It seems like it’s been forever since I updated but I guess it’s only since last Monday. A quick recap of the week:
Monday
This was a crazy day. We were up until 6 AM on Tuesday morning working on our stupid databases project. Of course, we didn’t actually start the project until Monday morning, so it’s our own fault.
Tuesday
This had all of the makings of our come-uppance, the university’s revenge for 5 years of laziness and procrastination but once again, we managed to pull through. Our software engineering demo was absolutely brutal. We went right after the Dream Team, which had absolutely everything working flawlessly, which made our project seem even worse. We were supposed to demonstrate a few specific test cases, and well, none of ours were working. We felt so bad for the TA because he was desperately seeking for ways to give us marks and there really were none. We finally got something working to show him and we ended up getting a decent mark (14/18), but there’s no way in hell that we deserved it. We actually felt guilty afterwards, but at least the adrenaline of trying to explain why things weren’t working woke us up some. For our databases demo, we went in knowing that a key component of the system wasn’t working. At all. Fortunately the TA in that course was very easy to smooth talk through the demo and the component that we didn’t have working was the last one he wanted to see and just looking at the code was good enough for him. We just had to send him a screenshot of the working screen from home the next day.
And with that, I was done all class-related stuff FOREVER. Just one set of exams to go and then I’m done my undergraduate degree. I so can’t wait until we’re done. It’s going to feel so relieving. I was supposed to go home on Tuesday since I haven’t been there in a long long time. I was feeling pretty tired so I took Marcy’s advice and took a small nap and then headed home. The border was ridiculous if you were a truck driver, the lineup was 6 km long. For cars it wasn’t nearly as bad, as a matter of fact it was relatively routine getting through. When I got home my mom told me that they sold the house. I was plenty surprised, especially since it’s only been up for a week. The average for Oakland County is 74 days, so it’s even better, plus they got something really close to their asking price so I think they a) had the right agent (4 million in sales last year) and b) priced the house right. Other houses in our area are going for almost double and there’s no way they can sell it at that price. The new couple is another Canadian family (yay!), so that’s good, keeping up the tradition. Selling a house is pretty different from Canada though, and the paperwork fun is just beginning for my parents.
Wednesday
Got my haircut. It was getting a little scruffy to say the least. I also tried fixing our computer at home, without luck. I don’t understand why turning off the power to an outlet would cause the computer to fail to boot now. Really really strange. I have a strategy for fixing it when I go home this coming week though, so hopefully that’ll fix things. One less thing for my mom to worry about, that’s for sure. She really needs time to unwind, but that probably won’t happen until after they move in June. I watched a ton of Law and Order too, like 4 episodes and I did a bit of studying for my exam this coming Monday.
Thursday
Came back to Waterloo, and it’s a very good thing I left when I did. Marcy had a presentation at 2 at school for the Graduate Research Conference, and I definitely wanted to make it back for that. It was a great presentation, she really did a good job, and I know that she’ll make a superb teacher, no matter what level she ends up teaching. Anyway, so after the presentation we got some ingredients for dinner and came back here. That’s when the ice storm happened. We probably had about 30-45 mm of ice on the ground, mixed with sleet and snow. Pearson Airport ran out of de-icing fluid so they had to shut it down. Ridiculous, I tell you.
Friday
School was closed, which is very very rare. It didn’t look that bad outside, but apparently the Waterloo Board of Education decided to close down the schools, which means that the university is closed as well. Not that it really mattered anyway, since our classes were finished on Tuesday, only arts classes went until Friday, but still, it was highly unusual. There was hardly any traffic on the roads. The Grad Conference was supposed to have a banquet and dancing, but it got cancelled too, well actually postponed. At night, we went to see A Man Apart, which got a pitiful 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of Friday (it’s at 9% now), which put it on the same level as Boat Trip. I didn’t think it was that bad, it was exactly what I expected. Cheesy lines, lots of action, some attempts at drama. I don’t know what the other critics were looking for, it was certainly no masterpiece, but it was enjoyable. Marcy and Trevor went to see Head of State, which was apparently quite enjoyable.
Saturday
Today I did a bunch of studying, or at least that was my intent and that’s what I’ll tell everyone I did today. We also planned out where we’re going for our trip to Europe at the end of the month, which I’m getting excited about, though I’m not sure how I’m going to pay for it yet. We’re hoping to fly out of here around the 27th of April and I’m coming back on the 3rd of June most likely. Andy, Ed, and Lonnie are staying until the 12th or so. I have to be back because I need to get to my brother’s graduation ceremony on the 4th. So our planned route is:
- London
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow
- Dublin
- Belfast
- Rouen
- Paris
- Barcelona
- Nice
- Rome
- Venice
- Zurich
- Prague
- Vienna
- Munich
- Berlin
- Amsterdam
- Stockholm
- London
- Home
I most likely won’t have time to see Amsterdam and Stockholm, because we’re planning on spending at least a couple of days at each city. This is of course a very loose schedule and we’ll adjust it as we see fit. We need a visa to get to Prague, so if we don’t get that in time, then we’ll have to cut that out of the trip.
I also managed to get my car unstuck this afternoon. It was seriously wedged in the snow/ice/mud. We had to take boiling water and put it around the wheels to help loosen it. Ed helped me push it out and I managed to get mud over the bottom half of his pants (tee hee). Tonight I kind of did my Canadian taxes, or at least figured out how much I can expect to get back, which is a bit lower than I expected, but that’s ok, I’ll make due. I have to start looking for a place to live around here because… I have a job now. I’m working at my twice-previous employer (i.e. last winter’s workterm). I really liked it there and the people are great. Plus it seems like the company is destined for great things (though I said the same thing about Inline in the past), so hopefully it’ll pan out in my favour. I’m excited to get my own place, it’ll be nice to have some room to stretch out a bit and plus I won’t have to move for a while, which is beyond nice, I can’t even begin to tell you how nice that will be.
This is an awesome song, and an even better lp. I just got it recently, though I’ve heard this particular track on Gilles Peterson’s show more than once. If you like The Roots or Jill Scott, then you’re bound to like this sound too, very smooth. I love discovering new, great music like this, it makes me feel so good inside.
Ok, back to “studying”. I guess this wasn’t as quick an update, as I originally intended, but I got carried away.
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