Tales From the Milk Drinker

Snow, snow, snow, and more snow

2008-03-02T12:52:00.000-08:00

Hello hello. I decided to start blogging again at the request of my beautiful and multi talented girlfriend Amber. Good call sweety. I sort of feel like ranting on about her for a few pages now but I think that might spoil the spirit of the blog - to talk more about pointless things.

Today it's storming "like a bastard" outside. The snow is coming down and the wind is blowing it round. Our driveway has some bare spots and some spots where the snow is up to your hip. Well maybe not your hip. But my hip. And I'm almost 5' 6". They have not plowed our road yet and this prompts me to the rant I am about to begin.

It could be my imagination but I think when it used to storm snow plows used to wander the street of summerside continually looking for freshly shoveled driveways to fill in. Now this winter I have been in Summerside for about 3 spectacular storms and it seems that they now only plow when it's all over and done with, thereby making more stingy and cost effective use of plow driver's time and valuable diesel fuel. Perhaps the price of oil had something to do with this or perhaps the city now feels that environmentally it's irresponsible to spend fuel cleaning up a storm before it's over and done. I would think that this now method is probably unpopular with the plow driving community as I would assume less hours = less pay.

I almost think that a decent effort should be made to keep the roads open. I can certainly appreciate that to anyone with a sick family member in the house (and I mean genuinely sick with a threatening problem, not a runny nose) an unplowed road can spell insecurity as it blocks off the logical route to the hospital. I suppose some folks who don't plan ahead well could also be stuck with no way to get to a pharmacy if they had important prescriptions which needed to be filled.

One of the nicest ideas I've heard of is the club which opperates in the HRM. I forget their name but it's basically a gathering of folks who drive oversized four wheel drive trucks who offer their services to those in need during extreme weather. For example a health care worker (like a nurse or a doctor) who needs to get to the hospital for their shift can phone the club for a ride during a storm and a team of a few vehicle opperators will do their best to get them there in their jeeps/large trucks. What a nice idea.

Sometimes, just sometimes, I miss my four wheel drive. Don't tell the sexy sunfire. It'ld hurt it's feelings.

Two Great Inventions

2007-10-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my fellow engineer in training Dan the Man Schaef Daddy.

I have two ideas for businesses/inventions that I think would make some pretty good cash or at least a few laughs.

The first is a Hourier service. Notice that it's Courier with the C changed to a H so it's pronounced like Hurrier. The purpose of my Hourier service would be a perfect mirror image of a Courier company like Purolator with the only difference being that the Hourier would try to deliver packages at such a speed that it would endanger the lives of the senders, recievers, and the general public. The Hourier would drive at break neck speeds and stop for no cross walk nor school bus. Also while on foot between the vehicle and the recipient the Hourier would run like the wind and flip out at anyone who got in his way - "Holy #$$# get out of my way!"

The second idea is a High Speed Electric Bus. I'm not talking about wires inside your vidjo games, I mean the kind of bus that drives little old ladies to the superstore (afterall, they may not like those potatoes but gosh darn it they keep buying them, don't they?). The bus would be like a regular bus except perhaps more sleek in appearance. It would be powered by large electric motors and would travel at slightly higher than normal speeds. It's trademark difference however would be that it would accelerate at insane rates, causing wiplash to the driver and passengers. Also, mowing down of pedestrians would not be encouraged but not frowned upon either. Any time someone met their demise at the bumper of the HSEB company management would merely explain that people should be happy because we all have to work together to fight global warming. Come on guys, it's cereal.

So what do you think are these ideas great or what?

The best update I can give you

2007-09-18T12:29:00.000-07:00

I made a very important decision yesterday - I'm not applying for any PhD programs for next year.

This might come as a surprise to some readers as I've always been known for my enjoying school and my success in it. But this is a decision I've made with conviction.

The reasons are as follows:

1) My heart (or "gut" if that helps your visualization) is telling me not to.

I'm not saying I wouldn't apply for some in coming years, nor am I saying I will. I just have had a very strong feeling that whatever I do next year is not going to be start working on a PhD.

At this point I'ld invite your comments and criticisms. I have many other points to ramble on about this but for once I don't feel like making a long post full of horrible spelling mistakes.

Ready to Rock!

2007-04-08T05:49:00.000-07:00

This is a big week for getting stuff done for Sambo. Tomorrow at 12:30 I write my final exam for air pollution control and then I have my exam in Combustion on Friday. In between I need to polish off my air pollution project (a research funding proposal) and then Saturday is my powerlifting meet in St. Thomas.

I'm maintaining a positive "can do" attitude about it all because it should be very doable. A key factor will be staying well rested and stress free, so I'll probably lay low most of the week. On thursday and friday this week I layed down for 10 minutes after lunch and ended up sleeping for 4 hours each time - I guess I was more tired than I had realized.

I'm starting to think about leaving Ontario in the early April 20's, maybe about the 24th? My time between the end of exams and leaving should be filled with dicking around. My room mate Tim's parents are coming to visit him from New Zealand and I volunteered to take us all to Niagra Falls to see a famous piece of Canadian geography. If it's nice enough out we can probably ride The Maid of The Mist.

Last night we went out to eat at a Japanese/Korean restaurant at University Plaza. It was okay, at first I was really overwhelmed because nothing on the menu sounded eatable. I settled on chicken taryaki and rice which ended up being fairly normal but pricey. It was a neat experience to eat with sticks but next time I'll probably opt for something less international.

My study strategy has been what I'ld call short bursts. I study intensely for short intervals (20 minutes to a half hour) and then take a break. I believe I will retain a higher percentage of the material this way than through long multi hour study sessions. This week I'll also be big on napping as it keeps stress levels low and should preserve my energy for when I need it.

I'll leave you with this memory:

It was last summer when I visited Neil in Halifax and I didn't pick a day to go home yet. Sunday night rolled around and I was thinking it was time to hit the road soon when I realized - hey wait I don't have anywhere to be for days so why dont' we go back to Kart Bahn for another few laps. Neil agreed and it was a mighty good time, even if I did get a little lost on the drive back to his place. Wether you leave him an upper decker or not visiting Neil is always a fun time. Hahahaha. Beef Stew.

2007-04-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

Here's some pictures from a high school powerlifting meet my club (Golden Triangle) put on a couple weekends ago in Waterloo. These guys all did a great job lifting and I'm posting these pics here because I'm too lazy to email them out. I hate waiting for attachments to attach so I'll post these here and email the guys the link.

Checking in

2007-04-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I thought I'ld post and share my thought for the day.

This is the marvelous week before my exams when I have no classes. I spend my 9-5 dabbling in my research and going over the material that will be on my tests. I feel pretty good about air pollution and combustion - I've been paying attention all term and these topics pop up in my research all the time so I think I've got a decent handle on what's happening.

In 12 days on April 14 I have my first powerlifting meet in nearly a year. It will be in St. Thomas Ontario down near London. This will be my first raw meet, meaning that I'm not going to use any supportive gear which would aid me in lifting more. For each event I normally wear some sort of piece of magical apparatus like a squat suit or a bench shit that adds support to my frame and allows me to lift more than I could in normal clothes. I thought this time around it'ld be fun to leave the support at home and see how I fair without it. It meant rearranging my goals a little but I'm happy to rise to the challenge.

Finishing the St. Thomas meet will be the real "icing on the cake" because at that point my 2 exams will also be over and done with. I'll basically have accomplished all my short term goals for the month. Tasks remaining will be to pack up and move back to PEI for the summer. I plan to drive to about Quebec city the first night and then go to Fredericton the next day where I'll visit some friends. I never realized until I left that I was always under guesstimating the number of people from Fredericton that I actually like. Make no mistake, it's a really small frigging number. But there are some real great people there.

There are some plans in the works for me and my room mate Timbo to head to Toronto for a little holiday of sorts on April 16th. I wanna go in the CN tower and possibly visit the mech eng department at the U of T where my cousin works. And after that maybe we'll do some fun touristy stuff that real normal people would find entertaining.

Somewhere in the middle of it all we've got to clean out appartment up for our moving out inspection. Seeing as how I'm a fairly lazy bugger when it comes to cleaning there's a GREAT chance Molly Maids will be getting a call from me. In other news I figured out how to do my income tax return and can finish it tonight. The only thing I might be getting wrong is my RRSP amount I'm allowed to contribute.

Well I should crack a book for a while and crank out some Air-Po-Co-Tro as I call it (Air Pollution Control for you non Sam-tech Savvy).

Like a Damb Pig

2007-03-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

It was the fall of 2003. After spending the summer living in 8G^(-1) and working with Sheila (best co-worker ever) I was off to UNB to finish my degree. I was living with Roger Gillis and Jeff Malone on Dirty old Needham street.

We had ordered our internet connection from aliant (I think?) and being 3 technological tools at the time we couldn't figure out how to hook it up. A box came one day from Aliant claiming to have internet in it but the question was could this one box possibly contain enough internet for our whole appartment. We tried to install it and couldn't figure it out for the life of us. We could get internet on Roger's computer but couldn't get the router to talk to the computers in Jeff's room and my room.

We were in "Big Poppa" Abdel Elsaway's class, "Design Zero" when our prayers were answered. In walked a fellow student who looked like a pig, I shit you not a real honest to goodness pig. We explained our woa's to "Pig Man" (who we later found out was like 30 years old and that sort of creeped us out) and he agreed to come over and spread the box of internet around the appartment for us.

He came over one day after school and sat down at Roger's machine and checked a few settings and then declared "I'm going to have to ping your router." This sounded pretty scarey to me because I didn't know what the hell pinging was, or even a router for that matter. And remember, this guy looked like a fucking pig. The tone of his voice was serious enough that I knew he wasn't joking and to be honest I was getting pretty nervous. The expression on his face told me that whatever pinging my router was it was some serious shit.

It turned out it wasn't a big deal at all and he got our internet hooked up right away. I payed him 2o dollars for his troubles and gave him a drive home to the North Side. On the way there he confided in me that he finds big breasts disgusting. To be honest that sort of scarred me for life, I prefer to think of Pig Man as a very non-sexual creature. He went on to ask me how we had landed such a sweet appartment and did I know how he could get such a nice one? This also bugged me because I knew our place was so disgusting that if he liked it he must live in a really bad spot.

Later Jeff and I realized that Pig Man must obviously be into eating human babies. Nothing else could make him look so much like a pig.

There's some great story tellers in this world we live in but really could anyone make this shit up? Ask Jeff. Ask him! He'll confirm my story!

Like a damb pig.

Woa! Gotta start watching that!

2007-03-04T15:58:00.000-08:00

For those who don't know I spend 90% of my money through my visa. One nice side effect is that my statements show a window into my monthly spending. I just realized something shocking - I spend 50% as much money on fast food as on groceries! This trend has held for 2 months that I checked! My typical weekend routine consists of brunch out saturday morning with the powerlifters and supper out also with some friends. Also on Wednesday night I usually go to William's coffee pub with one of my fellow coaches from Special Olympics. These 3 times a week add up to half a grocery order! Ouchy! This week I might hit myself up with a tighter fast food budget. Not that I can't afford it, I really can. It's just that I should be spending the money on things that would last longer like new clothes and books/dvd's that I want.

I feel like a fool for spending so much money at William's. It's such a sham!

WINTER DRIVING TIPS

2007-03-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

It's storming out pretty good right now in Waterloo and I just drove home from the gym. This is going to be a post of me venting my frustrations about things I see on the roads here this winter. I have developed a theory that people who grew up in places with lots of snow make good winter drivers and people who grew up in places with little snow do not. My disclaimer is that most of you reading this blog are from PEI, maybe a few blue nosers or haren chokers also, and I'm not mad at your driving I'm mad at other people's driving.

1. Be Gentle for crying out loud!
Those of you who took a physics course sometime probably remember that for an object of fixed mass (your car) bigger acceleration requires bigger force. The snow and ice in wintertime basically means you MUST expect your car to have a lower maximum gripping force on the road. Simply put you must be GENTLE with your moves. Expect to speed up, slow down, and turn at lower rates than in dry weather.

2. DON'T SLAM THAT FU*$ING GAS PEDAL!
EVER!
DON'T DO IT!
This is EXACTLY the same as point #1 but it's the most important point and I think it's possible my physics talk could confuse some people so I'm restating my point in non-science lingo. "Your car WILL NOT grip the road as well if you press the gas hard" You should press it softer than you do on dry roads. BECAUSE I SAID SO DAMB YOU!

3. You do not "need" a big truck or an SUV. What you need is a set of good tires and some driving lessons. If there's more than a couple hours per year when you can't get where you're going it's because you suck at driving, not because you drive a small car. I had a 4 wheel drive truck in high school and now I have a small compact car and I can still go where I want to go.

"It's slippery out, I better smash the gas pedal really hard so my car can push itself forward better"..... Smart like a box of rocks.

I couldn't have said it as good myself

2007-02-25T07:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.ryanwatchorn.blogspot.com/

Go read his post about technology and society.
Ryan is a you guy (16) who is in our powerlifting club here in Kitchener. He's way smarter than most adults I know.

I'm doing it

2007-02-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

I was just reading a post on my friend Dan-o's blog about how people work in jobs to make enough money to do what they really want to do. I think he made a great case.

