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Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
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10:41 pm - 22nd Birthday
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I had a pretty fantastic birthday weekend.
On Friday there was a surprise party for Maydianne's birthday at school, so I had cake for breakfast. Then I worked in the afternoon and made Mark look for his birthday present in the lab - I got him a lego racer that you wind up. We had fun playing with it in the lab for a bit while I was working, lol. Then i went out with a small group of friends for dinner and then went to 2 bars. The first bar (Terry-Os) was pretty dingy and had a very run down atmosphere, but they DID have free pool. The second bar was the Auldspot (otherwise known as the cookiepig-bar), and it was fantastic.
On Saturday Mike and I spent the ENTIRE day baking and decorating cupcakes for Maydianne's birthday party at her house that evening. 4 flavours (chocolate, chocolate banana, vanilla and gingerbread) with sunflowers (made of oreo cookies and icing) with female redbacks (made of chocolate melting-chips, red icing, and piped melted chocolate for legs) and males (brown smarties also with piped melted chocolate for legs). Lastly, under a few flowers we hid icing covered chocolate chips that we called egg sacs. Then, exhausted from baking all day, we went to the actual party. It turned out to be quite a large affair with mostly people I don't know and a lot of her family.
On Sunday, my actual birthday, we went to Mike parents house to decorate a gingerbread house. When I got there Mike's mother had made an adorable cake that was a big ball of blue yarn with a gingerbread cat lying on top of it. D'aw! We went off fr lunch at East Side Mario's with my parents and Luke (John was at karate) for lunch, then came back to Mike's parents' to finish the house. We finished off the evening by going to the Keg with Mike's parents.
You would think that it should stop there, but it doesn't. My lab-mates threw me a surprise party on Monday. It was funny because I don't think it was very well thought out... there were so so many places along the way where it could have gone horribly wrong: 1) I might not have been in school on Monday. 2) I was in the R-wing cafe (JUST about to start my lunch) when Val called my cell. There is really poor reception there, and she was immediately cut off when I picked up. I debated and procrastinated a minute about calling back because I didn't want to do lab work at the time, but in the end decided that yeah, it is kind of my job to be on call always (so 2 - I might not have called back). 3) I might not have found reception and given up. 4) Their cover-story was that Valerie had been doing transfers on the 4th floor and gotten locked out - so 4 I almost told her to come to ME to get the keys because I didn't want to go in to the lab, but I didn't; I decided the nice thing to do was to come give them to her. So I went. 5) The whole way walking I was thinking about how no one was supposed to be in the lab today. I figured she must have changed her schedule for an exam or something and I had forgotten to update it, but if I were a more suspicious person I could have called their bluff. 6) As I was walking down the hall she was hanging out in front of the door - I thought I saw a shadow pass the window to the lab and thought to myself "If there is someone inside, why didn't they let her in?" then decided I would figure it out when I got there, but again their cover was almost blown. 7) When i got there I gave Val my keys off my keychain and told her I was going to go sit bellow to eat my pizza, and she should return the keys to me when she was done (so I almost left without going in). She managed to persuade me to go in by saying there was something she needed to show me - I assumed it was to do with the spiders she was supposedly transferring, and went in.
Somehow, SOMEhow all 7 possible roadblocks and slip-ups got avoided and in I went to eat cake. ^____^
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| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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4:29 pm - silly things people say when you tell them you don't want children
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| Friday, November 6th, 2009
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11:56 pm
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I haven't posted in a while.
I'm posting from a party at York.
Yesterday I was at another party.
Other than that, my day to day life is pretty unremarkable at the moment. =P
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| Sunday, November 1st, 2009
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1:32 pm - Hallows
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Halloween was good times. I ate too many cupcakes though. ^_____^
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| Sunday, October 25th, 2009
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10:29 pm
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Thursday night I scored a slow cooker and a waffle maker. Today we tried them both out out, and success! yum.
Also go a delicious ice cream pumpkin pie from cold stone creamery. yuuuuuuuuuuuummmm good. Also fun to note that lawblaws is having an ice cream sale. =]
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| Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
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11:12 pm - crunch
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These crunch periods are never ending.
It's all about outlook. Yes, there is a lot to do. But I like to do the things that need doing. Well, most of them. Some of them come with the territory. None the less. The other thing that it's all about, is organization. I sat down this evening and figured out what time I have, what I need to do, and when I can slot those things in. It feels pretty good.
