Today is the day. I am heading out a plane that is going to take me across the ocean for my first trans-atlantic crossing. I am going to try and make updates as frequently as possible but it's not my main priority. You can read up on everything here.



See ya in 50.

I'm finished at UW, it's over.

No more school.

No more books.

No more professor's dirty looks.



I made friends.

I made enemies.

I made mistakes.

I learned something, just not in the conventional text-book sense.

You can never go back to how things were, even if you wanted to. I went into my old work today for a few odds and ends and saw a ton of people I worked with. I was there for 5 years so we knew each other pretty well. I wasn't some bum off the street, but that's how it felt. All I got was a cursory glance and smile, the obligatory hello and standard small talk. It's frustrating to feel so out of it and less important than you once were. I walked into my home and didn't know anyone there.

The problem with some Canadian music channels is that they try to be American. Instead of playing the Junos last night so we could watch Sum41 et al, they played the MTV Music Awards. The only explanation I will accept is that CTV had the exclusive rights.

Kids minds are a terrible thing to waste and are definitely something that I don't understand, at least not yet. I went to a play that my sister directed on Friday, which was directed superbly. The kids were in J.K. to grade 8 and did their best and had dun. It just wasn't enough to win me over. Maybe when I am old and senile and don't recognize that I am slowly being brain-washed by the shiny moral put on display or when I have a kid and everything they do is perfect, I will appreciate the shows they put on. However, until then, I will enjoy myself by silently mocking parents that ogle their children and annoy everyone else with their flash photography, waving hands and encouraging gestures and make snide comments on how children wouldn't understand jokes about Survivor let alone make them.

People are very illogical. I am standing in line waiting for a friend to pay for her groceries and am scoping out all the available cashier lanes. One man walks buy and goes into the express lane which has no people in it. Another man directly behind him, but not associated with him, follows him instead of going in the other line where my friend is the only one in line and paying for her groceries as he passes. Another lady scoops up the poll position behind my friend and proceeds to bypass the second fellow. So the illogocial thing I don't understand is how people can think an occupied express lane is faster than an empty normal lane?

You know in Amelie and in the Matt Good Video where they steal the garden gnome and take pictures of it all over the world, I want to do that. The only problem is I am back-packing around Europe so I need something small, and preferably nonliving. I could steal my brother's iPod and add to this collection, but I want something more original. Any ideas?

A person who scores low on an IQ test is mentally retarded, but a person who scores above is a genius. Both are abnormal and freakish, but one is revered and the other frowned upon.

You can learn a thing or two from the institution you throw money at. As hard as they try to squander it on professors who make less sense than a thousand monkeys on a typewriter, they occasionally spend it on a prof that can teach. A prof who doesn't put students to sleep, who actually keeps them interested, who raises questions and keeps them coming back class after class.

There is a quota on this type of prof, it;s no more than 2 per faculty at UW.

My own stupidity is going to do me in someday. In my head I switched the dates of my CS exams. Thankfully I've avoided a minor catastrophe. It would have really sucked had I prepared for one final and ended up writing the other.

Our Lady Peace - Somewhere Out There. I am breaking the copyright laws over on the left.



last time i talked to you, lonely and out of place

you were lookin down on me, lost out in space

laid underneath the stars, strung out and feeling gray

watch the riddles glow, watch you float away

down in the atmosphere, garbage and city lights

I'm gonna save your tired soul

gonna save our lives

turn on the radio to find you inside my mind

i waited for the sky to fall, i'm waiting for a sign

all we are is all so far

you're falling back to me

the star that i can't see

i know you're out there, somewhere out there

you're falling out of reach

defying gravity

I know you're out there, somewhere out there

hope you remember me when you're homesick and need a change

I'll miss your purple hair, I'll miss the way you taste

I know you'll come back some day on the better days i wait

I'm praying that you don't burn out or fade away

and all we are is all so far

you're falling back to me

the star that i can't see

i know you're out there, somewhere out there

you're falling out of reach

defying gravity

i know you're out there, somewhere out there

you're falling back to me

the star that i can't see

but I know you're out there

you're falling out of reach

defying gravity

i know you're out there

somewhere out there

you're falling back to me

the star that I can't see

I know you're out there, somewhere out there...

falling out of reach

defying gravity

I know you're out there

somewhere out there

you're falling back to me

and I know

I know

you're falling out of reach

I know...

