundry. I finally cleaned the Roomba. I have been very neglectful of it. And it did need a bit of a cleaning! :-p

Yes, my life is just chock full of excitement! I suppose to compensate for that, I am looking forward to my trip in May.

In the meantime, I have been listening to some other stuff. I've been listening to The Decemberists. They sound a little like They Might Be giants. Not bad. I've also been listening to some other stuff that I've collected recently, like Dinosaur Jr. I've also been listening to The Frames being that it was just St. Patrick's Day and all. Not a bad band. They're suppose to play here in Montreal some time in April. I wonder if I can interest someone in going to see them with me. I'd like to try to catch the occasional show from time to time.

I am so overdue for a trim. I called the salon for an appointment. Apparently, my hairdresser just got back from vacation. I wanted a Saturday morning appointment. The first available Saturday isn't until April 7th. Oh well. I've already waited this long. I last had my hair done in September!!! :-p I think my hair has grown about 4 inches. The grays are really rearing their ugly heads. I'm also starting to get these short hairs growing out. Not a total disaster, but I need to try to get things tamed back.

So aside from the usual mundanity that is my life, work has been somewhat uneventful. I wrote up a test report this morning. Helped out someone with an issue they had. I have to coordinate getting some equipment to finish up a test case. Waiting to see if I could possible get the equipment after 5PM today. Maybe not. Eh. Nothing too exciting. :-p

Rate My Life

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.5
Mind:	6.6
Body:	6.6
Spirit:	6.4
Friends/Family:	4.2
Love:	3.1
Finance:	8.1
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Things that make you go "Hmm..".

Busy Bee

It's been a somewhat busy week.

I booked my vacation. I have stuff to test at work. I have my classes. I had to hunt down "cheap" airfares.

The testing at work went well yesterday. Today, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster. :-p I managed to do a few things in the morning, but when it came time to execute a simple test call, nothing worked! :-p I checked the usual stuff, nothing. Then I submitted a trouble ticket to have the problem looked into. One of the guys called and left a message at lunch time. I called back and he said to call him when I went back to the test plant. I said, okay, in 10 minutes. When I did call him back he wasn't at his desk. I waited a little bit. After about 15-20 minutes, I tried his desk again. No answer. Then I tried his mobile. He's in a fscking meeting! He asked me to get in touch with another guy! So I called the other guy. He was busy (also overloaded) with other stuff but would try to get back to me in half an hour.

In the meantime, one of the guys in my group came down to see if he could help out. He did some tracings. I attempted to make some test calls. Then the other guy finally came by. He still had other problems to work on. Then another guy from my group came down to give a hand. More tracing was done. We're sort of managed to narrow things down a bit, but not 100% sure what the problem is. I reload the software in the node on the theory that some configuration was changed somewhere. Nope, that didn't do it. By now it was 5PM, but we managed to point a finger at the suspect component. We'll have to wait until morning for someone to look at it.

It was not a very productive afternoon workwise, BUT, I did manage to book my flight for Rome! :-D

Elsewhere, there was an article posted by Samar Mazloum on the Matthew Good site. In one of the comments there was a quote from the Joy Luck Club:

“Losing him does not matter. It is YOU who will be found, and cherished.”

It's something I will need to keep in mind.

Tomorrow: St. Paddy's Day Pub Crawl. Wish me luck!

La Dolce Vita

Well, after some hemming and hawing, I finally made the decision to go ahead and book a trip to Italy. I decided to go in May since it might be a bit too warm come late June.

This is the trip that I plan to take. I'm kinda looking forward to this. I've never taken taken an organized tour. I've always been leery of the coach tours. Since this is considered a small-group (not more than 15) tour, I figure it can't be that bad. The pricing is reasonable as well. I just need to sort out the air portion of this trip soon. I've only put down a deposit for the tour. I need to pay off the balance in 2 days.

Well, that's the big news for the day. Aside from that, I've sent off an email to my C++ instructor yesterday indicating that I will not be able to complete the course. I kinda said I would still come to class tonight, but then, what's the point? So here I sit still until time for the 2nd class (XML). I'm doing okay in the XML course. But even with that one I am starting to get a little lazy about. I really didn't do much more the the "project" assignment last night other than to burn the files onto a CD and print out the files. :-p

Anyway...

Springing Forward

Thanks to Dubya, we in North America will be springing forward an hour tonight. We will be losing an hour of sleep a few weeks earlier than usual. I haven't really had a chance to read all the funky logic behind this decision. In any case, I need to make sure all my clocks and watches have been adjusted. :-p

Today, I think I managed to do as little as possible. I really didn't want to work on any programming assignments. I *might* try to finish off the XML assignment Monday night. I absolutely do not have the energy to work on the C++ assignments at all. I think that that class is a total write-off at this point. I need to either talk to the instructor Tuesday or send him an email.

I've been thinking about what to do about vacation this year. I've been trying to get some ideas by looking at sites like GAP Adventures and Intrepid Travel. I'm not sure if I want to visit Europe or Central America. Do I want to visit urban areas? Do I want to be outdoors with Nature? There's one trip that looks interesting. It's an Alaska and Yukon Adventure. It's a bit pricey, but considering how out of the way you are and all, it's to be expected. I'm still mulling it over. I would need to save up a few bucks for that trip.

Otherwise, it's been a quiet Saturday. It's nice to not do much of anything today. Well, okay.. I did do some laundry. :-p

Sometimes...

Sometimes I really wonder what the heck is going on in my head. Last week, I was in such a state that I didn't know what to think about anything any more. I really wonder if it isn't because I have been running on approx 4-5 hrs of sleep most nights for the past month and a half? I think there was a study done on the effects of sleep deprivation. I probably have been slowly depriving myself of sleep. :-p

Well, I hope this lack of sleep will come to an end soon. My Tuesday evening classes will come to an end soon. I have 3 more weeks of the Wednesday night class. And tonight's class was number 4 with 6 more to go. I think I was crazy to do this! :-p

I'm doing it to myself again tonight. I've been home since a little after 10. It's now about 11:30PM and I have not gone to bed yet. I even told myself I would go straight to bed when I got home. I wonder if the computer and the Internet aren't to blame. I find them such easy distractions.