The reason I am making this post is because I have to share with you dear readers something that another full fledged member of the boys boys and all around non-generic guy Neils Mo said one time. Neil and I were discussing how we have both been in school for much longer than most people on PEI expect a person to be. From time to time we have both been questioned by lesser informed people about why we're on the path we're on. Neil hit the nail right on the head with some timeless wisdom I'ld like to share with you all:

"They always ask me 'so what are you going to do with your life when you're done?' so I respond - what do you mean? This is my life. I'm doing it right now"

/getting changed my ass!

Best Movie I've seen in a long time

2007-02-16T18:34:00.000-08:00

I knew I was in for a great relaxing weekend this afternoon at about 3:30. We just finished a car team task and I returned to my office and had a snack when I felt myself mentally unhook for a minute. I decided to take the rest of the weekend until monday morning and just dick around.

Tonight we kicked off by going to the movies, me and my room mate Tim and our neighbor Keisha. Keisha's from Barbedoes so she's freezing cold 100% of the time.

We went to see "Bridge to Tarabithia" and it was hands down the best movie I've seen in ages. An excellant Disney film about the imagination of children. I suggest you go see it, right now!

Lunch in a Jiffy

2007-02-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

This semester I've made some daily schedule changes. I decided to stop working "from home" and spend about 9-4 on campus working either in my new office or at the biblioteque. This also affords me the opportunity to be closer to the UWAFT garage so I can stop in and lend a hand when possible.

One thing about being gone that long is that I'm going to HAVE to eat. I'm not like a lot of weirdos my age who can just drink a coffee at 9 am, eat a bag of chips at 6:30 and hop into bed and call it a day. I demand good meals around the clock.

My new pattern is to cook enough food on Sunday evening to provide supper that night plus lunch monday through friday. Since the Christmas break my weekly menu has consisted of:

-Bone in Chicken Breasts with Bread and Butter as a side with a piece of fruit
-An interesting concoction best described as spaghetti with meat sauce except replace the noodles with rice
- Roast Beef with Potatoes, carrots and turnup (a real crowd pleaser for people like myself who frown on alternative eating styles)
-Boneless Chicken Breasts and rice with a side salad
- Spaghetti and meat sauce with a side dish of crunchy veggies

I find this strategy prevents me from falling into the typical student pattern of going over to the plaza for lunch at a pizza or pita place or eating on campus. UW has on campus dining in damb near every building (chinese food in the computer science building makes me laugh my ass off) and I've heard the one in south campus hall is actually great so I may try it one day soon. I've also enjoyed a lovely bowl of beef and vegetable soup at the grad house in september, and it was amazing and cheap. I can't figure out why I never went back.

2007-01-15T11:17:00.000-08:00

Today we had no school in waterloo because of weather. Waterloo has some policy about closing the university if the local schools are closed. I like it.

check this out
http://milaadesign.com/wizardy.html

Great Saturday!

2007-01-14T09:18:00.000-08:00

I just had an awsome Saturday! I started out with my usual gym/brunch with the gym crew and then came home and me and Jen and Tim and Shi Lie went to the chinese grocery store. What an adventure. It's down a little back alley in downtown kitchener. Jeff remember how victory meat market seemed cheap and possibly not as clean as the big stores? This was like that multiplied by a thousand. Maybe a million. Here's the entrance. Like how they pile up the garbage behind that fence? It smelled pretty bad.

So what do they have in there that we don't get in Sobey's? EVERYTHING! For examples canned bamboo and catfish

Overall I'ld say there's no chance in hell I'ld eat anything from here.

Helpful Household Hint

2007-01-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

For those of you using the george foreman grill or similar I will now give you my instruction for cleaning this appliance. This method was perfected this year with some helpful advice from Adam Eddy.

Step 1) Unplug grill when done cooking and while grill is still hot place a wet paper towel in it and close the lid. If you've already let the grill cool plug it back in for a minute to reheat it and then unplug it and put the wet paper towel in.

Step 2) Open grill after letting wet paper towel soak about 3 minutes. Throw paper towel in garbage.

Step 3) Use new wet paper towel or cloth to wipe grill surface. If you've done steps 1 and 2 correctly the gunk will wipe right off.

I've found any other method absolutely frustrating.

It's my Airoplane....

2007-01-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

I just flew back to Ontario last night and boy are my arms tired! But seriously, allow me to present an argument for why driving home would have been the WRONG choice for me for Christmas break.

1) Money
My complete trip including taxes and fees was 510 return on westjet with 150$ spent on shuttles to and from the airport (about a 1 hour ride each way. ) Let's look at driving up home. For the sake of my argument say I go alone and don't cost share with anyone.
Gas+Bridge+Motel for one night somewhere in Quebec(I would not drive straight through alone for fear of fatigue induced driving errors leading to an accident) = 300+40+125= 465.
We won't count fast food i'ld buy on the road but just so you know it'ld be about 40$ and twenty cholesterol points.

So you're saying "Sam, you're losing 300 dollars" - oh contrair mon frair. It takes me 2 days each way so that's 4 days total. Since I'm on the road I'm basically useless all day so let's charge this as 4 X 24 hours. That means I'ld be able to "afford" to pay myself $3.07 an hour for my troubles on the road with the money I'm saving by not flying. I dunno about you but my Christmas break time is worth more than $3.07. Not a big fan of giving up 4 days of my break to the open road.

2) Fear of Foul Weather

Canadian weather can be unpredictable this time of year and there's no telling when a storm can blow in. Imagine adding another night's hotel cost and a storm could really wreck my good time on the TC (that's trans canada). Worse yet weather could increase my chances of wrecking my car or far worse yet getting hurt.

3) Flying makes me feel fancy

I hate to admit it but I'm totally one of those dicks who dresses up for the ride and works on his laptop the whole time and mumbles important sounding scientific jargon and tries to sound like he's stressing out about some major issue "at work". I'll admit it's a show I enjoy putting on.

There's my case. I understand some people would rather save a few hundred by sharing a long cold drive home but I figured I might aswell enjoy the opportunity for air travel while I've got it.

I just got an email!

2006-11-30T19:06:00.000-08:00

From UNB Mech Eng and all around good guy Paul Lapointe, aka "Good Paul" (as opposed to bad Paul). He's alive and well and working as an engineer in the Fredericton Area.

Doug this one is for You (Smokey old something or others)

2006-11-25T21:01:00.000-08:00

I found these out there in the vast world of the interweb. Pretty funny in my opinion.

An honest type Survey

2006-11-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

Could people please comment and say (if you are a student OR were a student) how many hours per day average you work on school work. For the purposes please include hours spent in class. If you're shy leave your comment annonomously.

For those who transferred to the working world from school - do you find you spend more hours on work than you did school, the same or less?

I propose that about 40 hours a week is healthy and normal. Something that distrubs me is when students cut sleep out to work. I don't think that is healthy.

A well deserved word of praise

2006-11-13T09:13:00.000-08:00

I wish to publically announce that I am impressed with the service I've recieved from the University of Waterloo Housing and Residence Services.

I'm living in a 4 bedroom townhouse residence which is, in 99% of cases, reserved especially for graduate students. Thinking back this is the first place I've lived in my university career where there was absolutely no bullshit from the landlord about unpaid rent (when it was actually paid), late payments (when it was paid on the specific date they asked for), lost cheques, unpayed damage deposits and damage deductions for damage the last people living there did. I just showed up and they handed over the keys and they never hastle you.

The staff just left my place now. They come every 4 weeks and scrub the hell out of the kitchen and bathroom and vaccum the floor. Service with a smile. I could eat out of my bathroom sink right now. They do an amazing job.

We also are the only residence to be offered a free ride to school on a dedicated Columbia-Lake-Village only shuttle. Sure comes in handy when you have a sore ankle like I had this week.

We even have a community center with a huge big screen tv, pingpong, pool, and laundry driers that actually get your clothes fully dry for 75 cents. They burn natural gas instead of heating with electricity so they've got a lot more punch. The community center also has a respectable library of DVD's that are free for the borrowing.

Two thumbs up for you Columbia Lake Village Staff. You're a big cut above the morons out there trying to pass themselves off as providers of fine student housing.

Finally Caught Up!

2006-11-08T07:25:00.001-08:00

That week I spent in Ottawa at the ChallengeX workshop put me behind in my 2 courses but I think I'm finally getting back where I need to be.

Life is so routined and busy but I like it. I try to do schoolwork during office hours and then the nights are taken up with powerlifting 3 nights a week, and coaching special olympics one night. Me and my room mate Tim and 2 of our neighbors Jen and Amir are in the habit of going out Saturday night for food and a movie which is great - sort of a degreased version of the Fredericton friday night greasers.

Today I'm feeling an undeserved sense of accomplishment. I better not just slack off though, I've got some thermo to write up.

How is this not more famous?

2006-11-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

How many of you use www.pandora.com

Go to this website and enter the title of a song or singer/band you like. Pandora then plays a list of songs it thinks you might like based on your input. It's like a custom radio station. It's free (after you listen for so long you have to register but that basically just means giving them an email address that works).

Makes for good listening whilst you work. Try it out.

Home for Christmas

2006-11-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

I just bought my plane ticket home for Christmas. I'll be home from the 14th till the 4th of Jan. I recommend those others planning to do so do it soon. You will already have a very restricted window of available flights do to sold outedness.

In other news I'm working pretty hard and these grad courses are tough. But I'll make it. I always do.

I signed up for anothe Powerlifting meet in Niagra Falls on January 20. Should be really fun.

Log Driver

2006-10-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

Who remembers this commercial from the elementary school era? I totally love this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ngTQNQwlf8

I also loved the one about the chainsaw and how it revolutionized the logging industry.

A Thanksgiving or Not So

2006-10-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

I think this is my first year not going home for Thanksgiving. I stayed here in Waterloo for obvious reasons. I didn't really find it that bad though, and it was better knowing my family also missed out on thanksgiving diner because we're having new floors put in the kitchen so it was all torn up and in no state to cook a turkey diner in. I'm betting Joey's girlfriend probably had them over for diner, unless she had to work.

I'm really enjoying my time here in Ontario. The people at waterloo are mostly all very serious students and somewhat quiet and intraverted. I believe I'll be here for the remainder of the school year but will be returning to PEI after the winter semester ends to focus more on the project at hand. My background reading is going surprisingly well, this week I'm reading a great text on combustion of solids, so maybe you could say I'm getting a Masters in campfires.

I have an aspiration to drive across Canada to Manitoba with the Neilster in the spring if opportunity allows it. Neil may look like an Alien but rest assured he'ld be good company in a truck for a few days.

I saw the Trailer Park Boys movie Saturday night and (without any spoilers) I thought they did a good job of it. As Dave Chamberlain had said, it's the low brow humor / low budget approach that makes that show great. They added a little glits and glamor for the big screen, but not so much that it hurt them I think.

I'm going to Ottawa this week for a workshop related to the Alternative Fuels Team. I'm looking forward to learning a lot more about alternative energy in the transportation sector and also having a few nights (thursday to tuesday inclusive) in the nation's capital. I'm sure the guys will find some fun to get into.

My Brainchild for the day

2006-10-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

This thought just came to me:

If you think you're "hardcore" you ain't. One of the key elements of being hardcore is to be hardcore BUT think you are normal.

The results are in...

2006-09-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

When I bought my new gym membership at Popeye's I got a free fitness evaulation. Some of the results were obvious and some were surprising!!!

-They test upper body strength on one particular machine. I maxed out the machine. With Ease.

-In the flexibility tests I was extra flexible in a few positions and way way way below average in a few others (good in the ones relating to powerlifting, wicked bad at anything where you rotate the trunk of your body sideways) Somewhat related to this some of the exercises showed that relative to my legs and upper body my trunk is my weakest link, by a long shot. If I can work on this it should make me be able to squat and deadlift bigger weights.

-I have an ideal resting heart rate

-I walk with my feet (and hand) rotated away from the direction I'm walking. This is common in heavier people.

-I did a cardio test that relates heart rate responce to work load and I scored 3 levels ABOVE average for heart/lung work. I had hoped to be average (at best!) The test scale had 5 levels above and below average.

-I scored a chubbsie 22% in the bodyfat analysis. I'ld like to see that number come down a little although the personal trainer giving the test insisted he'ld consider me a "healthy" individual. The bodyfat machine measures your electrical resistance and this test also showed that, aside from being hefty, I was also slightly dehydrated if you consider the balance of salt to water in my body. This is probably from eating too many salty foods.

Overall I was pleased with my test and very happy that my blood pressure was within the normal range because that's something I have had higher measures of in the past. At first I thought a fitness evaluation would be embarassing and useless but I actually enjoyed it.

Check this out

2006-09-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Adam "eddie" Arsenault there are some videos of me on youtube now. Please copy and past this link into your address bar and enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=abramsvillage&search=Search

Saturday Pattern

2006-09-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

I'm developing a Saturday pattern for Waterloo.

I got hooked up with a group of Powerlifters who train 4 times a week at a local gym. On Saturday we meet to work on Bench Press and then we go for a big greasey brunch at a local 60's style diner - sort of like Frank's in Fredericton. It's a great motivation to get your ass out of bed.

Hopefully I do a little research reading this afternoon. Maybe look at some world oil statistics on the Beyond Petroleum Website.

The New Flippity Floppity Floop

2006-09-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

Check out the new digs:

My Bed. For Sleeping in and often watching movies on my laptop.

My Desk. For working and communicating with the outside world. Sure has a lot of wires.

My door and my dresser. Not much to report here.

I'ld say the room is about the size of the medium sized room in Brown's Court. It had a funky odor when I moved in but it's either faded or I've ceased to notice.

