I don't really recommend reading any of the following. I didn't have anything relevant to write about, so instead of writing nothing, I wrote everything I could think of. This was not unrelated to caffeine consumption. I have been transitioning from ground whole beans to pre-ground coffee, because I got a lot of it for Christmas. I haven't figured out how much to put in yet, so I tend to err on the side of way too much.

Hey, look, it's like a poll or something. I put it up/down there because ppl seem to interact with the interactive stuff. It's not meant to be serious, check all boxes that apply. Don't lie. Alternatively, lie all you want.

It's snowing lots now.

The tiniest fish in the history of forever has been discovered. It was in . . . Sumatra? And it was 7.9mm long! So smaaaaal. Link

Last night I had a dream about Dann and Jessica and a giant backhoe or bulldozer or something. That's probably because I talked to my dad on the phone yesterday and we talked about Dann for a bit, since Dad saw Dann up in Ft. St. John recently. I kind of like the way Ft. St. John has two abbreviations in it. I wonder if there is a town named Fort Saint Mountain? Ft. St. Mtn.? Probably not.

Yesterday I played RISK with my roomates and won. I like RISK. It is all about being patient and seeming unthreatening and directing the other players to attack each other. Roxanne has a lifetime undefeated record of 4-0 in RISK.

Happy Birthday to Roxanne, who will turn 22 on Monday. Happy Birthday to Kelly, who turned 23 yesterday. Happy Birthday to Wayne Gretzky, who turned 45 yesterday. Happy 6 monthiversary to Rock and I, today.

I put up the link to "Chuck Beans!" again. I thought it had been abandoned but now it's abandonment has reversed and lots of banding is going on in all directions. Plus he made his own bean banner. (British accent) Top drawer Chuck, top drawer.

Have I mentioned lately that I like Iceland? Well, I do. They have announced a vague plan to try and power as many things as possible with hydrogen, rather than fossil fuels (Link). It is kind of dreamy, due to long time periods involved and the present unreliability of hydrogen systems. But it's still a good idea! Unfortunately this doesn't really mean much for the rest of us, since Iceland is a demographic/logistical exception to almost everything. I.e., there are a lot of reasons things could work there where they might not work elsewhere. Namely that it is a pretty giant island with only a quarter of a million people on it.

I talked to my mom yesterday and she said that Mr. Pete Penner stopped at her store and said we should have coffee or something next time I am in Hun City. Maybe that's just one of those polite conversation things, but it's still nice.

There is something dysfunctional about the Vancouver Canucks right now. I don't know what it is. It has a lot to do with the "big line" underperforming, but what the cause of that is I don't know. I like Alex Auld, but I think they need a bone fide #1 veteran goalie. I think they will trade for one before the end of the season. Luongo would be best, I always hear his name floated around, but I don't see why Florida would let him go. Martin Biron will have to move soon, it seems. And he seems pretty good. We'll see. I hope Ovechkin wins the Rocket Richard trophy.

There have been 2 new lakes discovered UNDER the antarctice ice (Link).They are the second and third largest behind lake Vostok, which is among the top 15 biggest lakes in the world. The interesting thing about this is that these lakes are under several kilometres of ice, and they are heated from the earth's core. This means that they have ecosystems that have been completely sealed off from the outside world for who knows how long? I know who knows how long, it's the dinosaurs swimming around down there.

That was pretty weird with that guy (James Frey) who had his memoirs included in the Oprah Book Club. Weird because he made most of it up. Then when he was found-out, Oprah invited him onto her show and wrung him out. I wish he would have just been like: I can write whatever I want even if it is lying! Eff you! It's not illegal! But he was more like: I made a mistake, whimper whimper, boring.

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Today is: VOTE DAY!

All you need is:

If you do not have your Elections Canada issued voter card, you must bring proof of identity that includes your name and signature, and proof of residency, showing your current address. A driver’s license would cover both requirements. Proof of residency can be a bill.

If you don't know where to vote: click here

People who don't vote are: weiners

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I have now officially been to 4 weddings and a funeral. The fourth was possibly the best I have been to. We left last Thursday and got to see Sam and Leah and mom and my dog along the way. We included: me, Rock, Mr. Rock, Mrs. Rock, Grandpa Rock, Brother Rock, Sister-in-Rock, and Germany. The wedding was really great because I got to meet tons of new people. Also I got to spend a bit more time with people I had only met briefly. Rock's cousin Cam was cool, and Jenn's (Rock's new sister-in-law) brother has to get a special mention because he stood outside for 3 hours to get an XBOX 360 for a wedding gift. And it wasn't even a core system! Sure, that doesn't have anything to do with me, but it's still cool. I ate at Denny's 3 breakfasts in a row. Original Grand Slam, ahh yeah.

The actual wedding was on Saturday. It was on an icerink at SilverStar Mountain in Vernon. It was there because that is where the proposal took place last year. My hands were cold. Why didn't I bring mittens? The reception/dinner was nice and had a hockey theme because Jason (groom, other brother to Rock) is a hockey fanatic. Some guy asked me if I knew someone in Hun City named Adelle, but I didn't. Do you? Some reports suggest I was became somewhat inebriated at some point. I had a good 8 or 9 drinks, mostly wine, does that count? Anyway, I was pretty talky and dancy, which was my goal. Better to be a bit goofy and outgoing than just sit there and not make a fool of yourself. I did the Elaine dance from Seinfeld and various other spastic things which amused me. The funny thing about dancing is that about 95% of the population (including me) can't do it, which makes me feel better. I don't think my comments in the wedding book made any sense. That's ok. There was supposed to be karaoke, but no one did it, and I didn't want to be the only person. But I was totally ready to bust out the Celine Dion! I did actually sing that at some point without a microphone. But I do that most days anyway.