Meanwhile, there have been some interesting posts on Matthew Good's website. Dale Mugford's post was most interesting. I hadn't realized what the significance of it was until I found out it was International Women's Day (or week). The post also reminded me of when my sister used to work at a county correctional institute in Massachusetts. I forget how long ago this was. I think she was also working on her Master's at the time. In any case, I remember her telling me about how she has regular group sessions with these mostly big, burly guys who were there doing time for committing some sort of crime against women. She had mentioned that some of the men continue to deny that they did anything wrong. It almost seemed that there was no way to get these guys to admit that what they did was wrong at all. I give my sister a lot of credit to take on such a job. She's not a terribly big person. And I'm sure some of these guys do tr to use their physical size to try to intimidate my sis as well. However, knowing how tough my sister is, I don't think she ever waivered. Of course, I'm sure there was armed security nearby!

Anyway, enough for now...

This River Called Life

(Thanks, dman!)

Yes, it seems that lately I have been somewhat philosophical about things. So, as a result this analogy was formed. I'm sure it's not totally original, but this is just my take on it. And no, I have not read anything else along these lines. So it's all original from me...

I see myself floating along this river called Life. It's not really a terribly large boat that I float about in. It's large enough for myself and whoever happens to climb aboard.

As I float down this river, I occasionally pass close to certain shores. These places almost always had something to offer. Some good, some not so good. I avail myself to what these landings have to offer. The shoreleave might be brief, or they might last for some time. Eventually, I continue down the river.

Occasionally, someone will come along for the ride in my little boat. The ride with me varies. Some stay for a while. Some for not very long. Sometimes the ride gets a little bumpy on board!

For now, I am along on this boat. Sometimes I see someone waving from the shore. But I can't really tell sometimes.

Ahoy there!

Mid-life?

I might have touched upon this earlier in some form. It just seems that this subject has appeared again in my mind. I guess I have lately (again?) been taking stock of my life. What have I done? What have I accomplished? You know. The usual questions about life.

I find that I oftentimes have too many thoughts and ideas going on through my head. Sometimes I will have certain revelations, but I don't get the chance to act upon them or to record them for reference. Then such revelations are forever lost. Sometimes I will think about what I'm good at or what I would like to do. Again, I don't seem to have or find the chance to act upon them.

I suppose that life can be full of missed opportunities. But how do you know when an opportunity really presents itself to you? Sometimes I feel so clueless about such things. Just how many opportunities have I lost along the way? How many opportunities was I able to identify along the way? I don't think I'll ever really know.

I suppose there are times when I feel that have pretty much settled for my lot in life. It's not necessarily all that bad my life. However, I'm pretty sure it's not as fulfilling as it could be. So what do I need to do to change things? I find that I am rather wishy-washy about things. Again, I tend to "float" along this river called life. I might occasionally come across a fork where I would need to make a decision. Have I taken the road less travelled? Or have I been taking the path of least resistance? I can't exactly back-paddle to find out. This is the direction I have been heading. I may as well just continue down it. See what's up around the curve.

I remember when I was high school that I had a tendency to write an awful lot. However, I question now the quality of the writing I was doing back then. I wish I still had the compositions I wrote back then. It would give some indication as to what sort of style I wrote, if there was some sort of style. Also, it would help figure out what was going on in my head back then. High school was not exactly my most favorite years. But I'll save that narrative for another blog entry.

With regards to writing, I guess at one point in time I had aspirations of being a writer. However, I don't think I ever had the imagination for it. I remember making a few feeble attempts at writing about something. It never amounted more than a page of stuff. It was only much later that I realize I did not quite have the "experience" or knowledge to really write about something (fiction or not) intelligently. If I were to write something, I would want it to be somewhat broad in scope. Something that would in a way give the big picture. I guess it's rather difficult to explain this.

Anyway, I played hooky this evening from class. I guess all of the evening classes are starting to take a toll. Also, trying to maintain some sense of a social life is tough too. I hashed for the first time in over a month this past weekend. It was nice to to something other than homework. I like talking to people. However, trying to be social when you're slightly inebriated is not so good. :-p

New Album Coming

(The following is an unpaid endorsement!)

So Matthew Good finally posted some info about his upcoming album. It sounds like it ought to be quite good! For the few of you out there who read this blog regularly, please give his stuff a listen! If you like what's done so far, hopefully you will like or love what's coming soon! :-)

BlogShares?

WTF?

Okay, given that I don't web surf as extensively as I have in the past, it had never occurred to me that someone would actually come up with this. Gee! I think the $1,000 valuation is rather generous!

Quotables

A friend of mine who recently moved to China put this up on his page. I like the philosophy of this quote:

"In life, people tend to wait for good things to come to them. And by waiting, they miss out. Usually, what you wish for doesn't fall in your lap; it falls somewhere in the vicinity of your lap, and you have to recognize it, stand up, and put in the time and work it takes to get to it. This isn't because the universe is cruel. It's because the universe is smart. It has its own cat-string theory."

-N.S.

Comments

It seems that no matter what I try, things somehow end up becoming complicated one way or another. Sometimes I just wish things to be simple. But I guess life was never meant to bo that way. At least not in this day and age...

It's Saturday Night

And I am sitting at home. Well, I did have a few things I wanted to get done, but that's besides the point.

I did manage to get up early enough and pedal for about 45 minutes. I hadn't pedaled in about 2 months, so this was way overdue. I did it while watching a Pixies DVD. I think it's better than just listening to music. It's a visual distraction. Anyway, let's see if I can get up early enough tomorrow morning and pedal again.



I went to the supermarket to get ingredients for vegetarian chili. I wasn't sure just how much the recipe was going to make. I ended buying 2 cans of everything needed. In the end, I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes, one can each of red kediney beans, black beans, chick peas, and white kidney beans. The recipe called for 15 oz. cans, but the ones I bought were 19 oz. I guess it all added up. I tweaked the recipe a little bit as well. Instead of worcestershire sauce, I added traditional chili seasonings like ground cumin and oregano. I also threw in some chopped jalepeno. In the end, it came out pretty good. Rather tasty! :) I had also made a lemon poppy seed cake.

