What is the deal?

I have to get this out. What is the deal with men?! Don’t get me wrong, I love men, most of my friends are men, but with more exposure to them comes increased confusion and frustration. In person, they are perfect specimens; but the other times…
I think men’s sense of priority can change instantaneously (this would explain why my job is so all-over-the-place). As soon as they are not looking you in the face, their attention diverges to something, anything else.

“The men, rely mainly on their vision to detect danger and potential females. Their primary food source consists of pizza and beer.”

I should correct myself, their priority does not change instantaneously; it’s more like a count down after you leave their sight. 10…9… “I miss you and I’ll call you soon”…8…7… “yup, gonna call her”…6…5… “hungry, sleepy”…4…3… “Sh*t, I said I’d call her didn’t I”…2…1 “AHH forget it.” You. Bastards. I didn’t really want you to call me in the first place, but if you’re going to repeatedly tell me you will, then am I crazy to expect you to actually call? Is this some kind of ego trip to see if you can get my number? Because instead of having any desire to see you again, I’m just going to leave town and never come back!! Uhhh…hypothetically speaking of course.

For all such men out there, go away and leave me alone.

For those about to rock, we salute you.

Do you guys rate your professors? Ok, so maybe that is totally lame, but at least I’m not out buying text books and… like… reading them and stuff. I am super excited for MUSIC140. The guy is supposed to be an amazing teacher and a bass player. With Geoff and Janet by my side, it’s gonna be nothing but excessive drinking, projectile snickering, unprompted lighter waving, public flashing, synchronous skipping, that thing that you do on your way to the fast food joint during intermission where you see this hot guy/girl with nice shoes and you pretend to pick something off the ground so maybe he/she will check out your robust hump but while you’re down there you might as well tie up that shoelace and as you’re working the knot you’re just thinking “what’s the point” but then the hot he or she will come over and you’ll be like “Hi baby, I’m part of the M140, they’re sold out but I can probably get cha in”…. uh hum… elaborate spending, unhealthy ingesting, fancy walking, dirty talking and a whole lotta rock n’ roll…. yup, indubitably.

Triannual thaw process

The last 24hrs have been about new company. A coworker invited me out for some grub at a place called Cheers; yes, everybody there did know his name. I found myself at the bar with no one but middle aged men drinking one beer after another while scantily clad but sweet bar tenders diligently waited on them and took their drunk mumbling and spats. When they calmed down, we all talked about the Guess Who’s who were playing on TV at the time and fishing. It was definitely odd company for me, and I would not expect to find myself in such a place again for many years, but it was a grand ol’time and something I will look back on.

I took a drive during lunch with the tic-tac-toe guy. We drove through some great landscape in Fleetsville. It was mountainous cultivated farm land with apple orchards, grape vines and crop fields, each occupying a mound of land. Accelerating through the hills in a Mercedes “Kompressor”, it felt just like Germany haha.

So here lies the irony of the situation. It takes a while to adjust to a new place, usually about the same time climate starts to change, people seem more welcoming and your attitude thaws out. But as soon as this happens, it’s time to pack up and go.
If I were thinking clearly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. So why does it have to be partially cloudy today?!

The signoff

Today, we had a safety signoff for the piece of equipment I designed. Watching the men with hair bickering over this thing was awesome. Some think it will work, some think it won’t. We’ll have to try and see won’t we? What people had problems with was “the equipment is too safe” not in those words exactly. Essentially, because the unit is almost completely enclosed, people can’t have their hands in and start up the machine at the same time… yeah… that’s the point of the safety guarding, I thought this meeting was about safety. It’s going to delay initial start up for a couple of seconds, but I have operators having a hissy fit over this. It’s not a shuttle launch for f sakes! My work report is about this thing, it won’t win any awards, but guaranteed to be the thickest. I’m going to get my 14 bucks worth.