Anyway, it was a very positive experience altogether, due in no small part to the generosity of Rock's parents, letting me ride in their van and stay in their hotel room etc. There are some more pictures here.

Completely unrelated: here is a video of celebrity Jeopardy with Will Ferrell. Here is another one. The funny.

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'Tis the politicking season so I thought I'd throw up a link to the "political compass" survey. Some have you have probably taken this before. For those of you who haven't, it's pretty interesting. I doubt it's perfect as it is almost impossible to design a perfect survey. But it's more complex and accurate than the typical internet survey/quiz. If nothing else it will get you to think about your political values a lot.

They don't let you link to your results directly, so I can only say that I was: Economic Left/Right: -5.63, Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.64. That translates to roughly the middle of the bottom left box, somewhere near Nelson Mandela and Ghandi.

Oh yeah, I decided to start a sub-blog that will only contain creative writing type things. It's down there in my link field under the name fuzzy math.

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That picture is of the CCTV building which is being built in Beijing now. Here is a great article/slideshow (if you like China, architecture, or futuristic things) about new architecture in China. Unrelated: I saved $140 by ordering my books for this term from amazon.ca instead of buying them from the bookstore. Stupid bookstore, trying to steal my clams!

I have bought 19 of the 22 books I need so far. I paid $257 instead of the $397 it would have cost me to buy them at school (tax incl. for both). Granted, not all of the ones I ordered are new (maybe 2/3 of them are). Also, the gamble is always that the book might not arrive by the time you need it. A third potential problem is that it might be a different edition, which will mess up your pagination. But still, $140 is $140. Plus you get a whole bunch of things in the mail! It's always good to find a better and different way to do things, especially when it saves you money. Did I mention I'm 1/4 Scottish?

The first week of school was kind of hectic, mostly because my organizational skills are wanting. It was pretty stress free though. My strategy is mostly to recognize that all these minor things will be resolved eventually, so I don't need to worry about them in the present. I tried to get into a Sci Fi Lit 400 class, but I couldn't fit it very easily. That would have been cool though because Sci Fi is fun and relatively easy. Plus you get to watch a lot of movies in that class. I think I'll be able to take a film class next fall just to fill in some generic credit spots though, so that will be fun.

So I went to my last new class today: Romantic Lit. Man, the teacher for that is so great! I really appreciate and respond well to teachers who are very knowledgeable and passionate about what they are teaching. Plus he is ridiculously nice too, in a sincere way. His name is Kevin Hutchings, and if you go to UNBC you should take a class with him. He reminds me of the teacher I had in Montreal who made me want to become a teacher in the first place. Also, he looks just the tiniest bit like Rivers Cuomo.

Oh yeah, congratulations to the Canadian Junior team! 5-0 win to get the gold medal over Russia. In some ways it was a more impressive win than last year, since last year's team was so talented that they couldn't help but win. This year they won it by working hard and playing as a team, even though Russia was arguably more talented. Talent schmalent!

One more thing, welcome back to Canada David Bancroft! He was in India last year, and now he is in Canada. Wait, I said that already.

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I've been doing some reading for the upcoming election. What is with all the platforms that are against space-based weapons? First of all, what does that even mean? Second, I bet whatever they are they are frickin' wicked! Don't these people ever watch movies? Let me tell you, if Canada had a DeathStar the softwood lumber dispute would get solved right away! Stephen Harper, forget patrolling the arctic and increasing personnel. If you promise me a DeathStar I'll vote for you right now.


Seriously though, it's going to be an interesting election with the recent polls putting the Libs and Conservatives is a dead heat. It doesn't really matter to me since my riding will go to the Conservatives by a landslide (or a paperslide, or a ballotslide, or something). The Tories got 59% here last time. NDP was only 20 and the Libs were even less.

Last night was the second time I slept in my own bed since December 8th. That's usually a pretty good sign that the holidays have been successful, and they were. I saw lots of new and old people, including a 2 month old baby and a 3 day old baby. I watched lots of DVDs. I ate lots of food, so much that I now weigh 150lbs. That's a lot for me, so I'm happy. Maybe my dream of becoming the world Sumo champion will come true yet. I also got bunches of cool stuff from generous people. Well, it didn't come in bunches, except for the carrots, but if you add it all together it makes up a few bunches.

There was some unhappiness in the form of car and brain malfunctions, and car brain malfunctions too, it seems. Maggie the Topaz broke down again at the very end of our trip, after we reached PG and less than 10km from home. This in itself wasn't particularly unexpected or disheartening, but I was very annoyed with myself because I drove her for longer than I should have after it became clear that she had an immediate problem. I guess I was trying to milk her home, hopefully it hasn't caused further damage. The moral is: watch your temperature gauge, idiot!

Still, it was a very happy time overall. Today was only the second day I spent without Rock since December 8th. You know that things are very good when you can spend basically 3 weeks straight with a person and not get sick of her. Well, I did try to make her drink milk even though she is lactose intolerant, but that was an accident. We don't have any classes together this term, so that's sad, but c'est la vie.

School starts tomorrow. I like relaxing, and I'm quite good at it if I do say so myself, but after a while you start to get restless. So it will be good to get back at it. I think I'm going to try again this term, it seems to work. I'm taking 5 Englishes again: Renaissance Lit, Romantic Lit, First Nations Lit, PostColonial Lit 400, and Survey of English Lit 2. I might try to get into Science Fiction 400, but they wouldn't let me waitlist for it, since it conflicted with something. Anyway, yeah! Time to brush my teeth and watch hockey.

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