Later, I went over to a friend's place. We went over a map to figure out what trail to lay for the Hash tomorrow. I think we came up with a good trail for both runners and walkers. It covers quite a bit of area. I hope he can make it to the Hash. In any case, the temps tomorrow shouldn't be too bad. It's good to get out and get some fresh air.

I did manage to take a few pics today:


That was quite a bit of snow that fell yesterday...

Anyway.. I think I might try to go to bed "early" tonight. :-p

hmmm...

Could this be my problem?

Working from home

Well, today's storm dumped quite a bit of snow here. I really don't know what the final count is but the forecast indicated somewhere between 20-30cm of the white stuff. And with the wind blowing it all over the place, I'm sure it looks like more.

Because of this snow storm I decided to work from home. Actually, I sort of decided on it yesterday. So I managed to bring my laptop home. I tried to get a few things done, but some thing just refused to work. Oh well. What can you do?

In the meantime, I'm still in a bummin' mood. I really don't know why. It just seems tht lately, I'll just fall into a bit of a funk. I guess it might last a couple of days. Sometimes I wonder what the triggers are for these moods. I don't think it's entirely hormonal. Then again, you never know.

I have really got to stop thinking too much about things. I've got to re-focus on doing my own thing. I've also got to stop reading too much into stuff.

During the course of my thinking too much, I've come up with the theory that he may have built a wall up around himself. Or, at least, he hasn't been very open about himself. Unlike myself who would tell everyone my life story if asked. I guess I am much more open about things. I don't have much to hide. Of course, there are some things I won't disclose. Everyone's got some sort of secrets tucked away in the proverbial closet somewhere.

So, this weekend... I've got a few things I'd like to get done tomorrow. I might try to hit the supermarket early tomorrow to pick up some stuff to make chili and cake with. I guess that means I should put together a shopping list. Then, if the weather is agreeable, I might go out and try to take some photos again. This time, I will remember to wear a different pair of glasses so I can actually read the readings in the camera! :-)

Anyway, I am almost in the mood to watch a chick click or something...

Home Stretch

Maybe I have been burning the proverbial candle at both ends. This week seems to be rather evident of that. Okay, so I didn't have class on tuesday, but still I didn't get to sleep until late that evening (went to a movie instead). But all these late evenings and trying to keep up with class work is starting to take a toll on me. It also didn't help that I did some work over the weekend as well. This week, I started to do some testing. I feel a bit brain-fried. Tonight I have the Mandarin class.

I find that when I get really tired like this my mind starts to go off in different directions. When it starts to do that I tend to think too much about certain things. And when I do that it tends to be somewhat on the negative side. This is usually not very good. :-p I end up feeling a bit bummed out as a result.

Anyway, I don't know how Tuesday's classes will be made up. After this week, there are 2 weeks left of that class. There are 4 weeks left of the camera class. Tonight is class #3 for Mandarin. After this, I think I will need a break!

But despite all the thinking I have been doing, it has come to my attention to question just what state things are between me and him. I am still unclear if we are just still hanging out, or if we have sort of started down the road of dating. I am a bit puzzled and perplexed about this. Where do we stand? Is it something that is still in progress? A friend said that perhaps I am trying too hard to find a new relationship. To some degree, he may be right. Subconsciously, I might be. On the surface, I am trying to go with the flow and see where the currents take me. Is this the right thing to do? I am by no means in any big rush. I don't have any set timeline or goals in my life. In fact, I don't think I've ever really set any real goals in my life. I just exist and live. Is there anything wrong with that?

Anyway, I am still struggling with a few test cases. I've asked for help, but even the experts are having problems. (O_o)

*sigh*

There are days when you feel exactly like this:

Mondays...

...suck. But I guess that goes without saying....

He emailed me this morning to say he was home sick. I guess the movie will have to be postponed for another time. *sigh* Just as well, I suppose. I'm still pretty knackered from this weekend. I managed to get to bed last night towards 11, after someone called me on my cell about work. :-p I really did not want to get up this morning.

Anyway, I did manage to get some stuff done today at work. Miracle of miracles. tonight I hope to work a bit on my C++ assignment. Yes, the one that has been languishing for weeks now. :-p I really feel quite discouraged about it. Maybe I should look at the 2nd one he gave. Bleah! :-p

I'm doing something I didn't think I'd do and that was have a beer with dinner, alone. I suppose it's akin to having a glass of water or something with dinner. So, it really can't be that bad, could it? Tonight I am having a bottle of Leffe with some leftover pasta. Oof! I forgot just how strong this stuff is!

Anyway... must stare at some C++. I'll probably throw my hands up in the air in a few hours. :-p

Sunday soon becomes Monday

I don't know why I do it. For some reason, I have this innate sense of responsibility towards the work that I do. Again, this morning, I spent some time on the problem that I had tackled last night. I thought that if I approached it with another strategy that it might work. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I only worked on it long enough this morning to know that I was going to get the same results. After that, I went out for some groceries.

After lunch, I had the intention of reading up on some C++. However, I didn't get very far with that. I knew that I wanted to get out and take some photos as part of my camera class assignment. Towards 3:00PM I headed out.

I wanted to swing by the nearby park to take a few picks. I figure there should be something going on there. As I neared the park, I noticed some movement by one of the recreation buildings. It looks like they've installed an outdoor rink. Hooray! So I made my way over there and found a small group of guys playing pick-up hockey. There were also a couple of smaller kids skating around too.

One thing I learned: Do not wear glasses that darken outdoors. It made it difficult for me to see the readings in my camera. I had also forgotten that I had the white balance set to incandescent light. As a result, the first dozen or so shots had a blue tinge to them. It did make for an interesting affect! Anyway, after hanging around by the rink, I decided to get moving as my hands were getting cold (mental note: invest in fingerless gloves). I headed over to the DVD rental place to see if they had Farscape. They didn't. :-p But I did leave it as a recommendation to the clerk there. Let's see if they come up with something.