The first day

2006-09-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first day of school here and I went in to talk to my supervisor and another prof I'm going to take a course with. They were both super cool which is great and a pleasant change from the last few years. I think I'll really like it here. The residence I live in is awsome. There's a community center where we can use pool tables and foosball and a big screen tv and we can borrow movies to watch at home. There's talk of forming a house intramural team which I would probably go for. I've been to the gym once and I'll go again tonight.

My supervisor gave me my first project - sketch out what I think our research will be including a problem, a procedure and method. He seems really in touch with my level of understanding of what graduate work should be - that is that I'm still figuring things out. The other prof I'm taking a course with is a cool guy and we chatted in his office for a long time. He's from Newfoundland so he understands what it is to leave home to go to a school that's just not available to you at home.

I ate a meal at the cafeteria for res students yesterday but I wouldn't rush back. It was good but it cost WAY too much money - 16 bucks. To be fair I had an unreasonable amount of food but come on sixteen bucks for chicken nuggets potatoes and veggies and soup and cake and milk and fruit salad. I think people who buy their food through a meal plan get it a lot cheaper, but I'm not totally sureh how that works.

Also the parking people are a little bit jerky. I had to buy a permit to keep my car in residence and it was 100$ for 4 months - UNB was 80 for the year. The thing that really got me though is that if I wanted to drive to class it would cost an extra 120$. That's off the wall! When the security lady told me that I was like "Oh well that seems reasonable" and she didn't even clue in that I was being sarcastic. I want to walk most days but I wanted the option of driving if the weather was bad. Jerks.

Sam Has Met Hit Waterloo

2006-09-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

Well I'm posting today from my lovely townhouse/residence in lovely Waterloo Ontario. I had a great drive up on Thursday and Friday with a pleasant and peaceful stop in Quebec city. I think things here will be great. There are 3 other room mates and they're all winners. I'll do an introductory post sometime with photos. I want to dedicate this post to Neil Moore and an understanding of something called the false worry syndrome.

Often challenges in life are spoken about to us by other people who blow them WAY out of proportion. Neil is someone who realizes this and gives the naysayers no attention. One example of FWS is what I'ld heard about driving through Montreal. Many people told me things similar to:

"It's a terrible place to drive. You can't figure out which lane to go in and everyone is going like 130km/h. You have to drive though a tunnel and it's really scarey. You'll be lucky if you make it through."

Let's debunk this myth shall we:

"You can't figure out which lane to go in" - Oh contrare Mon Fraur. There are many signs with clear instruction and diagrams in case you can't read. My goal was to get through the city back onto the Trans Canada highway which leads to Toronto Ontario. Let's think about that for a minute. I was on my way to the biggest destination in central Canada. Common sense would say then that you just stay straight on the road and don't take any obscure off ramps. Common sense prevailed. A shout out for this also goes to my cottage neighbor Donny MacLeod. He gave me one piece of advice everyone should hear - Concerning road signs ONLY look at the one overhead of the lane you are in. The others only matter to cars in the other lanes. The main road you want to get on is highway 40. Everywhere you look you'll see signs with highway 40 and arrows pointing every which way. These are for people in other lanes to try to get them into the lane you are in, so just ignore them.

"Everyone is going like 130 km/h" No. They aren't. The posted limit is 70 km/h and most people were going 80 as was I. I saw one single speed demon who blew by everyone and weaved in and out of the traffic dangerously. Two minutes later I saw him at the side of the road having a chat with a police officer who looked pretty pissed off at the guy.

"You have to drive though a tunnel and it's really scarey" Oh grow a set would ya. In case you didn't realize we're always driving in tunnels - it's just that usually the walls are made of trees ditches and guard rails instead of cement. Trust me, if you veer off the highway along any other part of the trans canada the results will be equally tragic as if you go off the road in the Fontain Tunnel in Montreal.

"You'll be lucky if you make it through" Well than I must have a horse shoe up my ass. It turned out that staying on the main road you came into the city on and driving the speed limit (+/- 10km/h) is the perfect recipie to get you through.

In conclusion I'm glad I had such a great drive up. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I pulled into Waterloo at 6:30 on Friday night. Unfortunately it took me two hours to find my townhouse but that's because I was pretty tired and being a bit of an idiot.

Strongman Part Deax

2006-09-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

Read the other post first if you please.

This guy is about to pick up the weights for the farmer's walk.

The final event was the stones - an event that struck fear into me. So far I had made some sort of success in each event - lifted some traps, did the farmer's walk some distance, etc. I feared I might not even budge the first and lightest of five stones. We had to pick them up and place them on the haywagon seen below. I got really physced up and was able to do the first 2 - the 200 and 220 lb stones. The third stone was only 240 but I couldn't budge it. Possibly this was because I was exhausted but more likely if you look you'll see the two smaller stones are real natural rocks of odd shape and easy to get a handle on. The 3 bigger stones were poured concrete and sperical and thus harder to grip.

I was proud to have moved the first two stones and glad to have enjoyed the whole contest and saw it end. All competitors recieved fifty dollars for their efforts which I felt was very classy on the part of the organizers especially as it was free to register for the competition. I like the way the contest focused on "functional strenght" instead of lifting a regular size and shaped barbell which is perfectly balanced like in powerlifting. Overall it was really fun and I'ld do it again. I was 9th place overall. Adam "Eddie" Arsenault was 8th and my friend JP Richard was 7th. We were all by far the 3 smaller guys in the contest with the top guys being near to or in some cases over 300 lbs in bodyweight. The overall winner was Chris Harper and the runner up was my favorite competitor Brian Arsenault. Third was a mountain of a man named Alex Wallace.

Strongman Part One

2006-09-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

On Thursday of the last week of August I was scheduled to be a helper at the strongman contest in the Acadian Festival at the rink in Abram-Village. When I got there I tried my hand at three of the five events and decided to enter it. Here's the story:

First event was a tractor pull. Competators lie down with their legs against a firmly secured platform and pull the tractor between the blue lines on the rink (fifty feet) as fast as they can. I got it in just about the time limit, 75 seconds. The winners were in the high twenties and I actually bet one guy from moncton who didn't finish pulling it. It was a relatively small tractor which weighed about 4500 lbs. I was proud because it was my first event and the adrenaline was flowing pretty fast. I couldn't believe I was pulling a tractor! Also this was one of the events I didn't get to try previously so the pressure was on to perform in front of the 500+ crowd.

The next event was the lobster traps and the one I felt I was most confidant in. We had to stack lobster traps on a platform, a row of 3 topped by a row of 2 topped by 1. That's easy you say. Except for the 200 lbs of cement in the bottom of each trap.
I got the bottom 3 in place well but couldn't do any more based on a lack of proper strength and height. Shown here is one of the volunteers, Jules Gallant (brother to Pierre Gallant who Daniel and I played soccer with) putting a trap back into place for the next competitor.Next was the log flip in which we had 75 seconds to flip a large log which was on a hinge (making it much easier) as many times as possible. I got six and was again proud of my showing

Next was the farmer's walk, an event that I had good confidance for but ended up being (in my opinion) my worst one. You had to pick up a pair of weights with a combined weight of 500 lbs and walk as far as you could in 75 seconds. I only made it 50 feet which was by far the least of any of the 9 competitors but I feel is still respectable when put in perspective. My trouble wasn't lifting the weights it was grip strength. As I walked every step made the weights shake and I would stuggle to not drop them. It was still really fun though. Here's another guy doing it

Oops it appears blogger is saturated with pictures. I'll contine in another post above this one

Leaving in the Morning

2006-09-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

I'll be driving tomorrow to abuot Quebec city or Drummondville on my way to Waterloo. I promise to post more later, including the story of the strongman contest. I'll take some pictures on my way up to Ontario also. I'll arrive Friday night and hope to post this weekend.

Take care.

Sam Arsenault and the Lappy together at last....

2006-09-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

I have obtained the lappy for September and by that I mean laptop. Stay tuned for stories about how I competed in the strong man contest at the Acadian Festival in Abram-Village last night. It was fun.

Rebuilding My's first engine

2006-08-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Okay so did i tell you all that I hacked up those two huge trees my neighbor felled for me at the cottage? Well I did and our old orange gas powered chainsaw broke in the process. To save money I'm trying to fix it myself and Kenny is giving me free advice. I'm pumped because I think I'm at the stage of having removed the faulty parts and now I only need to replace them with shiny new ones.

I'm going to buy parts off some guy from the Panneau road in mount Carmel. I talked to him on the phone and this is one man (oddly enough named Johnny Gallant) who gets WAY too excited for some fixin' chainsaws. Everything I told him on the phone made him "OH MAN!" and when I said I'ld come up to buy the parts and he said he had to go to a doctor's appointment so he wouldn't be home he sounded really really disapointed like a little kid who's older siblings awaken after a nap and tell him or her that they've slept a whole year and missed Christmas and Easter.

I don't know where my newfound interest in chainsaws is coming from. Maybe I'm subconsciously trying get one last bit of summer in before I sail away on thursday of next week.

P.S. the dipster is back in town as of later tonight.

Sam Arsenault...... Hired Goon

2006-08-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

Well folks it finally happened. Someone assumed that just because I have a big ass I'm door man material. A local hotel payed yours truely a tidy 75$ to make sure nothing got out of hand a local drunken wedding fest last weekend. I reported for duty wearing the only pair of jeans that fits me anymore and a tight tight black t shirt. They provided the nametag which read "security".

It was a calm night and all I really did was walk around listening for excessively noisey rooms of which there were none. My main duty was standing at the door to the dance and asking people (nicely and if possible comically) to please finish their drinks before they leave because this establishment's liquor license specifies that guests may not roam the hotel with liquor in hand. Almost everyone was compliant and those who weren't recieved no hastle from me - I wan't about to upset the applecart over someone drinking a glass of wine while he/she used the ATM.

Overall it was the easiest money I've made in my life. And you can't beat the hands on touch you get with Hired Goons.

Thank Frig

2006-08-25T17:44:00.001-07:00

Blogger wouldn't let me in earlier this week but now it does.

I had a fantastic meeting with one of my master's supervisors and our corporate sponsor this week. They generously took us to Mavors, the bistro in the Confed Center. We discussed the project and I think we're headed in a very positive direction.

My birthday was Thursday and I am now 24 and I feel fabulous. In other news I appear to have gotten significantly fatter and my school pants no longer zip up. This doesn't necessarily bother me.

I was given a pair of crocs for my birthday by Joey's better half Carrie. I promptly returned them for a full cash refund.

I was also given a sum of money. Carrie suggested that birthday money should be spent on something you desire that's not necessarily useful or practical and sensible. I think I may have an itch that only a new chainsaw could scratch.

I got my banking matters all straightened away. A very nice banker named Kim from the bank of Nova Scotia helped me set everything up so I can take care of myself easily up at Waterloo.

I got an email from long time friend and professor Don Gillis. He congratulated me on my plans for the fall and said he expects them to work out well.

I went to that new place that is across from the old Rainbow Valley. It's pretty good. The waterslides are entertaining although nothing compared to magic mountain.

That's about all I feel like typing now.

Thank Frig

2006-08-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Stages of Summer

2006-08-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

I feel that I'm progressing into the final stage of my summer, but first let's recap:

Stage 1: Come home from UNB tired and frustrated but still find time to train for NS powerlifting provincials on May 13. Go to provincials. Hang out with boys boys and all around good guys Neil Moore and Douglas Keefe.

Stage 2: Come home and rush off to graduation. After ten minutes on campus remember I hate UNB.

Stage 3: Creek Days. Life centers around watching Dawson's creek until I see the series finale. Walk to dog a lot. Go to gym. Tour Waterloo.

Stage 4: Back to UPEI. Start spending time in charlottetown hanging out with Andy and making plans for September. Spend a little time at Joey's in the blow up pool. Visit Halifax again for a great time.

Stage 5: Current stage. Trying to do things I'll miss when I'm gone such as go to cottage and cut firewood. Spend the weekend of the summer at cottage with Neils Mo and DK. Realize sandspit go carts are no fun once you've been to Kart Bahn.

I suspect the rest of the summer will be a tizzy of trying to get everything ready to leave and visiting with people who come home for a week or two namely Derrick, Emily Cameron and Adam Eddy. I was talking to Eddy and he gave me some new perspective on things - it's crutial to look out for number 1 and make sure I'm having fun.

2006-08-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

Pretty Inappropriate

2006-08-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

Well some good news. The bear dog has his check up on Saturday and he had gained about a pound and a half this month, bucking his recent trend in unexplained weight loss. The vet said there was no need to do blood work at this point because he seems pretty healthy and happy, except for the way he walks with a limp because when he saw me come to the cottage Friday morning I called him and he jumped off the deck which is about twice his height. And then he did it again a few minutes later for pretty much no reason. He also chases the neighbor's cat up a tree yesterday.

The vet commented that at his age jumping off objects taller than he is would be totally inappropriate. My parents explained that he's a little hard to control and the vet agreed, he's his own worst enemy.

She told us to start feeding him glucosamine sulfate pills to help his joints feel better. They're supposed to be for people and you get them in the vitamen section at the superstore.

Here's to you Bear, and many more wildly over ambitious welcomings to friends and strangers alike.

It tasted Salty

2006-07-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

I borrowed my titling style from Neil for this post.

Yesterday I phoned my thesis supervisor to schedule a meeting and Andy said why don't you come down right now and go kayaking with me so I did. I took my kayak which was a grad present from my parents and he took his and we launched in the hilsborough harbor just on the other side of the bridge and to the left. We paddled for a couple hours. I'm suprised I'm not sore this morning because I thought I would be.

