Andy

Please don't yell at me for disappearing!

2006-12-20T14:17:38Z

Okay. It's been a while. Since July, to be exact.
Where did I go?
The moon would've been cool, but actually it was just back to North Carolina.
Why?
I screwed up again (yeah. :().
What have I been up to?
I've been working for this term, but I'll be back in school next term, at Wake Technical, a school near here.
Why haven't I said anything in all this time?
Embarrassed I guess. I don't really like to talk about my failures. I guess that's part of why I like to get up and leave from time to time. To find new people that don't know about my failures. But I had to start talking to you all again. So here I am.

Anyways, I'm actually going to be up in Canada for the holidays. Going to be visiting my grandmother in Grand Bend (had to deal with my grandfather dying this term too). And I'll be going skiing up in Quebec. I don't really know whether I'll have a chance to visit with all of you, but I'd say the most likely time would be tomorrow evening or Friday evening, since I'll be at my aunt's house in Mississauga. If you guys are interested in seeing this ghost, let me know. I can't make any guarantees, though, since plans a little up in the air.

Hope you all had a great term at Waterloo and that you're all looking forward to a much deserved Christmas break.

The Perfect Lunch

2006-05-08T02:02:36Z

Does it get much better than this?

-2 sandwiches (salami, cheddar cheese, and mayonnaise)
-baby carrots
-apple
-orange
-grapes
-banana
-and a Koolaid juice package

The only improvements could be dutch cheese instead of cheddar, and perhaps adding a yogurt to it.

Ha Ha Ha! St. Paul’s I don’t need you to make my food anymore! (Note: But I may be back in the winter)

My purchases

2006-02-01T08:05:06Z

I made a few impulsive buys today. Since I was out get my suit dry cleaned for formal this weekend, getting a haircut, ordering a corsage(spell?) picking up my NYC hat I left at William's Saturday when I went with Taryn, and picking up my racket I got restrung (I hate sports chek...never again!), I decided to pick up Serenity and cool game I first saw at SPAC-West, Deflection. For those you who were at the party, it was that game with the lasers and the mirrors. Super cool. I played 5 games against Sanjeev today.

In other news, I have 2 midterms on monday, so aside from formal, you probably won't see much of me. I just got back from my Wednesday morning trek across campus to turn in assignments. Time to catch 4.5 hrs of sleep and get up for 8:30 classes. It's a good thing I feel motivated this term. Otherwise it would be very easy for me to slack off.

A great night

2006-01-13T07:29:12Z

just got back from Fubar. Was a great night all thanks to a certain someone. The place was packed. It was awesome. Class in 6 hrs, though, so I should probably go to bed...

NASA's FIRST Robotics Competition

2006-01-09T02:17:03Z

A really cool competition that I took part in high school (I was the president of the team) and my brother is doing now (he's now president). Waterloo actually hosts a regional.

FIRST Robotics Kickoff

I recommend forwarding to about minute 54. Before that it's just answering questions on specifics.

Either that or an okay summary here

FIRST = For Inspiration of Science and Technology

andytheace @ 2006-01-05T12:45:00

2006-01-05T17:45:56Z

All moved back into St. Paul's. Christmas was fun, but it seemed like too much time was spent on the road. Classes are good, but I need to get 80s this term so I'll be working hard (since I need to nearly double my grades from summer). I've got a single room (218W) and would appreciate visitors. Going to be having a just-for-fun football game 2pm on Sat on field in front of St. Paul's. Everyone should come play. Probably going to Morty's tonight with Shana, Bruce, Keith, John, and Curtis. I'm beginning to share the same view that others have of the frosh. It seems they avoid me at meals, and I guess all the time in general. Frustrating. Back into squash, and trying to play everyday with Curtis. My invitation to teach others is still out there.

Oh and sorry about the fragmented post. I'm not feeling very literate right now.

Update from Florida

2005-12-28T22:49:30Z

Hello everyone this update is coming from a lab in Florida so I don't have a whole lot of time here. My recent activities

Dec 20th - last day of work. My employer gave me a very good. Went to my uncle and aunt's in Mississauga for the night, since my cousin Ali (a year older than me) was home from UNB. We're pretty close.
Dec 21st - drove to the Buffalo airport. It has recently snowed there so that was fairly slow going. I took a rather odd way of getting to NC. Flew from Buff to Detroit, and then on to NC. Got in fairly late
Dec 22nd - had all sorts of doctors and dentist appointments. Got together with 5 of my friends, and we had a blast. Haven't seen these people in 4 months, and they hadn't seen each other since they all went to different universities, so there was a lot to talk about. We got kicked out New York Pizza when our topics started to not get so G rated (turned out there was kids there).
Dec 23rd - drove with my family down to florida. We didn't leave til early afternoon (my parents had to work the morning), so we stopped for the night just south of the Florida border.
Dec 24th - we arrived at my grandmother's place at 2 pm. We went to church with her (a united pilgrim church...little different) and we opened presents that night. Yay, finally got my ipod nano! I'm quite happy with it, although the battery doesn't seem to last nearly 14 hrs like they advertised. Hope it's not defective.