Once I got home, I noticed that a colleague from work who is currently in Mexico had IM'd me/ I sort of forgot that he said he would try to look into one of the problems I had yesterday. So this distracted me from doing anything else. I did manage to prepare dinner (chicken madras (courtesy of Patak's curry paste) with basmati rice). Colleague was not able to fix problem but sort of had an idea of what the problem is. I guess I will have to submit a trouble ticket in the morning for it.

Otherwise, it's been a semi-productive weekend. I just hope I can charge the hours!!

Monday: What to wear? Hmmm..

A Working Saturday :-p

First, I stayed a bit late at work last night. When I got home it was nearly 9PM. I was tired and a bit fed up. I was trying to upgrade a node, but kept encountering some problems (which were not major, but still..). I nuked some leftovers and had a Harp. I don't usually drink alone, but I felt I needed it. Of course, it took me an hour to drink it.

Today, I am still continuing some work. The upgrade worked this time after I deleted a few files (space issue). But the traffic being generated was having some issues. Something was not stable and I just could not figure out what the problem was. In any case, I just left it as it was.

Now I am trying to execute a few commands on a customer dump but I can't because the commands are restricted. Gee, what else will go wrong? I don't think I want to know the answer to that.

Aside from all this work crap, I did find the courage to zip off a quick email to him. It was a very brief one-liner, but it was to the point: Wanna catch a flick? To which he responded positively. How about Monday? Okay! So, does this constitute a date?

End of Week 8, 2007

Yeah, I know. I haven't posted much this week. I guess I am starting to really feel the affects of juggling one too many things. I am currently taking 3 nights of classes a week. I have 3 more weeks of C++ and XML to endure. There are 5 more weeks of the camera class. And we just had our 2nd Mandarin class last night.

I think I have re-affirmed the fact that I am not much of a programmer. I can handle the easy stuff. But with the first assignment in C++, I have been totally frustrated. I can think about how I might be able to do small parts of the assignment, but I am having a heck of a time trying to get enough of these bits and pieces together. I think when it comes to actual code, I have only managed to draw out the game board (in ascii). I technically have almost 5 weeks to complete all my C++ assignments. The teacher has given us until 2 weeks after the last class to hand in our assignments. In a way it's a relief, but I have really got to make some progress.

In other areas... I've been pretty good about not shopping, except for food. I really need to curb my spending for a while. I've got my municiple tax bill to pay by the end of this month. I've also got my auto registration due at the end of the month as well. There's also the other usual bills that are nearing due. Again, it's not that I don't have the money, but I'd like to maintain some padding. My bi-weekly mortgage payments are only slightly higher than what they were before since I've renewed my mortgage term, so that shouldn't be a huge issue. I think the only other thing of real expense is if I decide to entertain either myself or friends.

Last weekend was Chinese New Year. Since I wasn't planning on visiting family this year, I spent it more or less alone at home. I did prepare for myself a nice Panko-breaded chicken breast for dinner on Saturday. On Sunday, I invited a couple I know over for dinner. I prepared the 3-cheese pasta bake from a Cooking Light recipe. To compensate the "healthy" pasta dish, I made the two-nuts chocolate torte for dessert. Everything turned out pretty good. My friends enjoyed the food. And I was a happy cook.

I had also invited another person to the Sunday dinner, but he couldn't make it. He was tied up with something else. On Monday, I had lunch with him and another person. He mentioned something about having to babysit. I guess it must have been for his sister. In any case, he apologized for not being able to make it.

This past week has been somewhat uneventful. The days just seem to run into each other. I've been operating on roughly 4-6 hrs of sleep each night. Six hours is actually pretty generous. I think I got about 6 hours Sunday night. I think my body has adjusted somewhat to the amount of sleep I have been getting. I am going to try to sleep in a little bit this weekend.

And what's on tap for the weekend? I really don't know. I'd like to tackle the C++ assignment. I also should get a start on the XML project assignment. Maybe, if things work out, I might go to the Hash on Sunday. I need to take some action shots for the camera class. Maybe I'll come across some photo-ops on the Hash. Other than that, eh.

Next social event? I was thinking of a little wonton making party. I haven't quite decided on when to have this. I might try to do this after the last C++ and XML class. At least that way I don't have to worry about too many things on a weekend.

And speaking of social, no, I don't think there's been that much progress in my social life. It seems that the person of interest is turning out to be a bit of a slow burn. Maybe I'm trying too hard to look for signs and becoming a little frustrated as a result. Maybe this is a sort of evaluation period where he's still checking things out. I don't know. Maybe I should just sort of nudge things along without making it too obvious. I was thinking of perhaps asking if he would be interested in catching a movie or something this weekend. Ahh! But that requires a bit of courage... :-p

Another week come and gone

My! Just where does the time fly? It's already Friday.

Last night I went to my Mandarin course. I kinda figured that Mandarin was not going to be easy to learn. Speaking my mangled Cantonese is easier than trying to get the different tones right in Mandarin. The teacher drilled us incessantly with the pronunciation of the 4 main tones. I think I was starting to get a little tongue tied towards the end of it all!

This Sunday will be Chinese New Year. I won't be doing anything very special for it. I might do a little bit of cleaning tomorrow to welcome the new year with a clean home. I should have chicken for my new year's eve dinner. I might make my panko chicken on rice for that. On Sunday, New Year's day, I think the meal is suppose to be vegetarian, so I might make this 3 cheese pasta bake. It was quite tasty when I last made it.

Aside from that, tonight I'm going out for sushi with a couple of people. This weekly jaunt for all-you-can-eat sushi is starting to become a bit of a habit. Not that I'm complaining.. :-) And yes, he will be there.

Day of little significance

Somehow, today has lost all meaning for me. Perhaps it's because any special significance of it has been down-played by those I've been with. And why is that? One excuse would be that today is nothing more than a money-grab for merchants selling their wares designed specifically for today. Whatever the case may be, I used to feel that today is a special day to further reinforce/display/reaffirm your feelings for that one special person. That special person who, in the end, turns out not to be so special.

I guess you could say that after having been burned in the past, that today has very little special meaning for me. I can't even recall anything very special happening in recent years. It's rather sad, but it's the truth. If your other half downplays the original significance of this date, then you might have to ask yourself why. What is the justification in not celebrating the spirit of this date?