I like that our working repore is like this. Some other supervisors worry me that they would try to kill their students and eat them.

Buying stuff feels great and I like to cut things

2006-07-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hey all. Last week I house sat for my uncle and this week has been busy at home. My dad and I fixed up the deck at the cottage. The railways ties buried in the ground that it sits on were all the wrong heights for some reason so we used a level to determine how too tall each one was and then planed to cut them off with a chainsaw.

Many people have a chainsaw at home in the basement or barn that only sees action every three years or so. This was the case with ours. We screwed with the damb thing for over an hour trying to get the engine started but it refused. We took it to Derrick's dad Kenny and he said that anything with an engine really should be used at least every couple of months - leaving a chainsaw sitting for years is begging for it to not work the next time you try to use it. The gasoline left over in the saw goes through a chemical process that turns it into some bad stuff and plugs the engine all up. He's unplugging it this week.

In the meantime we went out and bought a new saw pictured Hayaw:

It's electric. That means there's no f****** around with it when you need it. Just plug it in and away you go. True it may not be as powerful as a gas saw, but it can cut anything the size of a railway tie or so like a hot knife through butter and that's basically as big of wood as we ever cut. This thing is going to be great for keeping the firewood pile stocked up too. When cutting firewood you usually need to set the saw down between cuts to use both hands to reposition the log. That's when this saw really shines because with a gas saw it most often stalls when you take your finger off the throttle then you have to fight with the thing for two minutes to get it to start again. Not anymore. Now i can set the saw down midcut and it's just a matter of pushing the switch that runs the motor and I'm cutting away again.

In other news I just won my first ebay auction for a pair of new Powerlifting knee wraps. I had priced these from the only guy who sells them in canada and they were going to cost 39 bucks plus 12 dollars for shipping. I got them on ebay for 18buck plus ten for shipping.

I've also got my eye on a teddy ruxpin dvd, the one I can't find in stores that's auctioning off with only a day left and no bids yet. The starting price is like 2 bucks which I would be thrilled to pay, as the shipping to Canada is only five dollars american.

So is anyone planning to come home any time soon? I may be planning to visit Neil and potentially Derrick.

Have some fun cause we're going to Magic Mountain

2006-06-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Joey and I got the jorb of driving our Aunt Linda back to the airport in Moncton. She was here from Ontario to attend my grandmother's funeral. After we dropped her off the logical thing to do would be go dick around the mall since it's such a big mall but instead we went to magic mountain to ride the water slides.

There were these two sweet blue ones that are new since the last time I was there. They're side by side on the same tower and one is a steep straight run (I would say steeper than 45 degrees) and the other is a twisty one like a cork screw. The twisty one, while not as steep, actually proved to be a better ride because if you'll remember grade 12 physics the body can not sense velocity, it can only sense acceleration (otherwise travel by commercial jet would be a terrifying experience at speeds of 500 mph+). You'll also realize that twisting a slide around gives the rider a different type of acceleration - angular instead of linear. It was a huge thrill. Both of these new slides have a straight flat shute full of water you go through at the bottom to stop you at the end of your ride instead of running into a swimming pool.

There was a weight limit of 200lbs on the slides so we both had to fib a little about our mass - but I'm confidant as an engineering graduate that if they say 200 is the cut off being over that by any less than 100 should still be no issue. 200 is just some asshole's opinion of a weight that is definately safe. A lot of little kids were amazed when we'ld go down how big of a splash we'ld make at the bottom.

They insist you lie down flat with your legs crossed and arms tucked under your head. Of course I refused to let a fifteen year old lifeguard tell me how to do my job even if she was in a very tiny bikini. Since my legs were uncrossed most of the time and I kept one arm free to plug my nose with I ended up having different flow characteristics through the slow down tube than a rider in the recommended position. This caused me to flip over violently several times and bang my face on one of them. I also did something funny to one of my back muscles and today it feels like I was run over by a small car.

I can't wait to go back. It was only fifteen bucks.

2006-06-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

1. FIRST NAME? Sam
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Yes, my uncle (who's nickname is sam although his real name is Charles.)
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? Probably last summer from boredom and loneliness in Freddy Beach (Fuck that miserable city)
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HAND WRITING? My printing is so so my script is wretched
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCHMEAT? "at Free" ham
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Doubtful. I try to be the loudest person in a group and most often somone else like that pisses me off. Except Mike Gille.
7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Yes, this blog. I used to have a paper journal but I thought it was faggy so I threw it out.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Maybe if it would get me something I wanted
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL? Maple and brown Sugar oatmeal made with minimal water so it's really thick like cement.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? If they're a pair that is still in good shape, elsewise no
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? No. I have met a lot of people through powerlifting that have changed the benchmark by which I define strength. Although I am somewhat strong I don't "think I'm strong"
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM FLAVOUR? Chocolate chip cookie DOUGH (ohhhh!)
14. SHOE SIZE? 9
15. RED OR PINK? Red, like a Honda motorcycle
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I wish I was less fat
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? The Boys Boys. If you caught me in the right mood I'ld sell all my other pals into slavery to save these guys from getting a papercut
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? dumb question
UR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Blue gym shorts and bare feet
20. LAST THING YOU ATE? A huge bowl of brown sugar miniwheats with a mint chocolate chip protien shake poured on top (see numbers 16 and 12)
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Come Sail Away by Stix.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Bright Orange. Loud and used for Safety Warnings
23. FAVOURITE SMELL? Pretty girls. If you're a guy you know what that smells like if you're a girl you're oblivious to it.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My brother Joey
25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Gentle and Kind. But really probaby body texture. Not too hard or squishy, just right.
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I like everyone.
27. FAVOURITE DRINK? Orange Bacardi Breezers. See #12. I can drink whatever I want biatch!
28. FAVOURITE SPORT? Powerlifting.
29. EYE COLOR? Bluish Green with a lot of yellow
30. HAT SIZE? Admit to not knowing
31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes. and glasses too.
32. FAVOURITE FOOD? KFC (but I now only eat it once a year for artery reasons. Christmas eve is my traditional day)
.33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Scary because what makes me happy is usually not what makes everyone happy. Did you see the notebook? What about the poor SOB who was engaged to her? WTF??? They should've wrote into it that he beats her so you wouldn't like him. Did anyone see the series fanaly to Dawson's Creek? What a shocker!
34. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Grey
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer but not over 30 degrees please.
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Dont' have enough experience to decide which I like better for sure.
37. FAVOURITE DESSERT? Coconut cream pie
38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Possibly Jeff.
39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Douglas
40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Tales of the Phantom Ship of the Northumberland Straight
and Come Thirsty
41. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Threw it out, it was too old and gross
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Most of Seventh Heaven and an episode of Simpson and House
43. FAVOURITE SOUNDS? A well running car that makes no "funny" noises.
44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Beatles
45. THE FURTHEST YOU’VE BEEN FROM HOME? Toronto Ontario or maybe Waterloo?
46. WHAT’S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? I can talk to someone and come off as super professional and polite when really I'm thinking about killing them.
47. AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Charlottetown
48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Copied it off Daniel's blog

Special Bonus Question for me to answer:
Favorite teacher from grades 1-12: Gerald MacCormack. No bullshit boys. None. Can't beat the Saturday morning male bonding experience up on the roof on saturday morning.

Drat! (alternate title Oh Beans, alternate alternate title BALLS!)

2006-06-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to do something with my nice sunshiny day. I went to the cottage to ride my dirtbike. Unfortunately my ride was cut short by a mechanical failure

Pictured above are the guilty components. You're looking at the front sproket. If you think of a bicycle this would be the gear that is attached to your pedals. On a dirtbike this gear is driven by the transmission which recieves power from the engine through the clutch. On the left of the picture is the eliptical shaped clip which uses the two bolts also shown to hold the sproken onto the driveshaft. The problem here is that the clip is supposed to have some little teeth on it that grab the shaft but they have worn off. While I was riding the front sproket jumped off the drive shaft and the chain wrapped itself around the back axle, causing the rear wheel to lock up and the bike to skid to a stop. Luckily I was going slow (maybe about 20 km/h) so I wasn't hurt.

Equally lucky is the fact that I know how to fix this. I just need to buy a new clip tomorrow at the motorcycle shop on Linkletter road. I've actually bought one before and at the time it cost less than five bucks. So hopefully tomorrow if the weather is nice I'll get my longer ride in without spending a fortune. This break down was 100% avoidable and totally my fault - I should've known to check the condition of the sproket since I hadn't really looked at it in about a year. This clip is a regular maintenance item which should be replaced before it failed.

That feels better

2006-06-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang. Maybe you're wondering what I do with all my time now that I'm a free man. I'll try to give you a little snapshot here.

I spent May 28 to June 1 up at Waterloo University. It totally blew my mind! While I was there I had a very big change of heart. Anyone who knows me even half well must know that I've been a big supporter of staying on PEI or at least in the maritimes and I never saw myself having a life somewhere else. Well that fell appart in a couple of days! When I was there I realized that there's just so much exciting stuff going on elsewhere in the world that i don't want to spend my whole life here. Don't get me wrong - I still want to spend much of my life here, but not all of it and now being so young and free, not to mention single (which makes things a lot easier when you decide to move around) it's the perfect opportunity to get out and live a little.

I've been spending a bit of time (hm I guess it's two full afternoons so far) down at UPEI talking with Prof Andy Trivett who I want to supervise my Master's thesis next year. I even talked my way into a little part time job helping the people coming from high school into first year get settled and pick their courses. I've already produced an eight page manual for them that's basically 'Everything you wanted to know about UPEI engineering but didn't know who to ask". Andy's found a sweet project for me with PEI Energy Systems, the district heating plant down by the hospital in Charlottetown that heats a lot of buildings by burning garbage and wood waste and some oil. So now the plan is to do a collaboration between UPEI and Waterloo. Hopefully I'll be up in Ontario taking some courses and doing some library research in the fall until Christmas when I'll mozzy on home and set up shop in the C dot for a while to do some research closer to the plant. Since I'm only going to be in Ontario for 4 or 8 months at a time I wanna live in the grad student residence (should be at least somewhat calmer than the undergrad buildings) and spend my days SCREWING OVER the all you can eat cafeteria. I even got to go meet a group of competative powerlifters who said I could come train with them at night at this awsome gym called Popeyes in Kitchener, which is only about 15 minutes from campus.

I'm feeling a lot better in general. I would almost say that whatever "broke" when I realized I wasn't happy in Fredericton in the winter of 2004 has had enough time to fix itself. I have confidance in myself and I'm almost daring to start dreaming big again. I also feel a great sense of liberation - that I need to start experiencing more instead of measuring my life out in time. Yesterday I went out to the cottage and cut wood all day for Joey's new outdoor fireplace in town at his girlfriend's house. I also knocked down my old tree fort because it was no longer safe to hold the weight of even a small child. I changed the oil in my dirt bike and our ride on mower and took the bike for a good drive. It needs a couple minor little repair jobs but nothing real big.

I'm feeling a big liberation from slavery to the gym. Now if there's something fun to do like go to the beach or something with some peeps I'll skip the gym and just do it the next day - I have 100% confidance this will only serve to make my training regim more effective. A happy person is a person who's body is working under less stress and can function better. This Saturday there's a group of guys having a little powerlifting day at a local gym - not a real official contest just a chance to get together and bash up or bodies for fun and joke around a bit. I think it'll be fun.

Hey fellas I just found out Westjet have a deal on where if you fly out of Halifax on a Thursday a flight to Saint John's is only 99$. Anyone wanna go visit the dipster?

P.S. What is the reason for my complete lack of knowledge of when daniel will be around?

Students Ye Be Warned

2006-06-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hi guys and girls. I'm going to be helping put together a packet of info to give to people registering for first year engineering at UPEI. I want to hear from all of you (anyone, not just UPEI people) on the following types of things:
What do you wish you knew going into first year that you didn't
What were you most nervous about

The questions can pertain specifically to UPEI Engineering or to university life in general.

Please comment asap.

2006-06-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

Big Plans boys boys

2006-05-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

I got my trip to Waterloo all set up. I'm leaving on Sunday from Charlottetown at 6:45pm and arriving in Toronto at 8:10 (their time, one hour behind us don't you know) at which time I have a shuttle reserved to go to the Waterloo Inn where I have two nights booked (sunday and monday). On tuesday morning I'll move into St. Paul's College dorm on Waterloo's campus for two more nights before I shuttle back to the airport and fly back to Charlottetown. I'm really impressed by the shuttle service. They take down your flight number and if you get delayed they wait for you or arrange another shuttle for you so you're not stuck. They also drop you off at your personal destination, not just some bus station. It costs 70 bucks each way which I think is pretty good for not having to worry about the hastle of finding my way around in a place I've never been before. I think the ride might take about one hour. The airplane rides are direct flights that take about two hours each if you count real hours on a stop watch ignoring the time zones.

I'm really pumped. Dr. Sullivan who used to work at UNB my first year there is now working at Waterloo and she's taken the initiative to book oppointments for me to speak to proffessors who do research in the field of Energy and the Environment. Most people on a tour wouldn't have this inside advantage.

I'm being met on Monday by two other UNB ME grads I already know who are also checking the place out - Mark Bettle and Darren Clarke. Their both two smart and athletic guys who would make great potential room mates if waterloo really impresses us all enough to go there. Mark even has the same general research interests as me. They're flying to Toronto at six thirty in the morning on Monday for some stupid reason (my ass is going up Sunday night to soak in the Hot Tub. Waterloo Inn boasts of being Waterloo's premier hotel. My room is on sale for 130 a night but usually goes for 200). They'll stay with me monday night and they're going home on Tuesday, I think Darren has a job that he can't get much time off from.