I'm actually looking forward to hitting this abnormal psych textbook. You, me, and the couch. It's on.
Emily taught me something about scientific writing. I mention it because I've made the mistake a couple times above. I keep saying "it", but there is no clear definition of what "it" is. I say, "It's all about outlook." What is all about outlook? Clearly I write to my journal the way I would speak to a friend, so this is NOT scientific writing, but I'm trying to notice these things in my work none the less.
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| Sunday, October 11th, 2009
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6:54 pm
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I went to see Cirque on Friday... it was flipping FANTASTIC. We followed it by dinner at the Keg, which we walked to from Cirque, in the rain under an umbrella. It was one of the best evenings ever.
Ladies/gents, if you're trying to woo a lady/gent, and have the money to do it, go on that date; Cirque and a walk and a fancy dinner.
I read in my first year psych text (or perhaps was told in lecture, I forget) on the topic of learning and memory, that first dates involving something exhilarating, like walks on rickety bridges, or something energetic (like rock climbing, that would be awesome) are more likely to be followed by a second dates than dates to somewhere less exhilarating. The reason is generalization; the feeling of getting your blood pumping gets associated with that person.
Very fun stuff.
Anyway, go see cirque. It was incredible. I had so much fun... During the intermission I had to close my mouth because it had been ajar for the whole first half. The second half is just as good. I loved the red spider (though... there are no red widows! lol) she was adorable.
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| Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
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4:44 pm - NSERC again
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Not long after writing that other update I went to hand in my paper work, and my transcripts hadn't arrived, one reference letter hadn't arrived, and the other reference letter was in the wrong format.
So, going with the metaphor of the final exam; I walked in thinking I had the thing licked, and walked out black and blue. And no hope for a bell-curve.
I think I've done everything I can for now... I'm going to have to sit back and hope my documents get here in time and that I'll still be considered for these awards.
... Then I have to hope that I'm competitive enough to actually get them.
Life is filled with much uncertainty. I guess that's what keeps it exciting?
[EDIT] http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3319 This comic? Definitely written for me today. In a mocking sort of way. Shut up Universe.
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10:35 am - NnnnnnnnnnnnnSERC!
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Omgoodness, I can't believe it's been 3 days since I updated. It seems like yesterday.
My life has been consumed by the process of applications to NSERC. Between that and the headcold I caught at the beginning of the week, the last few days have been a blur of sexual-selection this and female-choice that. Honestly, when I look at my proposal now, all I see is keywords and glue-words, and no meaning at all. Good thing I have so many fantastic people in my life who were willing to take a minute out to proof read with suggestions for me. Otherwise it would have looked like spagetti-O's or Alphabits. Omnomnom delicious proposal!
As soon as Emily finished reading it, I'm going to print the final draft and go hand it in. GAH! It feels like the last day of exams, ending with an exam that I've studied really hard for. I'm nervous, but excited, and just full of this weird energy. Like I've had too much coffee, but I haven't had any (or any food for that matter... whoops!).
If I get NSERC, I am definitely having a party for all the people who have helped me in the lab. And I will provide the beer.
omgoodness fsdlkfhaseuhcsanc sufh safhsasidfhsoef asdlf algsef af;sidfh ashf shfg sefhjkasndf bvkshdj,cvnxzkheonfkyrgh;asldjoryse fsaf sdf askjfg ;sfhashfkdjhf;S!!!!!!
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| Friday, October 2nd, 2009
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8:02 pm - pasta
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Today I made garlic Alfredo pasta with Rainbow trout, shrimp and peppers. Omigoodness delicious. Then I repeated the whole recipe for Mike and Shane. Fish is full of really excellent things that we don't get from a lot of other foods. Win and win. Next time I'll try it with perch to see if it's as good - 'cause perch is a lot less expensive.
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| Monday, September 21st, 2009
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6:09 pm - I just
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got my first door to door sales person.
I shot him down very quickly, which was good because Jasmine was trying to get into the hallway.
Also, I lied about who our service provider is. Whoops! =P
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| Monday, September 7th, 2009
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6:10 am - Toe
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Yesterday I stubbed my toe really really badly on one of the orange chairs. There was hopping and swearing which led to me rolling in a ball on the couch laughing and crying at the same time. It has since turned brown and purple on the top, and red/pink on the side. It's either broken, sprained, or really badly bruised. Shane thought it was broken, but John thought it was bruised, so who knows for sure?
