At the Delta

This is great!.. I am at the hotel right now

Even though I am so close to home, this kind of quiet feeling reminds me of my first few days in Cali... peaceful, tranquil, and if the weather was better, I think that would just make it another great normal day!

So as I was taxi-ing down here, was talking to the taxi driver... he said alot of things, but one thing that caught my attention was how people should trust their heart more... long story short, maybe being too logical and rational isn't always good... perhaps there are things in this world that even though your mind tells you no, you should do it because your heart is screaming at you to do it...

Come to think of it, I think the things that I enjoyed and cared about most resulted from me abandoning all logic and reason and following my heart... perhaps taxi driver does have a point... hrmmmm...

IRC and the 'ring'

So today, after 5 years of sweat and blood, I received the 'ring'... Before receiving this ring, I honestly did not think much about it... but as the ceremony began and those warden ppl started talking, I thought about these 5 years... and well, this ring means alot more than just a hunk of battered steel...

To me, I have seemed to associate with it my memories for these 5 years.. the ups and the downs, the good times and the bad, the me who has definitely changed as a person (probably for the worst), the people that I have met, the people that I will never meet... To me this ring symbolizes basically my university life in its entirety... for better or for worse.

The other thing at IRC was that I heard one good quote that I had forgotten recited during the ceremony... I can't find the exact quote but it is supposedly by Robert Frost (or Brown) and it goes something like this:

"A man's reach should always exceed its grasp, for what's heaven for?"...

I have always loved this quote... and I guess it is something that I should believe in again...

The Day I Go To School

After having gone to less than a quarter of my lectures... I decided to attend a full day of classes today.

I woke up bright and early and 9:00am, only to see my roommate jump into the washroom for 15 minutes. On regular days I would have given up, but today I waited it out and arrived to my 9:30am class w/ 5 minutes to spare!!...

Went to the first, went to the 2nd, then found out they cancelled the 3rd and the 4th class...

To think, if I had declared it a snow day today, I wouldn't have had to brave the cold (and it was friking cold today!)... and would only really 'miss' two classes... and keep in mind I fell asleep for 1 of the 2 I went to... So class count = 1.5/4 ...

Makes you wonder if this is fate...

A Full Set of Textbooks

So two days ago I went to get my last textbook at the bookstore. Now I have a complete set of books! Just in time for midterms...

Let us see what this $160+ paperweight has done for me so far:
1) Prevented me from sleeping:
By placing the book on my bed, I have effectively elminated my sporadic nap/coma times during Wednesday afternoon. As prove of its effectiveness, this paperweight was put back on the shelf today (Thursday); result: I have taken a 2 hr nap, as well as a 45 min nap...

2) Aesthetic purposes:
When I take all my books out of my bag and put them on the shelf... I look very much like an university engineering student... goooo me!

3) Hidden value:
Supposedly this book contains what I need to know in 2 weeks time... let's hope it delivers...

Titanium Comes to the Rescue

So I had been struggling for 30 min trying to open the child-proofed cough syrup that I was suppose to take....

Enlisting a fellow engineer, we go about trying to open the bottle with no success. As a last resort, I pull out the legendary titanium knife.

Our solution:
If you can't open the cap, saw off the neck!

Result:
We were able to saw through the plastic, and the 1.5 teaspoon of cough syrup now lie happily in my stomach.

Two great to-be engineers, one goal, Result = SUCCESES!

Project Batcape: Completed

So today was the Batcape launch day. Our booth was received very well. 20 people came by because of the custom built Lego house and tons of people came to our booth because of our video.

The Record came by and interviewed us, and CTV came by and interviewed us as well (Result: I am on the news supposedly!!). We didn't end up winning any type of awards though, and no VCs came by either :( ... Oh well...

Also found out later during the day that we were on the UW Bulletin the night before. We were one of the 3 projects that was highlighted before the start of the presentation.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see our booth!!! Hope you all liked our video.

All in all, Project Batcape was a success.

Snow Day

Waterloo declares a snow day. but there's no snow outside!...My self declared snow day last week had more snow than them... at least it was snowing that day...

Guess fate has decided to give me one more day to rest up for the batcape launch! Good Stuff!

In a few hours, Builder Mson will build the lego dream house for the symposium... details to come...

A Second Opinion

Went to the doctor again, this time in TO...

Doc: Hello, what seems to be the problem today?
Me: [same as before]
Doc: blah blah blah... Here you go. This is very strong cough medicine. You should be fine in 3 days, if not, come back.
Me: Thx...

Time elapsed: 5 minutes.

Summary of the day:
1ish Fri nite: Called it a nite... (after passing out just 2 hours ago at Matt's place...haha)
9:30am: Woke up to go see doc...
10:45am: Got my medication, took the medication... went back to bed
12:00ish: Wake up for dim sum
3:15pm: Second dose of medication... went to bed
4:15pm: Woke up and groggily played some chess...
6:15pm: Dinner
7:15pm: Third dose of the day... third nap of the day
8:30pm: Woke up with a headache... bummed around and watched movie in living room
Currently 11:30pm... about to take another dose... calling it a nite latest by 1am..

... so in the past 24 hours... I have managed to sleep/pass out for more than half of it... Now that's a doctor that deserves the gov't tax dollars!

Mson (passed) out.

Visit to Health Services

So after coughing profusely the past few days, I decided to go for some expert advice... here's an excerpt:

Nurse writes the following down before letting me see a doctor...
"So this started on Friday, and I've been coughing up yellow and green stuff... had coughing fits for two nites now... started having a headache today so popped a tynenol, been drinking buckley's since Sat."

Doc: Hrm, are you sick?
Me: I hope not...
Doc: Well, when you are coughing up yellow and green stuff, it usually means you are...

... after the examination

Doc: So, there are many types of viruses... there are the common colds,... the mono... which there's no cure for. Yours look like a virus. How soon you get well depends on ur immune system. So drink lots of water, take akinesia, vitamin C, chicken soup, and whatever, and gets lots of rest. If you start consistently coughing up green stuff, not yellow, then come back and we will check on it again.

... ...
One hour later I walk out... ... ... I want this hour of my life back!

Back to the Arctic North

So my xmas holidays went by very quickly. It seemed just like yesterday that I hopped on to the plane to come back to the arctic north.

Now hibernation begins.... for 4 more months...