I suppose I could go on, but I might come off as being bitter. To some degree I am, but not entirely so.

In catching up on some regular blog reading, this seems to express quite a bit on the subject of love... I wish I could better express such things.

In the meantime, today is like any other day. It's starting to snow heavily this morning. At first I was hoping to work from home but realized I left the power adaptor for my laptop at work. Drats! Oh well. I suspect those who can will work from home. It will probably be rather quiet here at work today. I will probably skip the camera class tonight as I don't want to attempt to drive home late in the evening if it's still snowing. :-p

Happy Wednesday.

Happy, freakin' Valentine's Day.

Sluggishness

I just haven't had a whole lot of energy as of late. This could be due to a number of things. There's been some escalations at work where extra attention is required in getting some things done. There's the classwork that needs to be done. Then there's everything in between that seems to be taking up a fair amount of time as well. It really makes me wonder how anyone can juggle all of this.

I suppose I really need to better organize my time. I think that I have always been pretty bad about it. Or, it could just be that I don't put enough effort into it. Oh, did I mention that I registered for another class that starts this Thursday? Maybe I am a sucker for such punishment.

Last night, I tried to study for tonight's mid-term. I was just not motivated. I tried to go over the class notes and look at examples. It's a multiple-choice, on-line exam. I wonder just how difficult could that be? I suppose I should try to go over some notes later today before I head off to class.

My programming class is another kettle of fish. The instructor is suppose to hand out the 2nd assignment and I haven't even finished the first one. :-p I've barely made a dent in it! Okay, so I did manage to print out the game board. Big whoop. I hope I can find some time this weekend to really look into it.

Hmm.. And it's only Tuesday...

Where have the days gone?

It looks like another weekend has come and gone. But it's not that it's been a terribly bad weekend. It's had it's moments. :) I am a little disappointed that I was not able to accomplish as much as I had hoped. This might be due to the fact that I am a bit tired and could use some more sleep. When you're tired, you just don't have the motivation or drive to do much.

I had some people over last night for pizza and movies. We watched Gross Pointe Blank and the Bourne Identity. Both are pretty good movies. I had never seen The Bourne Identity in its entirety. I liked it.

After the second movie, just about everyone left except for him. He hung back again. We had another piece of a fruit pie one of the folks brought. We talked for a while. I think it was nearly 5AM when he finally left.

Hmm.. I wonder how things will go after this?

A very long week

I am so exhausted. To some degree I am partly responsible for being tired. I think pretty much every night this week I had been going to bed pretty late but getting up early. I was probably averaging about 4-5 hours of sleep.

This evening I am still at work. Call me stubborn, call me persistent, but I really wanted to get some stuff done. There's been some escalations this week, so I figure it might be a good idea to ensure that some stuff is prepared so we can get a good jump on it come Monday morning. One of the guys who has been working with me on this is planning to work a little bit over the weekend. I have to remember to SMS him when this stuff is ready.

Reasons for going to bed late this week? Well, Tuesday and Wednesday are obvious because I've got classes those evenings. Last night, on the other hand, I had gone out to dinner. Without going into details, it was with a guy and we talked quite a bit. Before we knew it, it was getting pretty late. Originally, it wasn't going to be just the two of us, but a mutual friend had decided to leave work early, so he missed out on a sushi dinner. :)

Anyway, enough for now. I've got to continue monitoring the progress of this script that's running. I hope to be out of here in about an hour, or less. :-/

Another weekend come and gone

Oh where does the time fly?

Saturday, I was pretty busy running a few errands and prepping the place for the evening's dinner. I made sure I had enough for a party of eight. I even picked up some non-alcoholic beverages just in case.

At some point in the afternoon, one couple had to cancel because she was just not feeling good. Without going into details, I can understand. There are some things you just do not have control over.

One of the guys came over early to give me a hand with a few things. We chatted a bit. Then a little after 6, I get a phone call from one of the other invitees. Apparently, she's not feeling very well either after doing a fair amount of running around during the day. Oh well. :-(

So in the end it was just the five of us. This was just fine as there was plenty of food to go around. And as it was 4 guys, they managed to pack away quite a bit. I still had plenty of leftovers though. I'll just have to do some stir-fry with it tomorrow.

After eating, we had dessert which one of the guys brought. We had some ice wine with it. Afterwards, I popped open a bottle of muscat. All told, we polished off 5 bottles of wine.

Around 11, 2 of the guys had to leave. The rest of us watched Shaun of the Dead. After the movie, A started his car remotely then soon left. I almost expected M to leave when A did but he didn't. He hung around a bit longer. We chatted about different things. Then around 3AM, M hit the road as well. I really didn't expect M to hang around like he did. But I really didn't mind. ;-)

So I was off to bed soon after M left. I think I slept pretty soundly. I might have woken up a couple of times, but managed to fall back asleep. I think I finally got up at about 11AM this morning. I wasn't in the mood to go buy groceries and I was up a bit too late for the Hash. So I did some cleaning up, started on some laundry and dove into my XML assignment. I think I managed to put a good dent into the XML assignment. I'm not looking forward to the C++ assignment which has yet to take off. :-p

Anyway, another Monday is coming...

Friday!!

Finally!

Well, even if the weekend is coming up, I have a crapload of stuff to get done. But even before I make it home to start the weekend, I have a class tonight. It's a class to make up for one of two classes that got cancelled when the instructor broke his arm. The second make up class is next Friday. :-p

Tomorrow morning, I have so much that needs to get done. I've still got to pick up a few things for the dinner. I've still got some last minute cleaning up to do. About an hour or two before everyone arrives, I will have to start laying stuff out and prepare the simmering broths. I think I might be able to get a small break at some point during the afternoon if I don't slack off.