Anyway, it doesn't hurt very much unless I try to move it around. Which is sad because I REALLY really want to stretch and crack my toes but I caaaaaan't! Fail.
In other news, we're going to go get Jasmine today. YAY!!!
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| Sunday, September 6th, 2009
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11:58 am - 6 day update
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It's been 6 days since I last posted. Where to begin?
Monday was the last day before we got the keys. Lot's of hectic work stuff, there was a spider escape, so on and so forth followed by packing, etc.
Tuesday: we went to get the keys... we got there at 10:30 and the fools told us we couldn't go yet because they were still painting... even though we told them not to paint because we were going to paint. We told them a bunch of times that if they were going to be getting the space back early to let us know so we could come and paint instead of them doing it. so there was a lot of miscommunication and annoyance and we had to wait two hours to get our keys and go see our new space. In the meantime we went to the new york cafe on the corner which is delightfully cheap. Two breakfast meals for under 10$! Then we went up to our apartment. There were lots of things we didn't like, but lots of things that were pleasant surprises. Unfortunately then I had to go to school for the new faculty orientation thing (lots of fun) but poor mike had to wait and wasn't very happy about it. When we came back we picked up my mum and brought all the cleaning supplies and cleaned/disinfected every surface in the kitchen and washroom. Washed the windows and the floors, and cleaned a bunch of other stuff. At some point Sina came by to help and hang out. At the end we chose the colours for the office and living room. Then my mum got picked up by my dad, Sina went out with Shane and Linny, and Mike and I stayed to work on stuff... but then Shane called that their movie was canceled, so we went out for a drink instead. Finally we went back to Mikes house to sleep.
Wednesday: Painting painting painting. We bought the paint in the morning, my mum, Mike's dad, and Meghan came to help, and we painted like mad creatures. We went out for lunch between coats at what is going to come to be known as greek macdonalds; a little place by Chester that has good but very cheap greek food. Then more painting until we left to sleep.
Thursday: Mooooving day. On Tuesday and Wednesday we were bringing a box here and another there, but on Thursday we did the real move. We rented a truck from 8am, Mike's dad drove it to my house, picked up all my stuff and packed it in, then to Mike's house. We were storing most of our furniture and things at Mike's house, so while my house took 30 minutes with everyone helping, Mike's too more like 3 hours (number approximate =P). Finally we got on the road with everything. My parents, Mike's parents, my brother, Shane, Sina and Meghan came to help us. I bought $70 of pizza pizza, drinks, and fruit to feed everyone during the move. Afterward my family went out, Mike's parents stayed longer than I wanted them to but finally left, leaving just us and our friends. We unpacked and stuff for a while, then took everyone out for Dim Sum down the street at Gerrard and Broadview (sooo very disappointing. Dim Sum on a weekday evening = crap). This was the first night we had a bed in our apartment, so we slept here.
Friday: in the morning we took off early to go to homedepot and then to Ikea. At 12 Mike dropped me off at school... by then I had smashed my legs and ankles off of several things and had a headache, but off to work I went anyway. Mike went home (apartment) and did a few things with Meghan, but also had a headache so spent a bunch of time lying down. Coming home from school it took me and hour and ten minutes to get home. X___X I was pretty mentally and physically exhausted from the headache and everything else by the time I got home, so I was feeling pretty horrible. Mike put up some blinds while I grumpily curled on the bed to watch. Meghan enjoyed Mike's computer which plays WoW much much better than her computer did before it exploded into little bits. After Meghan left Mike was feeling gross and I had long since cheered up, so I took him out for dinner... We went to Jack Astors at yonge and bloor, and it took us no time at all to get there. It blew my mind a little... we live in an effing fantastic location.