What are family obligations and where do you draw the line? I am going to go to the Netherlands for 5 or 6 days during my trip and there are many things to do and a finite amount of time to do them. I am going to stay a few nights with one cousin, but I never really thought about visiting all my other relatives. I have several relatives scattered around the country and only a handful I know. Some I have met once or twice at a family BBQ, but the rest I've never laid eyes on and now I am getting the impression that it's rude if I don't see them. It's become family politics and if I choose a few to visit I am somehow choosing favourites or saying one side of the family is better than the other. How do the actions of one person become the voice of a family?

I had this dream about going to visit my brother. I wasn't sure where he lived. My mother gave me a flight coupon and I got on the plane and was immediately followed by a family and their dog. The family wanted my seat because there was only floor room left. Then for some reason we got off and had to chase after the plane. It was taxiing to a small lawn runway about a kilometer down the street that weaved through a small forest. The street had a lane for planes and a lane for cars. We chased after it and were able to get on just in time after cutting through a gas station. I finally looked at my ticket to see where I was going, it was Calgary. Then I am Samual L Jackson and screen credits are rolling. I am in the movie, Critical Path.

This is what happens when you watch Pulp Fiction too late at night.

An amendment to the University of Waterloo Physical Activity Complex (PAC) Official Weight Room Rules & Regulations - It is suggested that with each repetition the patron make a grunting noise, increasing the intensity of each grunt until it emulates that of a smut star reaching climax.

I had my first appointment with Health Services in my entire 5 years here at UW yesterday. I had never been in the pale halls or small examining rooms of the building, I had only peered at it through it's reflective pond. It was a pleasant experience. The nurse I saw made the event fun, she joked around and gave me shit for not knowing where my immunization records were and for not getting sick in the last 5 years. Then as I was getting a shot she said, 'Oh yeah, this will sting a bit. I would have told you before, but I thought what's the point in telling you it's going to hurt.'

There was also one shot I didn't get because I need a prescription for it first. No matter how many times my mom made me play with people with chicken pox I refused to catch. Ever since, I have seen my lack of chicken pox as a defining characteristic of who I am. It makes me feel special; that somehow I am immune to it's harms. I am the next generation of humans.

UW blog meet 9pm tomorrow at Weavers. Be there and meet the kids on the UW playground.

Note to owners of Gracenote: BRAD Corp., although surely to be a huge conglomerate of companies some day can only do so much to benefit the world. That is why we are passing on this business opportunity to you. Your service already catalogues information on CDs and we would like you to go the extra step further and keep lyrics on file as well. This way I will be able to click on a track in iTunes and peruse the lyrics as I sing my heart out to it. This will be financially beneficial, which I leave as an exercise for the reader.

I'm restless. It's caused by a weird combination of work to do and no desire to do it. On one hand I feel like I have time to slack off but when I slack off I feel that I can't because I have work to do. The battle between the responsible self, the slacker self, and occasionally the silly self are in an endless cycle.



I have been stuck for a couple of days now. I will be until I am on that plane. The wonderful plane that will transport me away from this dull, predictable existence and take me to a new one full of uncertainty and exploration. We are in a constant conflict of safety and exploration. It's in out nature to explore but our need for safety keeps us grounded. Since childhood we have been trying to master the right combination of the two.

Waterlogged Camera Turns Magic This guy is one lucky bastard. A random disaster happened to my camera and the results weren't nearly as desirable.

Q: What makes Google so darn good?
A: PidgeonRank