Sunday, I think I will have to pass on the hash again. :-p Last night I tried to tackle the C++ assignment. First, the program that the instructor gave us to help with drawing out stuff in ascii is not gcc friendly. It seems to be written to be executed in a windows console environment. :-p So I tried to download Visual C++ from Micros*ck. Then, when I tried to download the SDK, MS squawked at me for the copy of XP I had installed was not quite legit. So this morning, as a result of last night's frustration, I went ahead and dished out the money to make Bill Gates even richer. Tonight I will try to finish the installation. *sigh*

Aside from that, I made an impulse buy, again. This time, I had gone out to lunch witha friend. After lunch, he wanted to go by EB Games to see if they had the Nintendo Wii. They didn't have any in stock, so we poked around a bit. I was over by the PSP side of the store checking out the PSP. I had contemplated getting one before, but could never justify it. Yet, yesterday, somehow, my friend managed to convince me to get it. So I went ahead and got the PSP plus 3 games to go with it.

Anyway, one of the games I got, LocoRoco, is kinda neat. I guess I will play with it for a while. :-)

Slacker

I've been something of a slacker the past few days. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with lack of sleep due to a certain cat meowing away in the middle of the night. Of course, going to bed towards midnight does not help either. I need to good solid night's sleep. I've got a small dinner party to get ready for this Saturday!

Tonight I have two classes that I will need to stay awake for. By the time I get home it will be about 11PM. I will go straight to bed when I get home. I will see if I can sedate BS with some catnip. I really hope he stops that soon.

I am trying REALLY hard not to make any more unnecessary purchases. I came close again when I put things into the shopping cart. But, I managed to navigate away from the sites. I did purchase one thing last night. It was some software to perform PAL to NTSC coversion. Well, it does more than just that, but I haven't had a chance to see what else it does. :-)

Again, maybe because it's winter and the days are still short, but I find it hard to get motivated to do much. I really hope things change. Who knows? There might be something out in the horizon? I hope?

Am I a Dreamer?

Sometimes I wonder if I am just a dreamer. At times I think I am a realist. Other times, I'm not sure what I am.

Why do I ask? I guess it's because I think I will watch Amelie again for the umpteenth time tonight. It's a movie I don't think I will ever get tired of. Sometimes I wish I could be like Amelie. A bit of a dreamer. She's got her routines and habits. Then something happens by chance and it throws her world into another direction. I think it's a nice movie. :-)

Weekend Recovery

Well, I really did not intend on it. Sort of. But, I went to MEC yesterday and bought some stuff. What did I buy? I bought: a Swiss Army knife (sport), a pair of gloves, some merino wool socks ($7.50/pair!), a Timex watch, a pink Nalgene bottle, and some Clif bars. I was hoping to find one of those high-tech, super-warm fleeces, but they didn't have what I wanted. I saw a pair of winter mocs (Merrell Cold Front), but they didn't have my size. :-p Just as well.

I had wanted to start disseminating my C++ assignment, but realized that the Library folder that the instructor referred to in class was not in any of the zipfiles that he had sent me. I emailed him last night about it. No reply yet. :-/ I guess I'll try to see how I can break down the problem for coding.

Today was not overly productive either. :-p I had wanted to do some picking up around the place, but not too much got picked up. I've still got a bit to do before next weekend's soiree.

Bluesh*t has really been vocalizing a lot lately. I really can't quite figure out other than perhaps he's trying to call out to Finster to come out. Of course, this is not going to happen. There are moments when I almost expect to see Finster curled up in a particular spot. Sometimes I almost think I see a dark blob somewhere. I can almost picture him lounging somewhere nearby. That's the thing about Finster. He's almost always in the same room as I am. Even when the other two have decided to go nap in the pet bed upstairs, Finster is still here or nearby. I'll miss his presence.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to beat back a possible cold. It's just a little bit of sniffling, but you know how sniffles can easily bloom into a full-blown cold! :-p So I have been taking some Cold FX and Emergen-C. So far, so good. Now I just need to get some extra sleep. I think I managed to sleep a bit more this weekend, but I still feel a bit tired...

Moving On

Last night I came home to a less than full household. Even though he was just one cat, he just seemed to fill the void that is now there. He was never really a rabble-rouser, but yet, now that he is gone, I can sense that something is missing.

Blue Sh*t was acting funny last night as well. He was wanting more attention and affection from me. I just could not get him off my lap. He was more clingy than usual. I really wonder if he's disturbed by the recent change. I know that he has acted funny in the past when there has been some major changes in the household. If that is the case, then he is a rather insecure kitty. Whatever it is, I'll give him what he wants. I don't mind. I like the sound of a cat purring happily away.

I'm starting to feel better now. I can reminisce about the things that Finster has done without getting too choked up about it. However, when I see notes of sympathy or condolences, they still get me a bit teary-eyed. Only time will heal these wounds. The scars will still be there. If not, then we would not remember these times.

----

I think all of the stress and lack of sleep this week has taken a slight toll on me. I might have opened myself up to a slight cold. I thought it was just from the crying that I was a little bit congested. However, today, with some sneezing and sniffling I'm pretty sure it's the start of a cold. So now it's time to dose myself with a lot of Emergen-c and ColdFX. I have a small dinner party planned for next weekend! This weekend I think I will just try to relax a bit. I hope I can motivate myself to work on the C++ assignment and perhaps take some shots for the camera course. I guess I will still managed to keep myself busy even if I don't go out.

Cost of Death

It cost $85.46 to send a cherished friend away. $85.46 was all it took to send him down that path. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. It took $85.46 to put Finster to sleep.

Yesterday morning was very hard for me. I don't think I've ever felt this way before. It's amazing and incredible just how emotionally attached one can become to a long time pet. I suppose after 15 years it's to be expected.

I find difficult right now to find much more to say. For those who have or have had pets, I'm sure you understand everything that has happened. If you haven't experienced it yet, I wish you much strength in getting through this eventuality.

I'll probably still get a little choked up every now and then. But for the most part I think I'm doing better now than I did 24 hours ago. I think work and last night's photography class helped to distract me and focus on other things.

I did manage to sleep through the night, although I didn't really go to sleep until half past midnight. I should try to go to sleep earlier tonight. I'm still a bit tired, but even 4.5 hrs of straight sleep is better than the restless night I had.

Now a new era begins without Finster. I still have some insulin and needles. I could see if there's any pet owners who could use them...

Decisions

Well, I really had a hard time trying to sleep last night. Again, I got very emotional last night. I can also see that Finster is not feeling very well. He seems to be looking at me in askance. He also seems to struggle to meow a little bit at me. I know he's very tired.