Since then, I've been mainly relaxing. Been playing tennis every single day (though I'm much worse at tennis than squash), swimming, and starting to read next terms textbooks by the side of the pool (please keep your scorn to a minimum). Today I went to ocean. The water was 60-65 degrees, so I was only in for brief periods of time. All the same I enjoyed it. Starting to get a bit of a tan, though it's not incredibly noticeable. Hope everyone is have a great time too, and look forward to seeing y'all in the New Year.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-20T19:25:58Z

Last two hours of work of the term. Tomorrow I fly home, and get to see my family. It's been 4 months since the last time I saw them. Then we all head for Florida. I'm looking forward to it.

Since this will be my last post before the new year, I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Looks like you'll even get a white Christmas this year (though not me).

andytheace @ 2005-12-15T21:52:00

2005-12-16T02:52:48Z

A Canadian is walking down the street with a case of beer under his arm.

His friend Doug stops him and asks, “Hey Bob! Whacha get the case of beer for?”

“I got it for my wife, eh.” answers Bob.

“Oh!” exclaims Doug, “Good trade.”

Gift Cards for Grocery Stores...wtf?

2005-12-15T20:55:28Z

Just got $60 worth of GCs for which can be used at what looks like just about any grocery store for Christmas from my company. Since when do grocery stores do gift certificates? I would have preferred $60 cash or added to my paycheck, but all in all, not bad!

I'm homesick

2005-12-15T13:09:26Z

This always happens in the last week before I go home...

Conversation Out of Context is Wonderful

2005-12-06T16:13:00Z

From a conversation at work today:

Me: Gentlemen, feel free to reopen the DNC database.
Person 1: What'd you do to it?
Person 2: He gave me an orifice.
Person 1: Oh. What do you plan on doing with it?

Another excellent weekend

2005-12-05T17:01:59Z

This weekend was great can't recall not having fun at any moment this weekend.

Friday

Spent Friday evening with some friends I've made here in Brantford. Two Laurier-Brantford students and another Waterloo coop. We went to see Saw II. Think I've had my fill of blood for a while (I should be back to normal after Christmas). After the movie we went back to the place the three of them were renting. We watched a couple other movies and had some drinks. Got a little more tipsy than I mean to. As I was leaving an empty beer bottle fell out of my pocket and smashed on the asphalt. Smooth of me. Did the drunken stumble back to my place, which was only a couple blocks away - about 3 am.

Saturday

Woke up bright and late (1 pm). Went shopping for Christmas presents for my family, and then drove to Toronto. Joanne, Mel, Curtis, myself, and some more of Joanne's friends met for cosmic bowling. Keeping my end of the bargain, I bowled pretty crappy, not break 100 pts either game. Still lots of fun, though. Afterwards we went to pub (don't recall the name) and Dimitri's for some great dessert. Amazingly and thankfully it didn't take 3 hours like the last time I went. The subway had to be caught by 1:30, and we only arrived at the restaurant at 12:30. Got to my aunt and uncle's place in Mississauga by about 3 am. They are SOOO much cooler than my parents. My uncle hadn't gotten home until recently, he had been out at the bar until it closed, and my aunt was staying at a friend's since she had had a bit too much to drink.

Sunday

Another later start (11 am). Had a delicious brunch with my aunt and uncle, and played squash with Curtis in the early afternoon. I figured this was going to be a slaughter, but fortunately he went easy on me. He's been playing 4x/wk, while I haven't played in over a month. After squash, I drove home and decided to have a nap. After dinner I parked myself in front of the TV for a few relaxing hours.

Aww...

2005-12-01T19:06:53Z

Tuition

2005-11-30T04:47:23Z

Question: Have people already received their bills for next term's tuition? As much as I'd prefer not to pay, I take my not getting my bill and with the funky limboland I'm in right now, they could overlook me in a bad way. Thanks in advance.