Did I mention Mick Jagger was at the safety signoff meeting?! Except he introduced himself as Chuck. Yup, Chuck Jagger. Even better. Now that I look again, he does have a slight resemblance to Chuck Norris as well. Is there a more perfect human being on this earth than a rocking musician that’ll julian your pelvis with side kicks? The answer, is no.
Thank you.

Merritt Island

I went to dinner with D (the landlord) again yesterday. If I’m privileged enough to meet more people like him later in life, then growing old won’t be so bad. He showed me the bike path I took everyday after work was in fact an island separated by the Welland Canal. Since it’s a longer and windier path, I had never biked to work that way until today. There were a lot more animals running about in the early morning. A squirrel for every tree on that island were all looking for nuts! There were curious birds too. I think cardinals and canaries are just so cute, they must hide from all the pointing and gawking they get during the day; which is why I was so flattered one actually let me take a picture of it :D (if ya zoom in, you can kinda see sunshine radiating off its red little body eeeep soooo cute!!!)

I’m waking up earlier to bike along the canal to work from now on. Maybe some more Olympus moments will follow.

Pure morning

The weekend was eventful. It was good to be home. I saw a couple of old friends on Thursday and Friday night and can’t remember the last time I had been biking or laughing for so long.

I returned the guitar dress, ie. The cute dress I wanted to wear when I take my first walk down Waterloo park with Fender the guitar as I go off to jam. (yes I am helpless. and now, helpless and sans dress) It was too expensive anyway, more expensive than my prom dress (which is not saying much but it’s still a lotta tacos my friend). The hunt for a cute dress is back on, but I’ve pretty much given up on this shopping crap. Shopping doesn’t work if I already have a design in my head, it’s hard to find exactly what I’m looking for. Same goes for a lot of things I s’pose.

I woke up late today to realize I had left my bicycle at work. Instead of waiting a half hour for the bus, I opted for a morning walk. Everything is beautiful by first light, even the graveyard. There was a fresh plot close to the sidewalk that had recently been covered. I found that extremely symbolic. There is a rising sun every day of our lives. One day, I will also die. Though the sun will continue to rise long after, I will never see or feel its warmth again. This goes for everything wonderful about the world. I may not care much now, but will surely miss it all the second I no longer have it. Nothing waits for me if I dwell, and nothing will matter if I die. Here I am, walking by the cemetery instead of six feet under it. There is no reason not to seize the day.
♥peace.

You know...

Ok, I should explain… after checking out postsecret.com I thought I’d make a rectangular piece of art expressing something I felt yesterday.

Chick flicks and chocolate despairs

The last couple of days have been rough. I ate ice cream and rented the Notebook last night (Ryan Gosling is hawt), it had indeed been a bad day. The feeling of being on top of the world is now swallowed whole by this insignificant establishment of 20,000. Mind you, this place has always gotten the better of me, only lately came the realization that I don’t know where I want to be anymore. I am anxious about school. Thinking he has probably moved on makes me sad. Waterloo will only rekindle what I had and confirm what I’ve lost. I am not looking forward to getting hurt.

Here is something interesting. People send in their secrets on the face of homemade postcards. Every entry is a work of art as well as a deep truth. We are never alone.

WEEF is good but only if you pay.

An issue has been brought up in my class forum. Just what is our money doing for the endowment fund and the school?

Good questions:
“From what I understand WEEF is run by putting student donations in one big investment, and using the interest from that to provide services for engineering students and projects.
So, a few Questions:
1. Is that true?
2. If so, how much is in there right now?
3. What amount of interest is obtained/how frequently? ”

Reply from the WEEF director:
“1. Is that true?

Yes, WEEF stands for Waterloo Engineering endowment Foundation. So, all thedonations are put in the principle and only the interest is spent.

2. If so, how much is in there right now?

Total principle is just about $6.5 M right now and its increasing by everyterm.