I even got ahold of a Powerlifter from the area via the powerlifting forum and he said we'll try to get together and train one night at a place called Popeye's.

I should have some good pictures for ya all when I get back.

A good trip to Hali - Alternate title - Doug has the Juiciest Meat Around

2006-05-21T15:41:00.001-07:00

As my good friend Neil Moore resides in Halifax as he studies at Dal I thought it would be a great opportunity to catch up with this old boy boy and save myself a hotel fee by staying at his pad while in town for my powerlifting meet. I arrived at Dal Friday around supper to get him and verified I was in fact the real Sam by the following quote in reaction to an add on one of the Dunn building's many bulliten boards "Volunteer Abroad... Why the fuck would you want to do that?"

Neil took me for a delicious Peanut Butter Burger at Daryll's after some bullshit you can read on his blog. The night reminded me how good it is to be around someone who finally gets my inside jokes like "I saw the director's cut and it was a fuckin' wicked movie".

Saturday night after the meet I was in a mood to relax and not worry about stupid stuff like I usually do so we went to Wolfville to see the king of relaxation Mr. Douglas Keefe himself. Upon arrival I was informed Doug has a delicious BBQ steak for each Neil and I. Much appreciated. As I was eating it in the living room of Paulette's place one of the girls, I think it was Amy, said she didn't have any supper yet and was feeling really hungry. I offered her a bit of my steak and she would take that but not a big piece as I offered to her. A series of random jokes was tossed around about the girls wanting Doug's meat and his meat being too big and really juicey. At least I think they were talking about my dinner....

We even went to the Axe. It never fails that if I leave home I will run into some member of the Baglole family and that night was no exception. Susan was there for her graduation. The Bagloles were my next door neighbors on Spring street and were my first real friends in summerside, leading eventually to my friendship with Daniel and his kicking my ass on the last day of school in grade 8 or 9. It seems I never run into the Bagloles in summerside anymore but I always see them in Fredericton where Julie went to school at UNB and now in Wolfville.

Overall it was great. Now later that week after returning home I went to Fredericton to my graduation. This was a satisfying event filled with a lot of junk food and farting, bringing a sense of closure to my time in the F dot and at UNB. I now feel ready to select a grad school and give it my 100.

Being around Neil for the weekend gave me a snapshot of what it's like to go away for school. I realize his going to Hali and my going to Fredericton are nearly the same thing, but it struck me as different to see it from another point of view. I'm now wondering, and even feeling warm to the idea, of what it would be like to go away away for school, say Waterloo or something. Maybe there's a great student life waiting for me away that I can't get here. Maybe I need to be more on my own to let myself become my own major influence or something. But they'll be no talk of going to Europe to find myself - selves aren't ever found - they can only be made.

Powerlifting One Year Later

2006-05-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend on May 13 I was in my third Powerlifting meet. This was one year plus one week after I did my first one ever. It was in Lower Sackville, which for all intense purposes can be considered a suburb of Halifax.

Starting on Thursday I started overeating like mad for Saturday's meet. Overeating has almost a drug like effect on your body as far as building up strength, especially if your body is used to normally taking in the same amount of energy from food that you are using up every day. One thursday and friday I almost polished off a box of Quaker Harvest Crunch cereal, on top of my regular meals. I ended up weighing in at my heaviest ever, as a soggy 210. No doubt about five pounds of that was extra food and water that have since departed me.

The powerlifting meet consists of three events in the following order - The Squat in which a barbell is held across the back of the shoulders and you bend your legs until the upper thigh is beyond parallel to the floor, the Bench Press in which you lie on a bench facing up to the ceiling and lower a weight to touch your chest and the Deadlift in which you simply pull a barbell from the floor to waist height. I was all fired up and having the time of my life in the warm up room where all the lifters practice the lifts with increasingly heavy weights. For contest purposes we get three tries at each event in front of the three judges who verify that you are doing the lift properly according to the rules. You pick your own weights. I picked something for my first attempts that I was really confidant I could do, then my second attempts would be the most I had lifted in the gym in this past few months of training and then my third would be a few pounds (10 or 15) more than my second if all went well.

I never missed a lift all day getting myself a 465 squat, 15 more than I had ever done in my life and a whole 40 more than I did three months ago at the meet in Cape Breton. I benched 395 which was 10 more than i had done in the gym and 30 more than cape breton. Deadlifts went to 450, ten more than the gym and 25 more than cape breton. In the afternoon after the powerlifting a bench press competition was held where we focused on only that event which tests upper body strength and I was able to best my morning efforts by a bit pushing the big 182.5 kilo up (402.23 lbs). I was incredibly pleased since I had made so much progress in the three short months since cape breton.

Powerlifting is split up into many age and weight categories so many people go home with medals or trophies that they got simply for showing up and not bombing out (this is what we call it when a person uses up all of their attempts without getting any lifts in that satisfy the judges that the proper technique was used). I fell into this boat getting a silver medal both in powerlifting (where they create your score by summing your best squat bench and deadlift) and also another silver in bench press. Yep yep uh hu. For my effort in bench press I also qualified to do that event at next year's Canadian Nationals to be held in Halifax for 2007. This is my first time qualifying for Nat's and I hope it works out for me to attend. Qualifying happens by meeting certain numbers laid out in a qualifying chart - it has nothing to do with your final placing in the contest. I agree with this and think many sports benefit from this sort of 'you're in you're out' type of sorting. You must reach a firm set goal to win the right to go to nationals, not just show up and win at some little contest where no one else was even in your weight class.

Overall the meet was awsome and I'm really glad I got to do it. The whole day was like one long addrenalin rush. And the other lifters there were great. I think we all realize how hard everyone works training for this sport so there's an instant respect as soon as you meet someone.

2006-05-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

Alright. The reason my posts have been non existant since I got home is that my computer is not connected to the internet yet. I am today using my brother Danny's computer to make this post. Things with me are good. I got all my marks, and I got an A- for my senior project which was my only concern regarding graduation requirements. I've been over to pick up my furniture with my brother Joey last week. He got the idea a little wrong and thought we were on some sort of hardcore workout trip. He hit the gym twice and went jogging once while we were there, from Monday afternoon to Tuesday evening. FYI for all those still in Fredericton on mondays at pizza delight a 12 inch pepperoni pizza is only 5 bucks. Great deal.People have been prodding for a boys boys boys post (Neil, cudos on the artwork. Your readers appreciate the extra effort. Why am I wearing a tank top (I get that part) with a heart on it?
Neils Mo. If you know anything about him you'ld know he's the smartest guy in our group hands down. We're all a very bright bunch but Neil stands out even amongst our ranks and that's saying something. What we had all forgotten until he hit Dalhousie was what a competative athlete Neil can be if he has the time. At UPEI he was always too busy for sports but at Dal he's won more than one person's share of games in such things at volleyball, bagmington, tennis, and table tennis. He's good at other sports too. Maybe it's because he's ten foot high so he has a really long stride and his opponents have trouble keeping up with him. Who knows.

What you'ld think if you had a sister and found out she was dating him: Neil let me be the first to say I would be delighted to welcome you as an inlaw to my family. I predict Neil will end up with someone very similar to himself - wildly successful. My mother suggested we knock off my cousin's boyfriend and try to set her and Neil up (seriously, it happened.). Think it over Neil. Aunt Peggy's still impressed with how tall and smart you are.

Douglas Keefe.
Now here's a guy who's more than willing to drive around and pick us all up for a night at dooly's even after he drives a few hours from Nova Scotia on a Friday night. Doug is definately king pin in the group when it comes to social activity. If we all had to list our friends Doug's list would be the longest presumably including people he met on his two European vacations. The truth is he's probably also the lady's man of the group which goes hand in hand with his social skill. Doug currently drives a fairly new Toyota Corolla but we're all expecting him to pop up with a rediculously expensive car unannounced within the next few years. When we inquire about the payments he'll assure us it's "all taken car of boys boys" (Sidenote: to the best of my knowledge he coined the term boys boys although Daniel and Neil influenced it's rise to popularity)

What you'ld think if you had a sister and found out she was dating him: It really depends - how phony is your hypothetical sister? Seriously though, Doug is fully capable of wining and dining with the best of them and unless your sister has the same interest in men as say Elen Degenerous this is probably the guy in our group she would notice first. Hey wait a minute. If we get Doug married off quick does that mean girls would start paying more attention to those of us who would be, how you say, "leftover?"

John Gallant
I insist I gave him the name John Crud while we were playing some sort of Mario cart game at his house in St. Elenors. John was responsible for the best of our cruising in high school days once taking me to charlottetown with him the day before our math exam in Ms. Campbell's class. I have never been a car going faster with anyone else. Some people get the idea John and I don't like each other which isn't necessarily true - we're just two guys who insist on sticking to our own guns and more often than not those guns are pointing right at each other. I must admit I do admire John's prowess at understanding the complex and anyone can agree that when he devotes himself to a new interest he pulls all the stops out.

What you'ld think if you had a sister and found out she was dating him: John's actually engaged to his fiance Pam so perhaps this question doesn't apply to him. But theoretically I would say they'ld get along fine as long as said sister doesn't go someplace with him but not lock the door to his place on her way out.

Derrick Desroche.
I basically met Derrick after Neil and I determined we should share an appartment in brown's court for the upcoming first year at university. We both knew that brown's had 3 bedroom townhouses which worked out to being cheaper than the 2 bedroom appartments and Neil said he knew the perfect guy. There's a million names for derrick including but not limited to: D Double Dippy, The Dipster, and my personal favorite and newest name Derrick Donuts (with no logical rationelle behind it other than he ordered a donut the last time we ate great late). Derrick is on his way to Newfoundland this week to start his master's in chemistry and I hope I make it over to visit him someday. We had a great halloween costume planned for the next time we're together in late october. He will wear a yellow hat and suit and I will dress up like a monkey and we'll be curious george and the man in the big yellow hat.

What you'ld think if you had a sister and found out she was dating him: Well that requires a bit of a prologue. We all know genetic plays a role in many of a person's attributes and their physical appearance. I can't say exactly what my hypothetical sister would look like for certain but we can all probably predict she'ld not be a frequent buyer on the petite sizes rack. Therefore I conclude my sister would break it off with Derrick the first time he poked her in the stomach and told her she needed her stomach stapled. P.S. Neil. I'm going to be in halifax May 12 and 13 for the NS provinincial powerlifting meet. "Who's staying on your couch that night?" "Have you got my belly?"

Daniel Shaefer

Daniel was my first friend when I moved to Summerside in the year before kindergarden. I was playing dinky cars on my back porch with Susan and Julie Baglole and Daniel's sister Rebecca. Daniel's mom brought him over and said "This is my boy Daniel. Can he play with you?" Saying yes then was one of the smarter moves I've made in my day. Daniel has been the brunt of many a joke in school, sports, scouts, etc. But just remember Dan if someone's bugging you it usually means they're jealous. Daniel would rival Neil as the athlete of the group and is the only member to have played organized hockey. Since I just wrote a sentence about how Daniel's teasings are somewhat unjust I'll refrain from explaining how hockey ended for him. Dan's recently ventured out into the land of milk and honey and is one of only two boys boys to possess the ring of power.

What you'ld think if you had a sister and found out she was dating him: There would be absolutely nothing wrong with a girl to be going out with Daniel. However if she were to be injurred in some sort of outdoorsy type activity the couple would be likely to participate in like hiking or skiing don't expect him to crack open that HUGE first aid kit he has and share the stuff. I know first hand.

I'm not doing a write up on myself. Mostly because supper's on the table and I woudn't miss a meal if it was going to bring about world peace.

Just so you all know

2006-04-26T16:34:00.000-07:00

Life back in Summerside is good.
I could use some more piss jugs though.

Cora's it is

2006-04-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

Just to let you all know it's Cora's on Friday at 10. Thanks to Jeff for phoning coras and making sure they will be open. If you're reading this you are invited.

Anyone want to go for Breakfast

2006-04-12T05:15:00.000-07:00

How about a breakfast for those of us in Fredericton before I go home Friday morning? 10 o'clock 'ish? Lemme know if you're in. The Diplomat will probably be open if Cora's isn't.

p.s. boys boys I actually do wish I was going to trivia with you thursday night. I know normally I'm not up for that stuff but that time I would be.

Another Blast from the Past

2006-04-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

Hey all. I just came to the big realization I have five more nights in Fredsuckston before my last exam... and I don't plan to stick around after. Here's another story from 8G.

"The Big Storm"

Derrick Neil and I had all gone home to Summerside in the winter of first year. I think maybe it was the monday after midterm break? Anyhow it had stormed like a bastard all day Sunday. In the morning my dad didn't have work because of the storm and all the PEI schools were closed but UPEI remained silent as to wether or not it would opperate. My dad volunteered to drive us down to Charlottetown so the other two got a ride from Neil's dad Mike into my house, then on spring street three doors up from Schaef's old stompin' ground.

We drove to Charlottetown (once when we were on the lower Malpeque road the rear "trunk" hatch/door on our jeep popped open and our kitbags almost fell out because it hadn't been closed all the way) and went to our first class with old Rabiseur but after about ten minutes he clued in that no one was there and dismissed the students of first year chemistry. We went back to 8G.

