Handle With Care: It's Alive!

I was going to write a summary blog on how I was doing, but suddenly the motivation was sucked out of me. So, now I'm going to list to you 5 things that I'm looking forward to.

1) Each and every weekend at the Sikkema's
2) Gardening at Brian's
3) Having the parent's come out east.
4) Cottage time up north in August
5) Cooking with good recipes and ingredients.

I'm in good spirits, and you should be to. I'm not really sure what else there is to say.

Instructions on Hatching and Maintain

These past three weeks have gone quick. I must say, to think that I was about to depart for England a month ago sounds weird. But, alas, three weeks into work and spirits are good. One thing that is not so hot is the pets in my house. This past week I've been taking care of a dog and a cat. They're generally well natured animals, but they are very annoying. Whether it be the dog wanting to sneak under my covers at 2 in the morning, or the cat wanting to scratch my feet at 4, an uninterrupted nights sleep is hard to come by. I can only imagine what new parents must feel like. Granted, their kid probably isn't hairy with claws. Mange.

I really look forward to the weekends. They're nice. Not to say I don't enjoy work, but let my specify further to what I mean. I sit in a chair for most of my day. Quite often I'm behind a computer looking up an article or analyzing data. But that stops temporarily on Friday afternoons. I get to see Rebecca (a highlight in itself) and then spend the evening with friends and family. On Saturday mornings, I have the opportunity and privilege to work on the Sikkema's farm. I used to do a fair amount of physical labour. This included working at the greenhouses helping ladies pick out pretty flowers. Once in a while I crave physical work, and it's thrown at me on Saturday morning. It's nice change. Then, the rest of the weekend is spent relaxing or exploring, or whatever tickles your kidney. Church on Sunday is always good, and going home on Sunday night is often like pulling off a bandaid slowly. Then my week starts over again.

I would say I'm in good spirits. I hope you are as well. Happy day, everyone.

I'll Pound You For A Pound

The title is a little play on words based on the currency of the British people as well as the act of pummeling someone with either your hands or the large leg of a bird.

The time here has been good. I wouldn't say it has been relaxing, though there were most certainly parts of the trip where you could put up your feet and take a breather. The first day I arrived, I landed in Heathrow airport. The first thing I noticed about this was that I was claustrophobic. Now I don't mean claustrophobic as in "I'm sweating profusely and I might snap and curl into the fetal position if somebody bumps my shoulder" but instead, claustrophobic as in "The roofs in this airport aren't very high and I wish there was more natural light." The airports I've been to in North America have higher roofs than most Christian school gyms. The change was noticeable. I then caught a flight up to Edinburgh which saw me in a zombie like state. The previous nights were not good for sleep and I was exhausted. So I landed and saw Rebecca (glory) and we caught a bus and went to our hostel in the heart of Edinburgh. I must say, it is a very cool city with an interesting history and a bitching castle.

The first day I was there, Heather, Ree and I took a walk around to get acquainted with the area. The next day we did a free walking tour to learn about the history of the city. This included seeing the church of John Knox, as well as seeing his grave, which is now a parking lot. He, however, has been remembered in the parking lot by a simple yellow square in parking spot 23. That surprised me. The day then continued with a hike up the crags which are the hills overlooking the city.

The following day we took a tour to the Highlands (northern Scotland) and saw Loch Ness, along with a number of other beautiful sights. The highlight for me was seeing the Highland bulls. It reminded me of Josh's liking of yaks back in the day.

The next day saw us exploring the city again, which ended off with an overnight bus back to London. Being a fairly leggy person, comfort was something not attained on the bus. My sleep was rocky, and saw me entering London with bloodshot eyes. All in all, I was surprisingly alert. We arrived in London at 6:30 in the morning, and met up with Tim and his cousin Derek. It was very nice to see Tim again. One thing that has bugged me so far about the British is that they have pay-booths to use the washroom in public places. I'm not going to pay 50 cents so I can take a pee. I found this upsetting, and very low class. Boo England. Boo.

The rest of the day saw Tim, Derek, Rebecca, and I seeing the big sights in London. St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, etc. However, before the tourism commenced, we sat in a park for a couple hours to get our alertness back, as well as watch some waterfowl play around for pond dominance.

From there Ree and I headed back to Charbury via bus/rail and arrived in this cute little town. Rebecca's host Beccy was very hospitable and allowed us to stay in her house these past few days. Since then we've seen the town, the countryside and Oxford. Today is a day of rest, as we prepare for our travels back home tomorrow.

Forty Five Degrees Isn't Worth Sleeping Over

After a blur of exams, I was driven to the airport and caught my plane to England. It’s weird to think about. Just yesterday I was still in school, and now I’m with Ree, in England (Scotland, rather) and it’s summer break. I have four months where I don’t need to worry about school. It’ll be nice. My two final exams saw me get very little sleep. The plane rides saw me get very little sleep, thus the grand total for the past three days have seen a total of 7 or 8 hours of sleep. I’ve been in a state of mental unawareness as I moved from place to place. However, as soon as I saw Ree waiting for me at that airport, I perked up. It was amazing seeing her again, and it’s been great. Right now I’m about the pass out from lack of sleep, but know that I’m safe in the hostel right now and that I’ve seen decent amount of things around where the hostel is. In order to be functional tonight, I’m going to take a power nap. I’ll try to keep you’s in the loopsie.