3. What amount of interest is obtained/how frequently?

Every year we spend a certain percentage of the principle amount. This is theAllowable Expenditure Rate of the Endowment Principal. An amount equal to theConsumer Price Index (CPI) of the previous year times the current EndowmentPrincipal is directed into the Endowment Principal to protect against inflation.If investment income exceeds the Allowable Expenditure Rate the excess will bedirected to the Reserve Principal. If the investment income is less than theAllowable Expenditure Rate the funds will be drawn from the Reserve Principal.

This year we will spend over $220,000. The funding spent will increase year byyear as the principle will grow. World class teams like UWAFT, Midnight Sun,formula SAE get a significant amount of their funding from WEEF. WEEF alsoprovides funding to departments for several upgrades. Such as new softwares,lab equipment and computers, upgrades to student machine shop.”

A budget of $220,000 for 2005 can be earned from a 6.5 million dollar trust fund returning 3.4% interest. Surely we can do better than that!

The annual budget has been increasing; up from $170,000 in 2004 and $140,000 in 2003.

Assuming the fund returns 3.4% interest. To compensate for the inflation rate of 2.2%, investment income should equal $143,000 or donation from 1906 students. Most students don’t collect a refund. 1906 is less than half the student body. Investment will definitely continue to grow.

When will it ever be enough? The intended budget of $80,000 this term can cover only 35% of proposals. Free money will always create more demand than resources available, but there is only so much one can ask for within reason. Will we get department yachts in 10 years? Before then, an eruption in the student body is more likely. Why should students continue to pay $75 in full when WEEF is already sitting in a multimillion dollar pool? This investment must plateau at some point, or do we want the biggest student run endowment fund in the world? WEEF expresses no signs of slowing down any time soon. Their repetitive and pathetic propaganda might get them somewhere with first year students, but my money is better spent on sour grapes, thanks.

Best Email

I got the best email today and I quote: “

__l___l__
__l_X_l__
__l___l__
"

uhhh... it's supposed to be a tick tack toe board.

Overall, best coop term ever. Everything that were once difficult is turning out to be a blast (including the people).
Have a good weekend everybody!

Blizzard of the year

Who knew the biggest snow storm would happen in April. I left work 45 minutes late, right on time to catch the first few drops of rain. Just my luck. The rain quickly turned to little shards of ice beaming down my face. I was biking against the wind and found myself screaming with discomfort at some point. By the time I made it to the nearest fast food joint, the precipitation had turned into a blizzard. I was completely soaked in the 15 minutes I’d been biking. The blizzard gave me a snow hat as well. Taking shelter in Wendy’s my intention was to buy some coffee and wait out the storm. Instead, I ordered a full meal.
“Actually, make it a double,” *Because if I spent a little more here, maybe it will draw attention away from how ridiculous I look right now.*
“with cheese.”

Overloaded

I am designing a support stand to hold a 2800kg load, put in the safety factor of 2… and that's over 5 and a half tons. I am flipping through my MODS book right now trying to find some support structure that looks halfway decent, because right now, mine looks like it’s going to topple from it’s own weight. Then I have to hand this thing over to a contractor. It has to be built before I leave… does anybody else see how crazy this is?! This stuff is so beyond me. I really need the knowledge of whatever I learned in school now, but wait… I was sick that day.

The house had a bon fire in the backyard yesterday (the first time it rained in about 2 weeks). It started pouring at one point and we were forced to pack inside and microwave our buffalo wings instead, which turned out a lot better than burning them. El is not bothersome anymore. He got a rare taste of his own medicine when a spoiled little girl and her mom joined us. She screamed and moaned to get whatever she wanted and kept jumping around El yelping “HI, HI, HI” on every accent. It was sooo funny.

In other news, and this is going to sound weird… but I seem to have gained a bit of weight from this routine living thing. It’s going to drop right down when school starts of course, but seeing my perkier self in the mirror makes me smile haha… *cough*.

Gotta get back to it. The job hunt for Australia starts today.