I was bored so I put it upon myself to shoven out our front yard. I was high on the fact that I could shovel our walkway before the landlord got around to it. I dunno why but it made me feel really good about myself. So I started and decided on a path straight from our door out to the street which was in pretty bad shape already - it had probably a foot of snow in some spots. I shoveled all the snow off the lawn onto the road.

Later that day Neil and I were looking out the window from my upstairs room (probably saying "Mwa" a lot to each other) and we saw that all the cars coming into Brown's court were having serious trouble with the snow, especially where I had shoveled the extra stuff onto it. We saw one little car get stuck solid and when the driver got out to shovel at his tires I yelled out "Ha ha. You're Stuck!" and the guy gave a very pissed off look in our direction. Compasion has never been my strong suit.

I think I also shoveled the complete walkway all the way to the stoplight on another occasion.

Oh for the good old days

2006-04-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

This post comes as per special request by Neil "Fruitcake" Moore. I will be doing a series of short stories about the golden age of my university career when I was attending UPEI taking my engineering Diploma. At that time i lived with the abovementioned and Derrick Desroche in 8G Brown's court.

The first tale I care to share is about our phone.

One day our phone mysteriously stopped working. We couldn't get a dial tone and we didn't recieve any incoming calls (which was odd as I'm sure my mom must've still been calling every day at that point.) We took our phone itself over to Mark Montgomery's place next door and plugged it in to his phone jack and it worked perfectly so we could rule out the idea that the phone's battery was just totally toast. Mark let us use his phone to call Aliant and tell them our phone outlet wasn't working. They said they could make a service call but if it turned out to be a problem with our phone unit (which Derrick owned) we would have to pay for the service fee. Knowing that we had just tested our phone at Mark's and that it worked fine I had no problem telling them to come on over for a service call.

The phone guy made a quick stop in the service room at the end of the appartment and then knocked on our door to tell us to try our phone again. This time it worked fine. He said "ya I thought so. Somehow it just came unplugged in the service room. Since it wasn't in your appartment the service call is free"

I wondered how it could have come unplugged and then I remembered. Brown's court appartments come with phone jacks in every room except the bathrooms, probably because they don't want you trying to install a phone line yourself and end up punching holes in the wall in the process. Well in my room first year (the medium sized room, which I remained in all three years) the phone jack was there but it was only the wires, they hadn't bothered connecting them to the female phone jack end you plug your phone into. I noticed the wire had a little slack in it and that you could wiggle it in and out of the wall about an inch and a half or so.

The wires were right beside my bed and when I would lye in bed at night I would always move them in and out of the wall for fun. I don't know why it was fun, it just was. Well the night before our phone stopped working I had pulled the wire extra hard and about a foot or so of it came out of the wall. Come to think about it there was a satisfying "click" type of feeling right before it released.

When I explained what had happened to Neil he told me to not do it again.

A very fulfilling Iron Ring Ceremony

2006-04-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

It's nice to have a night like this after all the b.s. we go through to get there. Congratulations to all who got their Iron Rings. It's a pleasure of mine to be of the same Calling as you.

Tomorrow night after Iron Ring

2006-04-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

This has been three long years coming ladies and gentlemen.

A lazy Saturday

2006-04-01T11:34:00.000-08:00

Hey all. This morning I woke up and didn't feel like doing any work so I went for a walk outside. I ended up walking to Odell Park and then going on the walking trails through the woods all the way to the top of the hill, almost to prospet street. They have some really nice nature trails through the woods. Something worth seeing before you leave Fredericton IMHO. It reminded me of hiking through the woods at Riverdale when we were in Scouts.

Last night I had a great little meal over across the bridge at a place called cannon cross. It's a restaurant under the same ownership as the Snooty Fox and it was much the same idea. I had this HUGE hamburger with fries and it was only 6.95. I highly recommend it for big burger fans. And their pop is free refills which is nice because it washes the salty fries down so good.

Iron Ring in about 49 hours. I was reading about it on the internet this morning and I was just thinking how us UPEI people it probably means more to us than to some of the people from UNB because it's been talked up for us a lot more.

I support UPEI profs

2006-03-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

Dr. Polson
Who's that man in the handsom hat? Derrick do you know?

Wayne's probably campaigning for a new fishtank
Dr. Opps. No one else puts their baby in a backpack (not a baby carrier, but an honest to goodness backpack no less)

I support wage and benefit and workload parity with other maritime universities. Know why? Other profs are DICKS and these guys aren't so they shouldn't get shafted.

As for those who think it would've been more considerate to wait for the end of exams to strike.... you don't get the point of having a strike do you? It's supposed to be disruptive so people pay attention.

2006-03-25T05:54:00.000-08:00

Campus just got a little more dangerous....

I got my NSERC

2006-03-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

I just opened the letter. Hopefully I can work with Andy still. I just sent him and email and we'll see if he gets back to me.

Saweeet find

2006-03-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

As you all may know i have purchased a beautiful pinstriped suit from Moore's to wear to my graduation, iron ring night, and now the Mechanical Engineering Banquet. I have been worried about what would happen if it rained. My suit is 100% wool (as most good suits are) and if you get that wet it will shrink/stink/go spotty. I thought of buying a top or "trench" coat at moores but their cheapest one was like 125$ and I'm starting to run out of money (end of the year, eh). Well today I found my answer at Jingler's, Fredericton's best used clothing store. I got myself a nice London Fog Trenchcoat for 8$. It's totally the wrong color (beige and I have a black and grey suit) but for eight bucks I'm pretty thrilled about it.

2006-03-20T05:15:00.001-08:00

I could swear I used to be a happier person, about three years ago.

Not sure if this is funny, scarey, sad, or disgusting

2006-03-18T09:01:00.000-08:00

I thought some of you might get a chuckle out of this. This is a list of what a guy named Dave Tate eats in the run of the average day. He's a semi-professional powerlifter from the USA. He weighs about 300 pounds and is fat but not crazy fat. Maybe about the same body composition of me, but he's probably a tiny bit fatter. I found this on a website I read sometimes and thought it warrented a copy and paste.

5:00 AM: Wake Up
Ate 4 Pop-Tarts and drank three cups coffee

5:00-7:00 AM: Work
Answered emails and worked on the EliteFTS site

7:10 AM: Pre-Workout Meal
McDonalds #5 with 2 apple pies and 1 large coffee

7:30-8:30 AM: Train
First 20 minutes was dynamic warm-up and mobility work with very aggressive stretching. I then did some sledgehammer and arm work. I drank the coffee during the session.

8:30 AM: Post-Workout Drink (2 Ultra Fuels!!!)

8:30-12:00 PM: Working at the Gym
I spent this time preparing the weightroom for a photo shoot, answering emails, and reviewing business indicators for the week.

1:00 PM: Went Home
On the way home to take care of my sick son for the afternoon, I ate a Burger King chicken sandwich meal with extra mayo. I hate chicken breasts and only eat the breaded stuff. I also ate onion rings and a Snickers pie. I drank Dr. Pepper along with my meal.

1:00-5:00 PM: Worked on a Presentation and Napped
During this time, I knocked out 6 mini-Snickers (no idea where they came from, but they were on the kitchen counter and in my book that makes them fair game). I also ate 5 lunch size bags of chips. We buy these so we don't eat so many at one time. Oops. I also had a few packs of Disney fruit snacks (we get them for the kids but I eat most of them).

5:00-6:00 PM: Make Dinner for the Kids
All hell breaks loose as we try to make dinner for the kids. With one sick and the other one ornery as hell, it was not good times. I forgot to eat until they were done and then I was hungry as hell. I popped 4 hot dogs in the microwave and ate them on 4 pieces of whole wheat bread with ketchup. I also had 3 lunch bags of chips and 3 glasses of sugar-free Tang.

7:00 PM: Put the Kids to Bed
Of course, I got hungry again. I fired up the oven and cooked up 6 giant cinnamon roles with icing. Yes, I ate all of them with a huge glass of milk.

9:00-11:00 PM: Emails and Work on Seminar
During this time I ate 4 Pop-Tarts and drank a big glass of milk
In the end, today was a good eating day. I have no idea what tomorrow will be like. However, tomorrow is squat day. We train at 9:00 and I'd like to go to Bob Evans restaurant beforehand to load up.

Oh. My. God. Dave ate around 10,500 calories today with around 450g of fat (38%), around 1450g of carbs (54%), and around 190g of protein (7%).

I laughed my ass off when I read this. I remember when me and Chris Milligan used to amuse ourselves in the summer of 2001 with the following similar schedule:

1) Work out at Summerside Atlantic Fitness Centre. Follow a generally well laid out training program but handle way more weight than we were capable of safely doing and with not nearly enough rest days scheduled in to take a break from the gym. Spread gym chalk all over walls, floor, equipment, and other members of gym. Make way more noise than actually required. Hang around gym for twenty minutes after workout complaining about other members who say we're too loud of too messy. Possibly corner members we don't like and explain how we know what we're doing but they haven't made ANY progress with their goals in the last year.

2) Proceed directly to Subway/Wendy's/Mcdonald's/Burger King for a meal which has no nutritional value whatsoever but that we've convinced ourselves somehow gets us closer to our goals because it has calories in it.

3) Drive around summerside for an hour and a half or drive to cavendish and have Chris attempt altercation with Boardwalk security staff. They would normally ignore him or find some excuse to leave him alone. I think he could've took 'em.

4) Go eat at KFC because that's what we really wanted in the first place.

5) Go home to sleep so the whole rediculous ritual could be repeated the next night. Spend vast amounts of time marveling at selves in mirror and being wowed at how fat we're getting (but mistake fat for muscle gains).

Writing this has given me a good idea - I think I shall pst something on the matter of Bigerexia. Eating disorders aren't just for girls anymore.

March "Break"

2006-03-14T03:26:00.000-08:00

Well here it is on Tuesday morning at 7:26 after march break. I decided to start getting up at seven because my days have been feeling too short lately. It feels very spring/summery to be up now.

Here's a recap of the larger events of my march break

On Saturday my dog started limping a little bit, favoring on of his front paws. By sunday he wasn't even mobile any more. He would try to get up and then fall back down. You could tell it hurt really bad because he wouldn't let anyone touch it and he didn't seem his usual self at all. We phoned the vet's after hours number but she said it sounded like he'ld need an X-ray of his shoulder joint for sure and she can't run the machine alone so she was basically just going to leave him in a cage at the clinic until monday morning and that he might be more comfortable in his own house until then. So we kept him home and had to carry him in and out to use the bathroom a few times on Sunday. I phoned early monday morning and got him the first available appointment at 9:20. By this point he was so bad I had to carry him in to the clinic from the car and he was kind of wimpering in pain whenever I picked him up. I was really worried about him and thought this might be "the end" because he wouldn't eat or drink anything. The vet poked an prodded him a bit and discovered the problem was isolated to his shoulder since he would allow her to touch the rest of the arm/paw. She X-rayed it but this showed there were no breaks or fractures so she concluded it was a muscle or tendon/ligament tear and said he'ld be fine but it would take about a month before he'ld heal up totally. She gave him a medication to take home that would reduce swelling and pain. By the next day he was hobbling around again like a little gimp and then by wednesday he seemed about 95% better. What a relief.

Another event of note was my going to Moore's in charlottetown and buying a really nice pin striped suit, gangster style. I tried solid colored suits first but they just looked like someone was draping a tarp over an old refrigerator. I have a few events coming up (Mech Eng. Banquet, Iron Ring night, graduation) that I wanted to look my best for so I'm really happy to have this in my closet now. Perhaps this summer we can do some sort of fancy night out on the town where everyone gets dressed up "to the nines".

While in Charlottetown I also went to visit my two cousins Trent (age six) and Adam (age three). These guys crack me up. Here's an Adam moment - I was playing with him in the living room and holding him upside down. I asked him if his lunch might fall back out of his mouth (i.e. would he throw up) if I shook him (That's Always shake a child, right? Ya, must be always) and he says "That's okay Sam. Mommy can clean it up." Priceless.

On Tuesday I helped my older brother danny go find a good used car to buy. You just know I told him to get a sunfire from Greenspot in O'Leary too. He settled on a black four door 2002 and I even got them to throw in new tires. I really like car shopping.

Later Tuesday we got a quick family picture set done at Superstore. Obviously a grocery store can't provide the same quality service as a pro photography place like Boily's or anything but for 25 bucks we got one heck of a lot of good pictures. I think the next time the entire boys boys ensemble is together we should get a picture done. I think it's such a good idea I'll even pay. We should do one serious pose and a bunch of stupid ones, like where we're all sitting around a bucket of fried chicken or a pizza or something. I'ld hang that in my living room.

Saturday I played pool with derrick and we had Chinese food at King Wok. That's a good place to go at night. I can still taste the delicious MSG. Anyone have a glass of water to spare?

The next saturday Doug and I went to eat at Wendy's and just drove around. Always great to see friends.

Right now my summer plans look like this - Go the fuck home and try to forget about this bad dream that has been UNB Fredericton. I want to spend some time at the cottage alone - hermet style. The unfortunate part is that when I get feeling social again most of my friends are gone from PEI now. Hopefully by september I have somewhere to go to work on a masters. I'll fill you in as details become available.

Don't forget, Engineering Banquet is Next Saturday and Iron ring is three weeks from yesterday.

