Library Revelations

So since finals are fast approaching, I find myself spending more and more time at the library, hunkering down within a cubicle and working away at my various tasks. I find it odd that I can go almost 3 months with never stepping foot into this building, now I feel compelled to come here every day.

It really isn't much different from working at home, I bring all of my books with me, my MP3 player, and my laptop. I usually have my MSN running and I bring my novel with me just in case I want a break. When I am at home I have the exact same things around me but I seem to be more distracted. I don't if its the quite area, or the confinements of a cubicle, but whatever it is I am way more productive when I step into this building.

The term is almost over, and I'll be glad to have another one in the books. One more left then I am finished with Lakehead University. I'm looking forward to coming home for the holidays as I know many familiar faces will be home, and it'll be nice to be reunited with the people I care about most in the world.

Catherine MacLellan - Long Way Home

USED BOOKS

As I stated in a previous post I have recently picked up the habit of reading. I know, such a novel (get it? HA!) hobby nowadays but I am thoroughly enjoying myself. Recently, I finished Fifth Business by Robertson Davies. This novel was recommended by my friend Adam Hollett a few years ago, and while I had it in my belonging for quite some time I never bothered to read it. I started it 4 days ago and I purposely stayed inside all weekend in order to finish it. Personally, I thought the book was a wonderfully written novel about the toil and triumph of a man throughout his eccentric life.

Being a university student it had led me to be fairly frugal with my money. To the point where I have contemplated taking toilet paper from the bathrooms at school, however I have never followed through with such a thought. It had come to my attention that books are expensive at your typical bookstores (Coles, Chapters, etc...) so I set out to find a used book store that could meet at my needs.

Seeing how this is a fairly new hobby, I had no idea what to look for in a used book store. In my many adventures around town I often drive by a huge sign that says "USED BOOKS". This was the first place that came to mind when I thought of used books (obviously) so I went there first. Pulling up to the store I realized that the building was fairly large, which seemed like a good quality becasue it probably had lots of books.

Upon entering the store I was greeted by an extremely friendly employee. Since I was rather hesitant walking in and carefully looked around to get a bearing of my surroundings he obviously knew it was my first time. He kindly asked if he could help and I pulled out my list (Yes, I had a list of books, I wanted to keep them straight). To my delight he seemed to frequently deal with customers who had lists and snatched the peice of paper from between my fingers while quickly scanning it.

"Robertson Davies!" he exclaimed. "I'm assuming you've read Fifth Business, boy was that ever an amazing book. If you liked the first I can vouch for the other two, they are fantastic novels!" Within minutes I was blindly following him through the store, still looking around to get my bearings. He took me to the Canadian author section and to my delight both The Manticore and World of Wonders were there....for the low price of 1.95 each! I was overjoyed that both books were there, but even more joyous of the fact that they cost so little. Within no time the store clerk was gone to the Classic section in search of the other books on my list.

Sadly, the store did not have any Nabakov but they did have Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell. While these books were a little more expensive (2.05 and 4.95 respectively) I thought that for 11 dollars four books was a fantastic deal. I was elated that I got these (hopefully) fantastic books for such a low price and I vowed to come back next week to check out their stock.

So this blog post turned out to be much longer than anticipated. But I guess that is bound to happen when someone is overjoyed with such a great find.

New Month

So it is November! Finally! School has been tres hectic as always, my research adviser dumped an ethics proposal on my lap this week, and wanted it within two days. Meaning Shannon and I (my research partner) had to pound out a 16 page ethics proposal within 2 days, right in the middle of a plethora of tests and presentations.

This academic year is much different from ones past. Firstly, everything is done in groups which makes for very frustrating/unproductive working sessions. People continue to tell us "You'll have to work in groups in the real world so get use to it". Although I find flaws in this logic because I think if I was in a working environment in which I didn't enjoy my co-workers, I have the ability to quit and find a new job. Unfortunately, assigned group work in university does not afford such a luxury. I am stuck with these people and thankfully in a few weeks it is all over. Until next term!

At least next term I have a few online classes, which there cannot be any group work. I look forward to hunkering down in my room and doing my work, all by my lonesome.

Outside of school things are pretty dull. Everyone is busy so it doesn't allow for much social time. However last night we decided to have some themed movie nights within the near future. Such as "Mel Brooks Night" "Bond Night" "Police Academy Night" and a few others that are still in the works. It'll be nice to watch some of those movie and devote a few nights to good friends.

34 days until I get back to Newfoundland and I am pretty jacked about that.

Joseph Arthur - A Smile that Explodes

Reading Goals

So I recently picked up reading as a pastime again and I must say I am elated at the fact that I can find time to sit and read. I think I am going to try and read at least 1 novel a month. I know its not a lot of reading but if I can commit to that maybe I'll try and bump that up to 2 books a month.

Currently, I am reading a novel titled "playing for Pizza" by John Grisham. Its his attempt at a comedy, but personally I don't find it comedic at all. In saying that I am enjoying it to a degree, and hopefully will have in finished by the end of the week.

Here is a list of books that I plan/hope/wish to read:

Fifth Business
Grapes of Wrath
Speaker of the Dead (By: Scott Orson Card)
The Alchemist
To Kill a Mockingbird
Catcher in the Rye (for a second time)
Lolita
Rant


Now I doubt I'll get through all those books anytime soon, here is hoping.

From a school perspective all is well, besides the plethora of papers due and the research report that I am totally lost on. Only a few more weeks left then onto my last semester as an undergrad.

