elk lake isn't warm in april

Oh, dear lord.

So we were all rowing merrily along this afternoon on Elk Lake, when all of a sudden, two of our rowers got out of sync, and got their oars caught in the water. We started to tilt to starboard. So, being the "experienced" rower that I am, I decided to compensate by depressing the flat side of my oar against the surface of the lake in order to counteract the forces pulling us to starboard.

But there was one thing...

My oar wasn't squared against the surface of the water. Oh no, it was perpendicular. So what happened? I too got my oar caught, and contributed to the forces pulling us over. The boat started to slowly tilt, and I though "Well, we've tipped this far before, and we always recover." Except we didn't. All of a sudden, Elk Lake was filling our boat over the starboard gunnel, and we swamped the boat and flipped.

That's right, we flipped the boat, dumping all of us rather unceremoniously into the lake. The cold, cold lake. And when you are rowing, your feet are velcroed into shoes that are fastened to the boat. So as we started to swamp, someone yelled "FEET!" and we all tried to pull the emergency release on our shoes before we went right over. Luckily, we did. Another bit of luck: the coach boat was following us, and they have life preservers.

So there we are, beaching ourselves over our capsized boat, and we are thinking "the coach boat will pick us up, and we'll go back to the boathouse and dry off/warm up." Except that when you flip a $15,000+ boat, its recovery become fairly important. And so we had to STAY in the freezing lake, remove all of the oars from the boat, and pass them into the coach boat. Then, we had to flip the boat back to upright. Then we got to climb into the coach boat. But wait, we have to tow the boat back to shore. Well, there is nothing more exciting than freezing your ass of in wet clothes, with no shoes, while leaning out the side of the coach boat to hold a swamped/sinking rowing shell beside you as you creep back to the boathouse.

Once we got to shore, we all got to shower, which was fortunate. It was also fortunate that I had brought a towel in my backpack today. It was unfortunate that I had no change of clothes. So off with everything (including skivvies), a hot shower, then putting on the wet swimsuit (ick), and helping bring the submerged boat back up to the boathouse.

Needless to say, an eventful day.

Now my warm, cozy bed is beckoning. I think I shall heed its call.

kinda fitting, eh?

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whoa

so it's been more than a month. but a lot has happened, and will be happening. Pictures, updates, text, and rants will follow shortly.

because I am done exams, I now have more time to spend on my blog...

which isn't necessarily good.

german, party, and news

So I have been out of touch for the past couple of weeks, simply due to school overload. But most of that is behind me now, so I can focus and relax a little. I know, they sound like two things that shouldn't go together, but being able to focus coherently brings order to chaos, which eases stress/causes relaxation.

I got my German midterm back, and I didn't fare too well; 53%. But the test was grossly oversized for the 50-minute timeslot it was scheduled for. Only two people left the room ahead of time. 8 of the marks I lost were for mis-spelling words, or forgetting to finish words completely, which got worse towards the end of the test, and was caused by lack of time.

I went to a St. Patrick's Day party on Friday at Michael's house. An amazing time was had by all. I drank too much (way too much), smoked some weed (big mistake) and tottered home at 3:30am in the morning. I then got four hours of sleep, because the sun came out and woke me up, and Samara's mom made the three of us poached eggs on toast, which was exactly what I needed before heading to Cinecenta to work a split 8-hour shift. Needless to say, Sunday was pretty much a write off, except for a great walk that Mera and I went on. I hadn't been to Witty's Lagoon in a long time, and it was great to go there. I forgot how beautiful Metchosin is.

But something else happened at the party on Friday that is worth mentioning; I met someone. Someone I want to spend more time with and get to know. We had coffee today at the school, just sat in the sun on the Quad and talked. It was great. He has to bury himself in some papers over the next couple of weeks, but we are going to do a couple of movie nights (hopefully) once his work load eases a bit.

Anyways, I am off for another walk downtown with Mera, maybe I'll buy her a coffee, and then off to Paboom to buy a journal.

Cheers all!

random

so...

i was going to clean my room, and then I was like "I need to change the background on my blog."

So i did...

You are now looking at a picture of the MacLaurin Building at Uvic. Ain't it hot?

I have been really into architecture and photos lately. I need to buy a book on it. Speaking of books, Mera loaned me "Magical Thinking" by Augusten Burroughs, which is probably the best book/collection of short stories I have ever read. Really a hoot. Maybe if I keep it long enough, Mera will forget she owns it. I also recently read "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx. It was amazing, movie hype aside. It actually opens up the movie, if you get what I understand what I mean. I also need to read "Rise of Rome" by the ancient Roman historian Livy. Not exciting, in the slightest.