Saturday: Meghan came over again because she is fantastic. We really started getting this place in order... it's still a ball of chaos, but at least there are desks made and chairs to sit in. We did lots of cleaning and organizing, then went to the superstore at don mills and eglington (all Lawblaws stores are having a no-tax sale right now) to stock our kitchen for the first time. It took us many hours, two loads (1st for non perishables, 2nd for perishables), and nearly $700 to stock it for the first time. X___X Holy. Fuck. When we got home we cleaned some more stuff, then Chris and Lianne showed up. Soon after they showed up, Mike and I left them in our house like the excellent hosts we are, to go buy a TV with my dad (their moving-out gift). We got a Sony, 40" tv... it's pretty sexy. Mike had a lot of fun getting it: we were getting it at the superstore we had been at before because of the no-tax deal, but when we got there it was sold out. So Mike called future shop down the street to price match it... which they did. When we got back we made pasta with meatballs for everyone (Lianne and Chris made garlic bread), in the process blowing a fuse in the kitchen. Lianne had brought a big bottle of wine which we drank. My dad stayed to eat and help us put together the TV and then headed out. The rest of us stayed to hang out, get the TV working playing stuff off my computer, and/or playing warcraft. Much fun was had.
Now it's Sunday... and I'm going to go watch the airshow off my balcony. =]
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| Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
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6:04 pm - Packing + Zen Restaurant
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I've started packing.
Well, technically speaking, I "started" packing a while ago, but it was only one box. Today my mum and I actually started the process of going through my house to find all my stuff. We made it through the library and into the office before my brain exploded while trying to do my desk. Brush? Greenpeace letter? Minitab disc? GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *throws them into the air*.
I'll take a break for internet, dinner, and picking up Mike before I start in on it all again. Maybe I'll go shopping in there too, but I'd like to finish up my desk because it's in serious disarray. That whole side of the room is due to my desk having spilled it's guts onto every available surface in the room.
It's a good thing I still have a week (7 days until we get the keys!) because this is going to take lots of short bursts. Mike has been saying 'that is what Saturday, Sunday and Monday are for!' in response to my concerns about not having started the job of stuffing our lives into neat boxes, but I don't think I can take a three-day intensive packing session. Moving and then unpacking in one continuous stream of work is going to be horrible enough. I think it needs to be paced with different kinds of work to keep sane. Going crazy from sorting? Put together a shelf instead. You know?
In other news, I forgot to mention the Zen Japanese restaurant on Eglington at Brimley that we went to on Saturday. It was really run by Japanese people (which is pretty novel it seems), and I had a very stuttering conversation in Japanese with them. It made be intensely miss speaking in Japanese. My skills are so rusty, the gears barely turn. The food... was unbelievable. The chicken Katsu tasted like I was in Japan. Ooooh, there is nothing I miss as much as I miss Japanese food. I've been obsessing about this restaurant since I left it. I can't wait to go back. Unfortunately, it is prohibitively expensive for a poor student like me. Definitely not an everyday place.
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| Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
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10:51 am - Civic holiday update
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I haven't updated in 4 days. I loose!
On Friday I went with my family to the Scarborough Ribfest which was a lot of fun. Shane and Lianne met us there for a short while. I invited them back for some wine but Lianne was too tired. When we got home I had a glass of wine and played a game of ticket to ride with my mum and mike. Then Mike and I took off back to his place with the van.
On Saturday morning he and I got up, planning to go on a 2 hour trip to get him some clothes and maybe look for running shoes. Then the thing I was going to go to (digital camera scavenger hunt) was cancelled so we stayed out the whole day. We went to Scarborough town centre, then the animal shelter, then Vaughn mills mall and finally to the corningware store in pickering before going back to his place. We bought a bag full of clothes for mike (and a shirt for me) at Scaborough town, and three pairs of shoes for mike at vaughn mills. At the shelter there was an effing BENGAL. His name was Rex, but unfortunately he was really loud... the type of cat that likes to be heard, and likes to talk. Mike did NOT approve of this behaviour. There was another cat, he was a brown tabby and his name is Toby. We may get him.
Our 2 hour trip turned into an 8 hour trip. whoops! We also checked out a lot of kitchen and houseware stores which was interesting. We bought a bunch of pyrex stuff at the corning ware store, and I also bought some for my friend's house warming party (which is where I went in the evening).
After all that I left mike at his house and then went home so I could go to my friends housewarming party in the Annex. That was a bunch of fun... lots of alcohol consumed, lots of loud and drunken conversations had, lots of apples to apples played. ^___^ I caught the 1:45AM 116 bus from Kennedy, and there was a KAJILLION people from carriabana getting on it. They were like children too; standing in the road instead of on the platform so the bus couldn't drive up to where it was supposed to, and then pushing people in the doors once it stopped. Somebody fell in the door. I had an amusing ride listening to this one group of girls talk though... =P
I finally got into bed at about 3AM. I haven't actually gotten up yet, so we'll see when I stand how my head feels after the tequilla shot I had at the end of the night.