Pete Yorn - Life on a Chain

Tommy Sands

I put on my total play list today (almost 4,000 songs) and Tommy Sands came on. I had not listened to him in a very long time, but I'm sure glad it came on! I immediately turned offthe shuffle and began the album at the first song. Right away I was singing along with every song like I just listened to him yesterday. That's the beauty of music, you can be away from it for a long time, but no matter what it is still with you. I love Tommy, I wish I had more of his music....I'm sure in time I'll get more albums.

Tommy Sands - Sudako

Giant Microbes!

Boy, its been a busy week. After returning from St. Johns I've been flat-out with school work and the like. Since all of my courses have group projects it can be very hard to juggle all of them at one time. I just wanted to post a quick blog on one of my new favorite things of life...Giant Microbes!!. Janet was kind enough to introduce me to them and I really think they are a neat concept. The nerd in me really enjoys them, but I also think they could be used somewhat as an educational tool, as they come with information about each microbe. So enough rambling, time to post pictures.

The first one is a White Blood Cell, which I aptly named "Luke"


The next one is a Penicillin microbe I named "Teller".



The ultimate plan is to get them all, although that could take some time. As I said previously school is tres hectic, but I'm going to try and make time to do more blogging. Only 8 weeks left in the term, and I even though I have a lot of work to do, I know it'll all get done.

Hey Rosetta! - New Goodbye

Four Clicks of Separation Ideas

So after reading my friend's post on Four Clicks of Separation I thought of a few ideas.

Jane Fonda to Fondue
Rick Rolling to Rolled Oats

I've yet to try theses but I'll see if they're possible when I get back to Thunder Bay.

Ray LaMontagne - Let it be me

Drosophila melanogaster - The bane of my existance

So, our house has a problem, a problem which we cannot get rid of. Fruit flies! Since the term has started the little buggers have be flying around our kitchen and dining room bothering the hell out of Dave, Luc (my roomies), and I. So after doing a little research on this I found out that their name "Drosophila melanogaster" is actually Greek for "black-bellied dew-lover". While this information proved to be insightful, it did not help with the eradication of the little buggers.

After searching various sites looking for eradication and prevention methods we stumbled upon various types of fruit fly traps. Some consisted of just a glass with bubbles inside while others were more intricate. My favorite trap thus far involves pieces of fruit, a funnel, and malt vinegar. Pictured below are our two favorite traps.


In the little time that we've used them the funnel trap seems to be the most successful. While the flies travel down the funnel, they cannot find the hole again and just get stuck in the bottle. I empty the jar out every day just so we don't have too many in their at the same time.

So last week everything was going great, there was a decrease in the overall numbers and we thought we had eliminated the problem....until today. Dave and I ventured downstairs to find dozens of fruit flies on Luc's mini-keg. We had no idea flies were attracted to the smooth taste of beer, but apparently they love it. With the influx of new fruit flies Dave and I decided to move the eradication process up to stage 2.

Stage 2 consisted of getting a new garbage can with a lid, putting ALL food in the fridge, and sadly getting rid of our beer wall... We started collecting various beers from around the world last year and had over 60 unique kinds. While I am sad to see all the beer go if it gets rid of the flies then its all worth while.


Well that is all for now I guess, I'll post the progress of stage 2 in a few days, and hopefully our problem will be gone by the time I get back from St. Johns. Two days!!!!!

Uncle Tupulo - Fatal Wound

"Well that was a wicked googley"

So this post is pretty much just to state how much I enjoy Jerry Seinfeld and the latest Windows ads with Bill Gates. Although a lot of people out there did not like the commercials, I thought they were comedic gold. The first time I saw them I thought they were absolutely hilarious and original, with lots of potential for more growth. Sadly, they 'canceled' the ad campaign dueto a lot of negative criticism, albeit none of that was from me.

The people who might actually read this blog probably already know that I am a huge Seinfeld fan, so some may believe that I am a little biased. While this might be the case I have to admit I enjoy the performance of Bill Gates much more in the commercials. His genuineness really shines in those commercials as he does not try to be the best actor, he just tries to be funny. His straight face approach to many of his lines leads me to believe that he understood what the ad campaign was all about.

I never thought the ads were about selling computers as there is no reference to any products. I just think the point of the ads were to create "water cooler talk". I think that the ads did just that because I know my friends and I talked about it frequently and I overheard a lot of other people talking about it as well.

I have finished rambling on about the commercials so instead of trying to persuade you more I will just post the links and let you see for yourself:
Jerry and Bill 1
Jerry and Bill 2

I know its only my second post but I am enjoying the blogging thus far, I hope some people are reading it.

Better Than Ezra - King of New Orleans

Try This Again!

After numerous botched attempts at starting up a blog I am here to give it another try. Recently I stumbled upon a friends blog (www.tomandcandice.com) and Adam mentioned that he might be getting back into blogging so I figured I wold give it another try as well. I have no idea what the content of the Blog will be. Probably mostly just me ramblng on about things I enjoy, events that are happening, or just random thoughts that pop into my head (trust me, I get a lot of those). I figure this will be a good medium in which I can express a lot of my ideas and thoughts. I have no idea how long I'll kee it up, but I figure I might as well give it a shot.

Just like my old blog I will put a song title at the end of each blog. Sometimes it might have some significane, other times it might just be the song I am listening to as the present time. Also I figure I will try and add random facts of knowledge into each post as well, as long as they fit with the mood of each post.

Thats all for now, I shall be back!

Wintersleep - Nerves Normal, Breath Normal