Anyways, I think I will finish cleaning my room now.

and I'm out.

worst job ever

This guy has a terrible job. Mind the langauge in the video...


Click here to view

lack of activity

Rachel was right, there has been a lack of activity around here lately. I had a crazy, crazy week before reading break. I did indeed write the midterm that I had stopped caring about, and it was indeed something i should have been caring about. The exam was uber specific, so I don't know how I did. I also wrote my History midterm, with what I am sure are to be good results. The Prof scared the bejesus out of the class with the proposed content on the exam, but it ended up being 10 multiple-choice and an essay question, so it went really well.

On Sunday I headed up to Nanaimo to hang out with Liz and Chris, and did absolutely nothing. Lindsay drove up the island with me, and we hung out in the afternoon before dropping her off at the ferry back to Vancouver. I came back down on Wednesday, worked, and then went to Vancouver with Keenan on Thursday. We took care of some business, and then hung out for the rest of the day. We went to Mountain Equipment Co-op and I got a man-purse (they call it a travel satchel) and a new mug for work. We hit Metrotown and IKEA in the afternoon after having lunch with Lindsay, had dinner and went to the ferry. All in all, it was a great day, good to hang out with a friend on a little mini-holiday.

But I gotta stop blogging and get back to work! I have a research paper due next Monday and I haven't started at all!

not good

it is really bad to get a case of the "i-don't-care-anymores" the night before a midterm in a course that you haven't done any of the required reading for

here i am

here i am, after cleaning the bathroom at my parents. I am tired, and my arm is sore from scrubbing. Matthew isn't able to clean the bathroom anymore due to his back, so no one does it.

Which reinforces the fact that I could never move home until they got a cleaning lady and kept her. Sad, but true.

No movement on the mould front. I want to go back to my house. This is day three at the parents, and I am going a little stir crazy here right now. I want my bed, my music, my books, my notes, my life, my food, and I really miss socializing with the roomies in the evening. Much as I love the family, everything in my family is always so sensational, and it can be trying sometimes. I am going to call the landlady tonight and give her and update (she is back from New York) so we can get this issue resolved. I like living where I am, and I want to resume that.

Now that the schock has worn off, I think I can approach this from a more level-headed space than before. I knew about mould on the windows and the bathroom ceiling, and I could handle that. Single-pane wood-fram windows do get extremely wet and mould as a result, and the bathroom fan isn't great, so the ceiling gets mouldy (Crystal graciously cleans it) but I wasn't awaere to what extent there was mould in the house. Samara had a small run-in with mould behind her bookcase, but that was one time. What got me was the shock of finding it, and finding it all over my stuff. That was really upsetting.

But on to greener pastures. I went to the BC Archives yesterday and found the public inquiry I was looking for, and Greek and Roman studies was cancelled today, so I got home early, so all is pretty good. Chicken for dinner, and then on with the evening!

i feel like a bag of all-sorts

meaning i feel out of sorts, sort of. I found a LOT of mould in my closet today, and it was disgusting. Anywhere that something was touching an exterior wall, it moulded. About 12 of my ties are at the drycleaner now (covered in mould, that may not come off), along with 3 sweaters, including lambs wool from my late grandpa and my dad, that are worth a lot. I hope that they come clean. Not too mention the dry cleaning bill...

Most of my uniform is mouldy, except the shirts, all of my bedding (except what was on the bed), along with all of my expensive microfiber shirts I wear in the summer, as well as my rowing gear. My goosedown slippers are ruined, and I had a throwcushion that was actually green with mould on it, not just spotty.

Part of me feels like I am over-reacting. But I have respiratory allergies anyways, and so I am not going to subject my lungs to the mould unneccessarily. I have been having "allergies" all winter, and I was just chalking them up to odd weather we have been having this season, but maybe it was the mould all along. And the mould was/is gross. I called the landlady, who is in New York, and she told me to call someone in to look at the mould and see what needs to be done to fix the problem, and to let her know. She also wants the roomies to look for mould. Mould removal is expensive. Sure, you can wash it off the surface, but it is still in the wall itself. I am worried that the landlady is getting in for an expensive repair, but one that has to be done nonetheless.

In the meantime, I have uprooted a compact version of my life and am residing at the parents place for now, washing the mould out of what washes, and waiting to hear from the mould man. But the guest bed is not MY bed, and it actually takes longer to get to UVic from here (3 kms away) than it does from my house. I dunno what to do...

Oh well, in the meantime, beddy bye for Dave. Below are a couple of pictures for your delectation...

Mouldy shelf! Mouldy wet wall!