Webcams a lifesaving device?

2005-11-21T19:07:19Z

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/11/18/internet.rescue.ap/index.html

andytheace @ 2005-11-17T16:08:00

2005-11-17T21:25:38Z

Brantford->Andy->NC

Booked my flight back to NC last night. That's right, I'm flying back. The flight is only $150 and when I crunched the numbers, flying was very similar to driving(if you include all costs, not just gas). Since it takes me only half a day to get down instead of the 2 days, since I like to stop in PA (14 hrs drive, if weather is perfect = too much me in one day), and since it could have to deal with snow, I figured it was the best way to go.

Today's Visitor

Today Keith Middleton from coop office visited me today. It amazes me how little work these guys have to do, visit coop students and all. Since my tuition money is paying his salary I decided to throw him some curve balls. I asked him a bunch of questions about switching to math/still in coop. He's going to find out some of these answers and get back to me.

Friday night

What's going on? I've heard from both Keith and Kish. Have these gatherings converged? If so, when and where? If not, who going to give me a better offer to come?

Canadian Politics

2005-11-16T17:00:08Z

Dare I bring up the topic? Sure why not. I'm a little surprised that nobody more politically minded than myself has brought up the topic already (is there some unwritten rule against it?). What do you think of the coming election? Do you that anything will really change? If so, what? Are people finally fed up with the liberal party?

Personally, I think unfortunately not much will change. Everyone is just going to vote the same way they always do. I got in a rather heated debate with my grandparents this past weekend. They basically were saying that because the liberal party has been good to them over the years, they were still going to vote liberal despite recent issues. They argued that other candidates would have been similarly corrupt, and that Harper and the others wouldn't stand up to Bush as well as Martin (subjective, I'd say). My argument was that we cannot allow politicians to get away with a mere slap on the wrist for such a fiasco. By voting the same party back in, we effectively are saying that it's okay to do these things just as long as they don't get caught.

Also, as a side note, how do I register to vote?

Cell Phones + Water = Trouble^(Big Time)

2005-11-09T13:16:30Z

Today I dropped my cell phone in a puddle. Currently it is drying out. Hopefully I won't have to spend money to get a new...

[UPDATE:] So far no dice on the phone. The phone is turning on, the screen is lighting up, but it isn't displaying anything...

World's Funniest Joke

2005-11-07T18:56:41Z

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"

Whatever happened to decent fortunes in fortune cookies?

2005-11-04T17:40:59Z

"You will inherit some money or a small piece of land."

Come on! They can do better than this!

Add a line to my story

2005-11-04T17:04:43Z

Bored out of my mind, and looking for something to do, I've decided to start a story, which I want you to help me with. Rules are you can write as little as word or as much as a full sentence, but no more. You can post many times, but someone needs to post in between. Humour, horror, adventure, take it whichever direction it leads. No idea where this will go, but let's give this a try:

'Twas a day unlike any other day in the sleepy little town of Windy Peak...

Schedule Confirmed

2005-11-01T03:51:38Z

So after have countless conversations with advisors at the university my schedule is confirmed:
-Math 135
-Math 136
-Math 137
-Math 138
-CS 134

Yes, before you laugh to hard, I realize that there is some significant overlap from what I took in Engineering. Unfortunately that is the way it is, and I'm just going to have to deal with it. I actually don't even really mind it, because it gives me a feeling of starting with a clean slate. I will have to work this term, though. I'm going to need at least an 80 in all my Math courses.

In other news, I realized today just how much the south is invading Canadian television. It seems unproportionately high number of television shows are either set in the south, or have characters with southern accents.

I don't know, maybe it's just my imagination. I've been missing North Carolina a little more in the past week, particularly my family. It seems that this point in the term, at just over the half way point this seems to happen. Last term I missed them so bad even went home on May long weekend. Oh well, I guess I may as well burry myself in work, since that is the easiest way to get rid of that feeling. I've started bringing home work.

UPDATE: If anybody has the textbooks I'll need, let me know.

Work Term Reports

2005-10-28T12:58:09Z

I know, I hate to even mention the idea as well, but I have a question for engineers and mathies on here. Both groups have to do a work term report for their second work term, right? In this interim phase I'm not too sure who's guidelines I'm supposed to follow, but at least I know both groups have to do it, right?

Ridiculous

2005-10-24T19:19:45Z

Why does apple and all their wisdom make it necessary that you download BOTH iTunes AND Quicktime when you want to download just one? This is REALLY annoying.