Todays Agenda:
1) SHOWER!!!!!!
2) go see mike
3) go to uxbridge to see Lauren
Monday:
Maybe something with Matt and Snoozy and/or Shane and Lianne?
Overall, this is shaping up to be a pretty good holiday weekend. b^_____^d
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| Sunday, July 26th, 2009
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4:33 pm - BIKING!!
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I just got back from a delightful bike ride. (You can follow my description bellow on Google map, starting from Guildwood Ave. and Morningside Ave.)
I went from my house, up morningside to coronation, East on Coronation to Beechgrove Dr., farther East on Beechgrove, then south (the street turns 90 degrees). The factory south of the train tracks there is what we call the werewolf pumping station. The parkinglot has been converted into a temporary dump: it STANK, =P.
From the southern most part of beechgrove I turned back west and biked through east point park. East point park is an overgrown wild-area... the paths aren't bike paths, they're 15cm wide spaces that people have walked on so that fewer plants grew there. Well a range of path types. In some places there are rocks, others there is bike-path, some are grassy, MOST and muddy and small. Especially after all this rain =].
Anyway, I biked along the bluffs through the park, getting soaked and muddy from puddles, and scratched up in the brush. I turned north onto a more travelled path so I came out of the park on the east side of the baseball diamonds. There were games going on in the baseball diamond park, so I went to investigate, biking through the U of their driveway slowly.
Then onto Copperfield Rd to Manse, to Coronation, to Morningside and home. While on Copperfield it started POURING rain. =D It was fantastic. I got soaked.
When I got off my bike my legs were kind of shaky, I was wet from the rain, muddy from the puddles, and sweaty from the ride. I forgot how much I LOVE biking... On the first leg of the journey I was going 35km/hour! After that I forgot about my odometer, which is probably just as well because I was paying more attention to not getting stuck in the mudd. Some of the puddles were so deep it came up to my ankle WHILE I WAS RIDING. XD Awesome.
I'm going to try to go biking once a day, or no less than every other day for the rest of August. Let's see if I can't get myself back into something vaguely human shaped instead of a blob of studying-ooze. I wish I had access to the school gyms during the summer so I could use their facilities. That would be pretty fantastic! Swimming!! But I'll get that back in September; living at broadview will make it easy to go swimming at the downtown gym once a week. =] I'm excited!
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| Thursday, July 16th, 2009
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4:49 pm
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OUR RENTAL APPLICATION WAS APPROVED!!
It's lease-signing-time bitches!
wowsa.
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| Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
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9:36 am
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We came SOO SOOOOO Close to finding the place of our dreams. But someone else took it first. It was on the 11th floor, two blocks south of broadview and danforth, 100 m from a grocery store, amazing view of the city, two bedrooms, excellent building with a pool... *sigh* Damnit.
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| Thursday, June 18th, 2009
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8:27 pm - schedule:
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read ch 11 (Work) Friday early afternoon
read ch 12 (rotation of rigid bodies) Friday evening
read ch 14 (??) Saturday morning
read ch 15 (fluids) Saturday afternoon
Sunday: make cheat-sheet, use it to PRACTICE
Monday: PRACTICE
Tuesday: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
Tuesday night: exam
Wednesday: have fun.
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| Monday, June 15th, 2009
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7:47 pm - When You Are Engulfed in Flames
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By David Sedaris is hilarious. I wasn't so sure at first... see, I read the first few pages in the book store and was laughing out loud. I read a few more chapters and then thought he was kind of sexist... and then racist... but reading more, it becomes effing hilarious again.
It supposed to be about death, but so far, it has nothing to do with death at all. And it's completely different from the kinds of books I've read in the past. There is no real plot that I can see at the moment. I'm sure all the random topics he covers in each chapter will eventually twine together to some purpose, but right now, they seem pretty arbitrary except that most of it is vaguely chronological. It jumps back and forth in time, but mostly pretending to be chronological.
It makes me want to break my journal entries up into short and funny anecdotes instead of the self-indulgent winding and rambling crap I normally inflict on you, my two readers.
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