I guess what made it very hard to sleep last night was that I have come to the decision to not wait any longer. This morning I will be taking Finster to the vet one last time. I think it's best for the both of us. As hertbreaking as it is, I don't want to see him like this any longer than necessary. Last night, he would not even touch the bit of canned food I put out for him. To me that is a clear sign.

The vet only opens at 9. It's just after 8 right now. It's also a bit ironic that Finster is in his carrier resting/napping. I really need to keep my mind focused on other things and not dwell on this too much otherwise I will never make it to the vet. I have to steel myself. It will be a long day.

The Next Day

Well, I think I feel asleep right away last night. However, I woke up around 4:30AM this morning. I tried to sleep a bit more until the alarm went off at 5:00AM. Yeah, I get up at an insane hour.

I've been trying to keep myself distracted at work. For the most part, it's been working. The only time when it's been difficult is when I talk about or mention Finster to someone. I emailed a friend about it. He had gone through a similar scenario with the family dog. I think that anyone who has ever had a beloved pet would know what I and many others are going through.

I had lunch today with another friend. I had told her about Finster. I'm hoping that she'll have some time Saturday morning to give me some moral support when the deed is done. Worse case is I make sure that I have a box of Kleenex in the car. Thankfully, the vet's office is not that far from home.

I guess the next step is to actually call the vet to make the appointment. I am not looking forward to that. I might do it tomorrow.

It's times like this that make you wish you can suppress your emotions like a Vulcan. But, I guess this is what makes us all human.

Life and Death Decisions...

As a pet owner, there comes a time when one needs to make one of the most difficult decisions in their life. When a beloved pet becomes very ill the decision needs to be made as to how soon or later the beloved pet will depart from this world.

This evening, I brought my Finster to the vet to have him checked out because he was losing his appetite. It seems that he has lost yet another 2 pounds. The vet was able to get a urine sample from him. It seems that his kidneys are failing. Given that Finster is also diabetic, it does not help matters. His blood sugar has been fluctating. He's also got a heart murmur.

So, in a nutshell, if I decide to have him treated, it's only going to prolong the inevitable. According to the vet, we would only be patching things. I also think that to prolong his life like this is selfish of me and unfair for the both of us.

Finster has had a good 15 year run. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 8. I knew the day would come when the decision had to be made. I just kept it way, way back in the back of my mind. Now it's been pushed out into the front. I have to face this reality soon. I know it won't be pleasant. I know I will need some moral support. When I have this done, it would have to be this weekend first thing in the morning. Then I have the rest of the weekend to try to recuperate.

It just sucks knowing that this needs to be done. :(

*Some* money spent..

Okay.. So I did end up buying something this weekend. However, it was something that was needed. I bought and downloaded Parallels Desktop for the Mac. I really needed to have a Windows environment for some stuff I am doing. It kinda sucks, but I had no choice. And I did not want to use my work laptop for some of this stuff either.

Anyway...

Weekend almost over...

So I went out and bought groceries. I think that came out to about $80 worth. I plan on making some ma-po tofu for dinner tonight. That should provide me with leftovers for a couple of lunchs. Tomorrow I plan to prepare chili in the slow cooker. That should take care of the balance of the week. I know it might seem a bit boring, but since I will be in class two evenings a week, I need all the time savings I can. As well, it's nice to have something ready for lunch or dinner as needed.

Otherwise, I think I am really starting to dread the winter blues. This past week has been pretty rough in that department. All I want to do is sleep. I don't feel too motivated to get much else done. It's really bad! I think when I continue my reading this afternoon, it will have to be away from this desk. The computer is just too much of a temptation and distraction. An easy way to procrastinate. When they start to give out the assignments, I want to be ready to tackle them. I don't want to be caught with my proverbial pants down. :-p

I am trying hard to ensure that my personal life and moods do not impact life at work. I think it's important to make that distinction. But the tiredness from the winter blues is really not helping any. I know that this coming week will be very busy for me at work. I know there are things I need to accomplish. My team leader will also be on vacation. Oooh! It might actually be a stressful week! I haven't had one of those in ages!

That's another thing. I seem to perform better under stress than not. I suppose that the pressure to get something done triggers something in me. It gets my thought processes going. I think my mind needs to be going a hundred miles a minute. I find that when I am not stimulated in this way, I am not as alert. It's kind of strange but true. But hey, what can I say? I guess this is how I operate.

Weekend half over...

.. and I did not spend a penny today. I managed to avoid perusing sites that sold anything. Earlier I did sort of thought about buying an album off of iTunes, but I decided to hold off on it for now.

So what have I done all day? Well, for most of the afternoon, I have tried to read some C++. Dry reading as it was, I did do a little websurfing every now and again. I think I managed a couple chapters. Tomorrow I will continue.

I did start to put together a grocery list for tomorrow. I find that if I at least make this extra effort it helps tremendously in meal planning for this week. Especially since I will classes 2 nights a week now. So I will need to plan on having something to eat before I head off to class. I think I will make a pot of chili in the slow cooker or something. No, the slow cooker is still at I&J's place. I suppose to could swing by and get it before they go to the Hash...

One more day to get through without shopping... But oh! All of the temptations out there!!

Ooooh, so close!

So, as I was writing the previous post I was also perusing the MEC site. I started to add stuff to the shopping cart. Then I had to make myself stop and think about what I was doing. I have to stop this! Must stop...

Bad Habits

Well, not really *that* bad, but for a weekend I think it's bad. And the bad habit is getting up early when you don't really have to.

As part of what I told myself and a few witnesses, I will avoid unncessary shopping. A few days ago, I had thought about going over to MEC. For what exactly? I think I was looking at some of their pants and stuff. I could use a couple more pairs of their merino wool socks (oh they are comfy!), but aside from that I really did not need anything else. And is it really worth it to shlep all the way over there by car (about a 10 min drive) for socks? Hmm...

I think this weekend I need to devote my time to studying for the classes I'm taking. I think I will still go to the movie this afternoon. Maybe. I think I will pass on the hash tomorrow in favor of some reading. I think I've been keeping myself busy the past few weekends with things to do. I think this weekend might be a good weekend to stay in and catch up on other things.