Don Gillis is Coming

2006-03-02T07:06:00.000-08:00

UPEI guys and gals

Don Gillis is coming to Iron Ring on April 3rd

I must've stuck it somewhere I shouldn't

2006-02-27T18:45:00.000-08:00

Boys oh boys last week starting on wednesday night my index finger on my left hand was some SORE. I had worked in the shop on our NC machines project that day so maybe I did something to it down there. It was red and swollen and when I tried to work out on thursday I had to grip the bar with just three fingers and a thumb instead of my full hand.

It didn't seem to be getting better but then by Sunday the pain subsided enough that I could at least go to the gym and do my usual stuff so I didn't really care at all anymore (as is the case with almost any ailment that comes into my life).

Today it came to a finish. I was sitting in class and bored so I started picking at it with a staple and then I jammed the staple in between the nail and the finger and a shot of green pus came oozing out. So I squeezed the finger. HARD. More pus came out and it stank like five people all shit their pants at once. Naturally I wiped my finger off on a nearby cafetorium napkin.

It doesn't hurt at all anymore. I love the way the body eventually heals itself.

It brought a tear to my eye

2006-02-24T07:06:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching a tv show most of you probably know, Undergrads. When the theme song played it reminded me of the boys boys. Of us driving out to cavendish on a hot summer night to laugh at the ugly man working at Beavertails. Of us getting John to drive us around for hours and hours when we were in highschool and travel by motorcoach still seemed shockingly impressive. Of gathering at the Schaefer residence to play some risk. Of watching Neil transform from someone in Derrick Arsenault's class who looked like a cartoon character with his dorky little pencil case into a man who's ten foot high and murmers the statement "Derrrr, Urrrr Berggg Fuck This!" Boys boys you are irreplacable and this one is for you:

So come and talk to me
on my computer screen
The best years of our lives
Aren't as easy as they seem
To get the girl
to make the grade
it's all a show
it's all a game
And I would lose it if I played
It's all the same

You go out on Friday night
I'll stay in but that's alright
I've finally found a click to call my own

New earphones damb it

2006-02-23T07:07:00.000-08:00

Well today I finally did some work on my senior projy. I designed a pin for a bench press rack which allows for height adjustment to accomadate powerlifters with various lengths of arms. I actaully realized I like designing things. I do still like engineering.

I'm patiently awaiting the arival of my new earbuds. For those who haven't noticed I don't respond when you talk to me in head hall I'm usually listening to my Ipod Nano. A couple weeks ago my headphones started making crackling noises at certain frequencies. This was a major let down because before this I had toted these headphones as much better than what I was used to with my discman - the Apple headphones had less static in the background and seemed to give a clearer sound. I went to apple's website and looked into my waranttee to see what could be done as I had just recieved my ipod for Christmas and I thought the earphones should last more than two months. Luckily they have a program set up to handle this. You fill in an online request form and since ipod's all have a serial number on the back of them you don't even have to provide a reciept to prove you actually own one. They then ship your headphones to you via express courier and provide you with a tracking number for the parcel. My headphones have already made it from Ohio to halifax to moncton and should probably make it here today or tomorrow. Apple's system of making sure you're not screwing them for free stuff is as follows: You must provide a credit card number on the claim form. Apple send a pre adressed and postage paid package with the replacement part you order and you must send your old defective part back to them within ten days of recieving the new part (remember they have the tracking number for the parcel so they will know for sure when someone signs for the package). If you fail to return the old part they simply sell you the new part you already have recieved and bill your credit card. They only thing I'm wondering about is how I will get the package because I might not be here when the courier comes. I suppose he'll leave a tag in the mailbox saying where I can go to pick it up.

It's only about six weeks to Iron Ring. It seems so "soon ago" that it was six years.

Why did I not blog this earlier

2006-02-16T07:28:00.000-08:00

Hey loyal blog readers. I can't believe it's been in the two week range since I blogged!

The weekend of February 4th saw me traveling to Cape Breton for my second ever Powerlifting meet with the CanadianPowerlifting Union. Unlike may when I was still under 23 and considered a Junior this time I was in the Open men's category where the best competition is. I was in the 100 kilo weight class again (guys 198-220 lbs). I think about two weeks before the meet I would have easily been under 198 but given how much eating and water drinking I did to keep my strength levels at a maximum I weighed in in that higher range. Whatever, at my stage of the game it's not really of any benefit to be in the lower class.

I did finish 3rd out of 3 guys in my weight class but I was still super pumped about how much my lifts had jumped since may. In may my best squat was 340 (all numbers in pounds) and this time I went up to 425. Incredible jump. Bench last time had been 315 and this time was up to 358. Deadlift also jumped from 390 to 425. I was super impressed. Just to give some prespective though I believe the other two guys in weight class squatted in the 5 and 7 hundreds respectively, benched 4's and 5's and deadlifted 5's and 6's.

I'm looking forward to march break and it looks like that will be my next time at home. I don't know if I'll make it down to Hali on my first weekend now or not. I'm just so ready for a trip home that I think I'll go straight there. Hali will come later.

I just got off the phone with my brother and it sounds like I've got him talked into sending that Intrepid to the junkyard. I hate that car.

TAG! Right in the coin purse!

2006-01-29T05:42:00.000-08:00

Jeff "tagged" me so now i have to do this 4's post.

4 Jobs you've had

1. Most recent. Worked at UNB for Dr. Holloway. Didn't do much of anything and didn't like it. This summer made me sad. All it did was serve to talk me out of doing my masters here after I graduate. And they were going to pay me a lot so I must've really disliked it.

2. Wiebel Aerospace. Good job. Engineering job in Summerside. Had a lot of fun that summer and a fabulous one week vacation with noteworthy friend Jamie Lambkin. Given the opportunity you should all see the play Anne of Green Gables.

3. Two summers at UPEI of working for Dr. Dahn in the physics department. I loved that guy and look up to him as a scientist (among other things). He's an example of a guy with a PHD who's still real world smart. He fixes his own car if it breaks down. And who could forget countless good laughs had working with Sheila. Hell of a nice girl.

4. Castle Building Centre. Had more fun the first summer than the second. By the second year I'ld developed this bad attitude about not doing the "crappy jobs". I deserved my ass kicked. I loved driving their trucks and forklifts.

4 Movies i could watch over and over again.

1. Pirates of the Caribean. I bought that DVD. I love how spaced out Jack Sparrow is. My surprise of the movie was that he and Elizabeth never knocked boots. You could tell by the way she was walking she just wanted the $%&^

2. Lord of the Rings. Any one. You've gotta feel happy for Samwise when he comes home from all that bullshit and he gets to marry that girl with the big knockers. You know he likes squeezin' them. Also one scene I love but can't put my finger on why: - Frodo complains about the ring having come to him and all the hardships it's brought and he wishes it would never have happened and Gandalph is just like Well, do you think anyone in your place would be happy?

3.National Treasure. I really enjoy the whole treasure hunt theme and how in the end the bad guys are foiled by their lack of knowledge - they didn't know wether the British had came by land or by sea. But then again neither do I.

4. Oceans 11. So well planned out and in the end you don't know their final plan until it's already over.

Four place I've lived

1. 171 Spring Street, Summerside. Lived here for like 15 years. Great Neighborhood. This is where I met the Schaefers. First Rebecca and then Daniel. I remember thinking "Wow, that little boys head is huge." It wouldn't have been a proper childhood without you shaef. And your tree house plan stealing scheme. Less of a scheme, you just came over and took measurements.

2. 8G Brown's Court. With Neil and Derrick. All other room mates functioned sketchily. That's all I'll say besides sometimes living with your best friend will make you do less things together.

3. 440 Needham street. to Quote Liam - "It smells like the neighbors took a dump in a pop and put it on the stove." I punched a hole in the wall when I came home from my Systems exam. They never took money off the damage deposit though for some reason.

4. 1108 Woodstock road. Great times. A good relief from the abovementioned. I do believe my buddy Liam's lovely young bride Amorette gets the vote as the room mate who had the all time best influence on making me stop working and go do fun things.

4 TV shows you'ld be happy to watch instead of all other TV from now on:

1. Seventh Heaven. I just like it, okay!

2. Trailer Park Boys. Gotta keep things in the maritimes. Those big hairy monsters are real Neil.

3. Dawson's Creek. Just started watching this one over the Christmas break while frantically searching for a release from the stress of the past semester. I hated Pacey at first but now I love him especially since he got that old man teacher who was picking on Jack fired. Why don't Dawson and Joey just get together and stay together? It's almost painful to watch.

4. Sex and the City. Amorette would be proud of me for putting this here. The hottest ones are when Charlotte is baby crazy and really wants to get knocked up. That's real animal instinct right there.

4 Places you've been on vacation

1. Toronto - Saw my first NHL hockey game with kick ass seats - right on the glass right beside the bench, courtesy of my Uncle Sam and Aunt Yvonne.

2. Sunday River Maine - Remember when I got lost on the last run of the week boys boys? I was an awkward little kid.

3. Halifax. Last year going down for March break with Dan and Neil was kick ass - just a real good time with good friends. Also going down this summer to escape my job felt amazing. Boy was I glad to see you guys.

4. Ottawa with Ryan England. I still have a picture of he and I in front of the Parilment building.

4 Blogs you visit daily

1. Neil (he posts often)

2. Doug (almost never posts but when he does it's worth it)

3. Lex (I feel her blog has done the most to getting me to know the blogger better)

4. Hemivisions (Dan) but only on Thursdays. A well written blog. Blair Arsenault would be proud.

4 Reasons you'll finish this rediculous thing later

1. I just drank a large protien shake and a bowl of milk (from my Cheerios) and I need to pee

2. I have to get ready to go to Church at STU

3. I'm bored of typing

4. Because you smell an awful lot like flowers

A link to remember

2006-01-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

I'ld been saving this for a while but today feels like a good time to release it to you all:

http://www.upei.ca/~physics/p221/proj01/proj01.html

That's the link to the websites we made for Modern Physics in second year. I don't know if you've all lost track of them or not. I thought you might enjoy thumbing through them.

I remember John helping me with mine the night before we left to go to Acadia for a random visit. I got it all finished then accidentally deleted all my images and had to go back to the computer lab to find them again. I was literally running across campus. I also was coming down with a cold and running a fever. I actually had one of those moments where I could look at myself and feel genuine pitty. I recall I was also out of milk, a serious staple of my diet and part of any good breakfast, and I was debating wether to have a can of tuna for my breakfast protien or if I should suck it up and walk to the irving on university avenue to buy some.

Anyhow, when it finally came time to put the pages online and let the prof, Dr. Lawther, see them for the first time I recall John and Neil changed all the pictures in my site to pictures of UPEI professors taken from their websites. They changed Milikan's picture to Ken Sulstan's and changed the caption "Meet Mr. Milikan" to "Meet Mr. Milkman" Chris Vessy also earned himself a spot on my page. I forget who else did but probably Rabin Bissesseaur. The professor just sent me a note saying "I like your site but fix what the "gremlins" did to it."

2006-01-21T06:27:00.000-08:00

Oh yes boys boys. That's exactly how I like it.

Look what someone told me about

2006-01-21T06:21:00.000-08:00

I hope this isn't a tease. Because I'm getting very excited. Release is supposed to be sometime in the next year. Unfortunately they're saying all 65 episodes will be split into DVD's of 5 episodes each selling for 10-12$ American per disc. We all know I'll cave and buy it.

Farewell Mr. Rioux

2006-01-18T13:51:00.000-08:00

News from a small town always travels quickly. As was the case with the story that one of our high school teachers, Mr. Rioux, committed suicide. I always enjoyed talking about health and fitness with Mr. Rioux, he was in great shape, and Doug Keefe will attest to the fact that we share quiet the great male bonding experience with him one Saturday morning up on a roof top while helping Mr. MaCormack shingle his roof. Mr. Rioux's absence will be a painful one from many lives.

Events like this always make you take time to stop and think. I feel this is the perfect time to write what is as close a quote as I can remember from a magazine my mom said reminded her of me while i was home over the break. Alexa Kenny I'm looking at you as I say this because when I read it after awknowledging that it did describe me to a T you were the first person I thought of. Don't worry that's not an insult.

If I were in my early twenties I would walk barefoot through the cool grass on summer evenings. I would learn to throw a frisbee properly. I would travel to the far corners of the world so that they may come to know us and we may come to know them. I would not rush off to law school or graduate studies or scramble for the nearest employment agency. Because there are ALREADY enough frightened yuppies living in fancy gated communities driving suv's to work and wondering where their youth went. Life is too wonderful. Don't let it slip away.

2006-01-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know of most likely are about to find out I'm having a much happier semester this time around, probably due to my lightened work schedule. All in all I'm much happier in life in general though.

A thought occured to me while I was in cakes and creek this morning (if you refer back to an earlier post you'll see that's a fake class I evented for an excuse to wake up on tuesday and thursday mornings). Dawson made a point about his brain being self aware and that being an adult rather than a child characteristic. So far in January I'm less self aware than I had been before, ie less attention payed to "who i am" and "what i do for a living" or what occupied my time or what I'll be doing three years from today.

In my experience a lack of self awarness leads to a pleasant happiness and enjoying the little things in life like pancakes or a walk outside on a gorgeous winter day.

I have free time!

2006-01-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

Well, Dr. Kishaway is going to a conference in Europe so we don't have NC machines again until January 30th. Starting tonight after law at about 9:30 I'll be on my first of 3 consecutive 6 day weekends. hahahahaha. I rock.

I also found out we graduate on the 18th not the 17th of may engineers so keep that in mind when booking hotels.

Random Shenanigans

2006-01-12T08:25:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of one of my best friends, Neil Moore. His favorite song is My Hump.