Mouldy ties!

i don't heart junk mail

I am so sick of junk mail in my mailbox. I got the most ridiculous subject line today:

"If your penis looks like an old shrivelled banana under the bedsheets, use Super Viagra!!"

I want these people to fuck off! Get out of my mailbox!

On any given day, I get approximately 50 junk mails, to an account that I never give out on the web. It is bloody ridiculous. They should do some market research before sending these things to 22 year old men.

Even if my penis DID look like a shrivelled banana under the bedsheets (which incidentally, it doesn't) I wouldn't consult my junk mail box for advice, I would go to a DOCTOR!!

JEEBUS!

On a positive note, at least the junk mail filter in Outlook is good enough to catch every, single one of these emails and divert them out of my inbox. Thank god. I just hate deleting these things.

GAH! AGH! and an ARGH! for good measure!

i heart the sound of music

I forgot just how much I love "The Sound of Music." That movie makes me spontaneously smile, a giant plus.

Part 2 to be watched in the coming days!

one down, twelve to go...

So, first week of classes is over. My professional writing course is going to be a snap. Today, the prof couldn't show up, so he sent a TA instead to supervise an in-class assignment. The task? Write a memorandum on how to write a cover letter. Then leave.

It wasn't difficult. And he cancelled class for tomorrow. So I can SLEEP IN!! YAY!

Tomorrow is going to be a great day. The 8.30am class is cancelled, and German (at 11.30) is only an orientation in the CALL Facility, which is moronically simple, and then I have Greek and Roman studies at 12.30, then done for the day.

I shut down my wireless network, aand now have a 50ft cable running into the kitchen for network access. It aint pretty, but it does the job. The wireless network kept booting my computer off the network, usually in the middle of downloading my latest purchase from iTunes, and then wouldn't let me back on. Several times a day. I bought a new wireless router to replace the old one, but that didn't work either, same problem. And before you all say that it is my computer causing the problem, it uses other wireless networks without a hiccup.

Technology: they say that it is great, and that it is supposed to help us, but there are times when I doubt that.

First day...

Today is the first day of classes, and the fun begins once more. 4 classes
this term, and so far, it's looking
pretty good. At most I'll have 2 finals, but I have a LOT of writing to do. I
am in an Introduction to
Profession Writing class, and we have to write a bunch of memorandae (sp?) and
a final report worth 35%
of our grade. But all will be well.

Best of luck and fun for the new semester!

All the best

Happy New Year!!!!

A yank on your ear for the first of the year!

and Tara knows what else I will say i f she doesn't say it first...

And so the update begins

You know what was really sad? I had to go and read my own blog to figure out what I last wrote about, in order to not repeat myself. So sad...

Alright, so I finished my exams on the 13th, and got a couple of my grades in. I got an A- in my German, and a B+ in my English Lit course. I'm still waiting on a grade for the other English course, but in due time it will arrive.

Shortly before the holidays, Liz, Chris, Felicity and Amber threw their 50s Ultra-Lounge martini/cocktail christmas party. It was much much fun to attend, but so many people didn't theme themselves! This was a THEME PARTY! Only a few people brought things for the kitschy gift exchange, and only a few of us bothered to dress up, meaning that we ended up looking slightly ridiculous in all the photos. Chloe came over from Vancouver for the party, and it was great to see her again. I just was completely unable to get drunk at this party. But it was great to get away to Nanaimo before the week of work began. Below are a few pictures from the party.





I had a pretty good Christmas, but I worked A LOT. 7 days in a row, with Boxing day being the last one. I don't think I will work on Christmas Day next year, it was just too hectic. I went to the family house, Liz and Chris came down from Nanaimo, so it was good to hang out with them, albeit briefly. On Boxing Day, we had our usual "Stair Gang Christmas" with the high-school friends at Butchart Gardens. It was the best possible visit this year. We went for drinks in the Dining Room, and a grand time skating, and then wrapped up the evening with our gift exchange. A great time had by all.

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone, and Happy New Year!!

And what a season

I had a great holiday season, as great as good expected under the supreme-amount-of-work circumstances.

But all is well. I had a day off, did very little, and thought all day about the enourmous blog post that I owe everyone, but without actually doing it. Hence, this short post before bed.

The weather outside is frightful, but my bed is so cozy, and I;m off to beddy-bye. More to come in the days to come.

there are days...

..at work when I feel like I am beating my head against a brick wall…

maybe I could transfer

beer is my therapy

Holiday hilarity

I just thought I would post this. I found it hilarious...

Yet another change

I changed the pic to something a little better, in my opinion.

I did actually take this picture, while visiting Lindsay and Ryan in the July. It is taken along the seawall walk, right near English Bay. (Linds, correct me if I am wrong).