Yeah, reading up on C++ and XML will be a lot of fun! (O_o)

Things said...

Sometimes you come across something and say "Hey! I totally understand what you're saying!" Being that I frequent Matthew Good's website, his most recent post kinda hit home. It's something I can relate to:

"You work hard, you make sure that things are taken care of, that the people you love are taken care of, and a lot of the time you don’t really take the time to stop and think if you’re being taken care of – did the person who’s no longer on the other side of that bed take care of you?"

Food for thought...

Someone stop me!

I now realize that I have been shopping ALOT lately. I think I might have mentioned in an earlier post about things I have bought. It doesn't stop there. I have been making smaller purchases as well. It just adds up. I really need to stop.

If I'm not shopping, I am baking. This is almost as bad. It's gotten to a point where everyone at work almost expects me to bring something in every week if not every day. But when you're home alone and don't feel like studying or something then you look for distractions (aka trouble). I think that's what I have been doing.

So, I just got another Crumpler bag for my camera. I also just ordered a Sumo Omni as well.

Someone STOP ME!!!

Update: I am shopping to compensate for what's missing in my life at the moment. I think that is the actual realization...

F-f-f-COLD!

Yes. We have our first official winter deep-freeze of the season. I believe that last night the windchill got down to about -33C. That's pretty darn cold. :-p

I only had one class last night as the other was cancelled. I think the instructor might have been sick or something. In any case, it was a welcome respite as I have not been sleeping very well the past week. I hope I'm not coming down with something because I have a slight headache at the moment. Sometimes this is a precursor to the dreaded cold. I did take some emergen-C tonight. I had some this morning as well. I really would not be surprised if I had caught some bug while riding the metro last night.

Otherwise, things have been about the same. I'm still fed up with the dating sites, so I have not been frequenting them much these days. I might login to one just to look around, but I'm usually out of there in a few minutes. It just seems like it's such a huge waste of time.

I've really got to hunker down and start reading for the classes I'm taking. At least try to be ready for the first assignments. I should call it an early evening tonight and maybe organize my notes and shite...

Winter wonderland...

Not!

It goes without saying that with significant snowfall (anything above a few cm) that everything gets thrown into some level of chaos.

Take for example my trek from work to the vet. I figure I should leave somewhat early and I did. I left the office at around 15:40. I arrived at the vet's office around 16:30. With no traffic and no snow I should get there in about 10-15 minutes.

There were no traffic issues on the way home. However, when I got to my driveway, that was another story. The contractor had come by at some point to clear the driveway. That was okay. Then, it seems that the city plows might have come by to do the street. well, it seems that a small snow bank formed in front of the driveway. I miscalculated the height of the mound. I tried to drive through it and got stuck. :-p Thankfully, a passerby was kind enough to help dig me out of that situation! So, in the end I finally got home at about 17:00.

Today is another story. It's downright frigid!! I wonder if we are getting the January deep freeze now. It's suppose to get down to about -22C tonight. Of course that's not factoring in any windchill. And I have class tonight on top of it all. However, my second class was cancelled tonight. Whew! That means I can go home after the first class ends at 20:00. Yay!

I have really got to get some reading done. I tried last night but I guess I just let myself get distracted. Tonight I really should try to read a bit. I tuess that means trying not to read in front of the computer. :-D

I guess I am a closet procrastinator. I know I should get something done, but I am letting myself get distracted. I've really got to stop that...

Old Man Winter has arisen!

Well, it seemed that the mild winter weather we have been experiencing has ended. At least for now.

We're experiencing blustery winds and blowing snow. Expected accumulation about 15cm.

Want to see what Downtown Montreal is like right now?

Anyway, I hope I can go home early. I need to pick up some catfood for the little monsters. Hopefully I can get some reading done tonight as well. I've got class tomorrow and I would like to at least get some reading done beforehand.

Gee, I can't WAIT to see what the commute will be like later this afternoon.. :-p

Late evening thoughts

Not that there's a whole lot of them...

So I decided to delete a couple of profiles from a few of the dating sites. I was just getting fed up and I really did not want to throw money at these sites just so I can obtain more info. Nope. Not going to have any more of that.

What next? I don't know. I'll just go with the flow and see what happens.

There's a reference made about people sometimes. It's the one where people are sometimes referred to as damaged goods. Just what does that mean exactly? When it comes to relationships and stuff, it seems that when one half is dumped, then that person is referred to as damaged goods. Or am I getting this totally wrong? In any case, I would think that it makes some people feel like castoffs. Well, sometimes castoffs still have some redeeming value. It's all a question of someone finding that castoff. Maybe another person will not see the other as a castoff. Anyway, that was a stray thought that just ran through my mind.

Bursting a bubble

How does one go about bursting the bubble that encapsulates a person's little world?

There is a friend, whom I'll call Kitty, who needs to go beyond the confines of her little world. Another friend and I agree that she's become too dependent upon those that are part of her little world. At the same time, it seems that her circle of friends are all of a similar background culturally. As a result, we feel that she will never become an independent person.

I cannot think of any time when she hasn't already got plans to do things with this small circle of friends. Whenever we want her to join us for something, she's always got some friend's birthday dinner or some sort of practice that she has to attend. In fact, just because there is a person's birthday around a certain weekend a month away, she's already pretty sure there'd be some sort of event for it.

Oh, did I mention that she still lives at home? Yes, she is over 30 and still lives at home with her parents. I don't think that it's because she can't afford to move out. I don't think she's ever really developed a sense of independence. Sure she's gone away on trips for work, but that's not quite the same as living on your own for more than a couple of months.

Another thing about her is that it seems that she's always checking to see who's going to be at certain events before she decides if she's going to go. I get the feeling that she doesn't do too well around total strangers. This brings me to another subject: her social skills and tact could stand some improvement. On occasion she will say things that seem to be blurted out without giving any real thought as to the impact of her statement on people.

In any case, she still seems to have a certain naivity about her. At times she seems to display ignorance about some things. It could be her way to avoid certain subjects? Who knows. My friend and I want to break her bubble. We'll think of something... ;-)