2006-01-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

SERENITY NOW!

2006-01-10T16:09:00.000-08:00

Well boys I think I'm finally starting to relax from the last semester. This was the hardest year to "let go" of the work world when the holiday came, I can't really offer an explanation.

My schedule is rockin' hard. I decided to only take 4 courses because I don't really know what's going to happen next year yet and I feel taking master's courses now in anticipation is a little bit like putting the cart beyond the forest. Can you spot my Rickyism?

Monday's I'm hella busy but the rest of the week I have off! Haha that's right bizat, I only work one day a week now. I have a course that meets Monday Wednesday Friday from 9:30-10:20 and I have that tomorrow but the prof said we're only having class for the first couple weeks then taking a break for a few.

This morning I invented a new course and registered myself for it. I call it Cakes 'n Creek. It's where I make myself a big stack of pancakes and smother them in the maple syrup Liam left behind and then sit down to watch Dawson's Creek on TBS. I'm just starting to get into that show. I thought it was dumb when everyone watched it back in the day but my delayed sense of media reaction has just kicked in and now I love it.

You'ld think I guy who only goes to school virtually one day a week would be bored off his ass but I'm loving it. Today I felt the happiest I have in a long time, and it felt like I could expect to feel that way more often now.

To those of you in a slump if any are - don't let other people upset you with what they worry about. This time of year everyone is like "ooooo I better get started on my project" or "I'm applying to bla bla bla for some job" or applying to grad school and stuff. My advice is to just say Fudge 'Em. Move at your own pace and you'll fit right into the life you are best suited for anyways. Pushing yourself hard all the time is way over rated and all it does is shorten your life. (Unless it's the good kind of pushing that you draw satisfaction from).

Life's not going to pass you buy but if you're not careful you'll pass it.

Happy New Year

2006-01-04T06:54:00.000-08:00

I'm back in the 506 now. I just got two new room mates Joel and Heather Jean May. The apt. looks like it was hit by a huricane.

I made one firm decision over the break. I would like to do a master's in engineering next year but am not totally committed to it yet. My "for sure" decision is that I'm not doing it at UNB. There's nothing wrong with UNB but I've had my fill. Life is like a buffet. I've had enough of the pasta salad and now it's time to try something else. I liked the pasta salad but I've really had my fill. It's time to experience something different - to live a little if you would call it that. I've opened my mind to the notion that staying put in one appartment just for convinience is no way to live.

This semester damb well better be slack. I'm going to make it slack. I was going to take five courses so I'ld have two to put towards a masters next year (I only have three I need to finish my undergrad) but I decided that's stupid. I'm doing four courses because it's financially benefitial to me. I got a UNB scholarship that is only available to full time students so I need the fourth course to get my money. I can deal with that.

Hope you're all having great days!

Who reads this thing anyways?

2005-12-14T16:13:00.000-08:00

Well today was a nice restful day. Went to corra's for brunch with a bunch of UPEI people and Paul (good paul not bad paul) and then studied and went for a walk. Seriously considering registering for a powerlifting meet on February 4 in Sydney Nova Scotia. Was hoping I could go to sydney friday night, be in the meet saturday, then stop in halifax for the night to see the boys boys but I just found out hali is not in the direct path from sydney to freddy beach. What up with that? In fact it's about 7 hours from sydney to freddy but still five hours from sydney to hali. Shitty! I'll probably end up doing it anyways because I feel pretty pashionate about the fact that I'ld have a damb good time!

I wanna post this to see who reads this blog that I'm not expecting and is willing to post a comment. Readers I know about feel free to chime in with some unrelated rubish about the time I sanded myself with an electric sander to see what it'ld feel like.

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.

A very disgruntled blog

2005-12-11T16:02:00.000-08:00

I'm posting this in support of Alexa who recently had the courage to post something about how she feels on her blog that you can read at www.lexa.blogspot.com I think what she's feeling is pretty representative and that if people knew what was really in the minds of engineering students we'ld all be in the phyc ward.

This poem sums up how I often feel - how I feel too often now. The source is going to remain annonomous, I doubt any of you will recognize it anyhow. Let me prequil it by saying the part at the end about friends coming and going is true - but only of certain friends and I promise it is NOT true of any of you who read this blog. You're timeless and will have special places in my heart forever. Without further ado this poem sums up how I feel about my life and how the gym is the only thing that balances me some days.

THE IRON MIND

Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it's some kind of miracle if you're not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole. I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the iron mind.

Through the years I have combined meditation, action, and the iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind. The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential it's impossible to turn back.

The iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a God or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the bitch black. I have found the iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundered pounds is always two hundred pounds.

'Nuff said.

And the winner is....

2005-12-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

Actually there was no winner.

Neil and Lex both commented on the availability of elephants. Wise direction to take this thing in, but unfortunately there is a little known fact that when we were all in grade one or two a circus did come to the summerside rec center and my dad and my uncle took me and I got to ride the elephant. No shit. It was pretty scarey because there was no handle or anything to hold on to and in hindsight it's a little surprising I didnt' fall off the side of it and be crushed by that huge beast.

Schaef, I'm sorry to say that my kindergarden Christmas play was totally canceled on account of a snow storm.

If you think carefully about me you'll remember I haven't traveled anywhere and going to Moncton for the day is still a pretty big trip to me. I've been to Toronto twice and both times it was in the winter, so it was not baseball season. I have never been to any major league baseball games.

Thanks for playing folks. To be honest I'm a little dissapointed that so few people actually took a guess. Those of you who did take a guess, I feel you all played well.

Today I'm studying for Solids which is on monday. My plans are to study and finish my Christmas shopping before i go home on the 18th.

Can anyone comment on what I should give my grandmother for Christmas?

I've got my comppy back Alternate Title: I've Got Big Balls Alternative Title: If everyone else does this I guess I should too

2005-12-03T12:05:00.001-08:00

Well I was able to diagnose and repair my desktop all by myself! Well okay, so I double checked with some of head hall's finest computer gurus before laying down the cash for the part, but at least I didn't run screaming to future shop or Staples at the first sign of trouble (cause the guys there would be looking for you to take a fifty dollar bill out of your pocket and go "Here! Tell me what's wrong with my computer")

I realized the power supply fan should not "know" if anything is wrong with the motherboard or anything else hooked onto it and since this fan was not coming on I figured it was the powersupply. So I went and bought one at Compu Smart on prospect street and changed it out myself at home.

Now for the alternate title of my blog today: It's incredibly vindicating as a person to be able to fix one of your material possessions all by yourself. I was flyin' high thursday night after my computer was fired up again. It makes you feel like you can do anything. I think I have to give the knod to Bobby McKenna as one of the people I've met in university who taught me to jump in and try anyway when a task you don't know how to do pops up. It's usually easier than you think.

Okay and since everyone else is doing this now I will to (shaef it's only you left and Derrick get off you's ass and get a blog)

2 Truths and a Lie about the Samwise:

1. I have ridden an elephant

2. My kindergarden class never got to put on our Christmas play because of a snow storm

3. I've only seen one major league baseball game live

I promise there are no plays on words here, the events can all be taken at face value and are either clearly true or clearly false. (for example, if one of my items had been "I scored the winning goal when our soccer team played in the Saint John tournament" then either this is totally true or totally false, not some bullship like "actually the tournament was in Halifax" Subsequently, anyone who knew me well in my soccer days would realize that this is NOT a man who scored a lot of goals.)

I've got my comppy back

2005-12-03T12:05:00.000-08:00

Uh-Oh boys boys

2005-12-01T08:37:00.000-08:00

I'm posting to you from Head Hall today because my poor compy would not start this morning.

I'm hoping for power supply failure because that would be an easy fix and result in no data loss.

Symptoms: Hit power switch and compy behaves as if it is not plugged in at all. Tried a different outlet and the same thing happened. Opened up side panel. No LED's light up at all, power supply fan does not come on.

One of the boys from school (car dave) said he has a spare I can try tonight and see if it fixes things. Here's hoping boys boys.

A bit of picking on our everyday language

2005-11-27T09:38:00.000-08:00

A stupid statement - "Why do bad things like this always happen to good people"

Traditionally muttered by someone who ________ (car breaks down, fails exam in school, catches the flu, etc.)

Do you ever hear someone who is suffering some specified hardship say "Makes sense. I'm a rotten prick so I guess I deserved this."

2005-11-24T04:50:00.000-08:00

You wouldn't think a piece of cloth can help you squat 50-75 pounds more than what you can normally do, but Big Blue pulled it off for me this week. Either that or this is a pair of special overalls for fags.

2005-11-24T04:37:00.000-08:00

Officially 10 days of classes left. Yaaaaaaaaa Budddddddddy! Easy work!

Some deep though philosphical crud I've learned about me:

1. I love to challenge myself by trying to do things I don't know for sure I can do properly

2. I would NEVER admit #1 to anyone

3. I'm rarely ever satisfied with what I have. I always want more.

Also a shout out to Shaefer in Calgary. Yes I agree protien bars taste "acceptable" at best. it's the same for the dry protien mix. One concern with the bars is that they're loaded with sugar to make them taste better. They're basically a candy bar with some protien powder stuck in. However, if you can bear the taste and cost I feel they're an effictive post-workout snack to hold you over till the next meal. And I feel that You personally are not going to get fat no matter how much sugar you eat, within practical limits. But remember - whole food is always better than a supplement but a supplement is always better than a skipped meal.

P.S. I tried the squat suit again yesterday. Much better results this time. Took 405 lbs for a ride down to what my digital camera showed me was borderline depth (I would want it an inch or two deeper to be confidant it would be okay in a competition, but it's possible it was fine). There's no way that I could've lifted that much without the suit. It works for sure, I just need to be more familiar with it.

That wonderful, awful, phase

2005-11-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

I'm going through that wonderful/awful phase when you can see the end of the semester and you have the list of what you need to do to end it. But you just can't seem to get going. I need to:

Pull a senior project proposal out of my ass (no one make any suggestions, I'm redisgning bench press equipment, I just need to sit down and produce something)

Write a paper and prepare to present it for Metal Cutting

Do the Formal Lab Write Up for Thermo

And the regular assignments

That doesn't look as bad as I thought now that I write it down. The last day of class is three weeks from yesterday. I'm confidant I'll pull it all together. I just wish I didn't have to. Then again, I bet working at the wrong job could suck way worse than this.

I've got a strange disease

2005-11-15T05:45:00.000-08:00

Yup. It's time for having a cold. It first showed it's ugly head last wednesday but I kept it supressed somehow. Now yesterday my nose was running a lot and now my throat is sore. So I said screw my school work and me and Am watch "The Perfect Man". A true girly movie. And I had ice cream.

Got to see D double dippy while I was home this weekend and we had a perfect idear for a halloween costume if I'm in the C dot next year. I'm going to wear a big yellow hat and a yellow shirt and he's going to dress up like a monkey and I'm going to walk him around the wave all night. That's right, curious george.

I tried squatting in my new squat suit yesterday. It's a tad tight on the hips and as a result I was having some troubles hitting parallel. In fact I tried with four plates (405 pounds for you non-plate savy) and I still could not get down all the way. It might be time to lose ten pounds. I carry a lot of fat on my inner legs and I think if I peeled a little of that away the suit would sit better and I'ld be able to get a LOT out of it.

Well I'm off to ethics. Since senior project proposal class always sucks I'll skip it today to come home and nap to fight my cold. Hope you all have a good day.

Oil that thing up!

2005-11-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

It's been a very office work type of week so I decided to spice it up by picking up the oil for my next oil change. Since winter's coming and Fredericton is "Cold as a witches teet" I decided on the best damb cold weather oil I could get my hands on - Castrol full synthetic 0W30. Perhaps I can take a cue from Neil's delightful blog and lay down today's lesson plan.

The reason most oils have two numbers separated by a W will be explained here. The first number is the viscosity ("thickness" for those of you non-engineering savy) the oil has when it is cold, when you start your car up after it's been sitting all night (or a few hours). For example a number like 100 would be very thick like molasses while a number 5 would be pretty thin, more like water. Now the numbers are separated by a W which stands for Weight I believe (a thick oil being called high weight). The second number indicates the viscosity when the oil has reached the normal operating temperature inside your car's hot engine.

The second number is normally dictated by how your engine was built. A car comes from the factory recommending a specific second number. 30 is very popular, and 20 and 40 are used in some common cars also. (Some believe using a lower number like 20 can contribute to reduced fuel consumption because the engine has to fight less resistance from the oil while running). The first number should be influenced by the ambient temperatures you experience in the region you live. Now I fully expect it to get really cold here in Fredericton (maybe -45 Celsius some mornings in February) so I went with a 0. Five and Ten are more common.

My lower first number means my oil will not thicken up like molasses as much as most oils when the cold cold weather hits. This means when I start my car in the morning it will not sound so slow when I turn the key to make it start. The main reason I want thinner oil is because my pump will do a better job of moving the thin oil, getting oil to the vital parts of my engine faster to protect them. Much of the total wear an engine recieves in it's lifetime comes from all the milliseconds it spends just after it's been started up before the oil has a chance to reach the parts that need protecting. When the engine is all warmed up there is actually an incredibly small amount of wear. If you were to start an engine and run it at a constant speed it would by far outlast an engine that sees duty in a regular car, always starting and stopping a few times a day.

That's it for tonight boys and girls. Man I'm a geek.

2005-11-02T18:16:00.000-08:00

Yes sir I like my hydrodynamic lubrication!