*Note: I slept, and I'm mildly more awake, though I think I'll go for round two to finish off the night. When I have time (probably Thursday) I'll upload some pictures. I guess that will quench your greedy thirst.

That is all.

Tickles the Liver

The trees outside of my window are just about to bloom. That makes me excited, not only because that means spring and the end of semester is near, but also because I think blooming makes the tree feel happy. If tree's had feeling.

I eluded to the concept of memory and the reductionist view that I had while trying to explain it as a mix of chemicals in a previous blog. I'm not sure if I believe that anymore. How could you? Maybe one day we'll be able to figure a bit more about it, but on the whole, I think the composition of memories can only be attributed to our spirit. Data, and android from Star Trek: TNG had a reductionist view of memories and stated that they were mRNA sequences stored in our brains. mRNA has a half life far too short to even remember what we did yesterday, therefore Data was full of shit.

Along with spring comes me tucked away in the library studying. I remember a beautiful Friday afternoon last year where I was the only one in the entire library for majority of the day. A fear of the sun you say? My vitamin D is important to me, don't get me wrong, but the knowledge of how vitamin D works I think is worth staying in for. Calcium regulation people, calcium regulation.

Today was Cadet and Gem Sunday at church. I could recite all the Cadet pledges, saying and verses. Cadets is a sweet program. Maybe I'll be a counsellor one day. I think I got the sign language badge. That was one of my few badges. You could say that I was more interested in using the go-cart rather than making some crappy soap candle or wooden shelf. Brian on the other hand had way too many badges. I mean, he did everything. It's probably the reason why he's so well rounded today. I was never in Gems.

Six days remain until I catch a plane to see my sweetie. Of those six days, four of them will have an exam. Of those four days, 8 burgers will be consumed, and approximately 50 mL of mayonnaise. I'm looking forward to some good food after this stretch.

Ryan and I saw a cat in the process of getting run over the other day. There was a puff of fur. Try to avoid hitting cats, or keep yours inside.

That is all.

That Stage

When I was sharing a room with Josh, we always listened to the "Z hot 10 at 10" which was a radio station's nightly countdown. Usually if I was still awake when it got to the number one song (usually around 10:50) then I got nervous and worried that I wasn't asleep yet. The interesting thing is that during my schooling career I averaged probably 9 or 10 hours of sleep a night. That's pretty good, I must say. I always ate breakfast too.

It seems like December and April blogs tend to be countdowns until everything is done. Suffice to say, that's pretty much what's on my mind right now. Two and a half weeks until my third year is done and until I'm in the UK checking out Scotland. The time in between will be spent wrapping up the semester and thinking about my career. Med school maybe? Maybe I'll be a professional turtle rider. I would need my scuba ticket though. Maybe I should get that this summer.

Ryan and I bought burgers as the main component on our mini shop the other day. That also included 99 cent 1L chocolate milk. The effort being put into cooking has diminished as the semester comes to an end. I hope that the UK will revive that a bit. In the mean time, Mrs. Sikkema comes through with a feast once a week which gives me a taste of home cooking. Man, can she cook.

Which leaves me with this. Do you believe this?

It's Possible

A week later and I have no idea where the time went. Indeed, it was a quick week. There were pro's and con's to this week for sure. Such a con would be that I made it to the gym only once this week, and I could feel my body missing the tre-weekly treadmill run. That was too bad, but tomorrow I'll push it hard. A pro, however, is that springball has started up again, so I suppose playing basketball twice this week might have caught the slack for the lack of gym action. Another pro is that I got all my assignments in on time. That's nice. In general, I'll give this week eleven mushrooms out of fourteen. A good week indeed. The best part is that I'm feeling quite motivated right now. The upcoming week looks doable, but not only that, but I'm excited to do the work. Definitely makes the week more enjoyable for sure. Only five more weeks until I'm out in England having a jolly good time with my sweet.

The people who I'm living with this summer want to spend money on making a garden bed for the house. This makes me very excited. Although I won't be working at the garden centre, I'll still have a little taste of that glorious place right in my front yard. I'm actually quite tempted to make a planter. Anyways, that might be for another time. I also like sports, beer, and explosions, just in case you were wondering if I was a guy. Well, not explosions so much.

I like the sky. It's pretty. I think I'll leave you with that.

Happy March

March is a good month. There's a few birthdays in March, there's a few holidays in March, there's a few snow falls in March, and there's a few sunny days in March. There's also a few midterms, papers, assignments, presentations and formal lab write ups in March. Still, overall, March is still a good month. It's snowing today. It also snowed on Wednesday, allowing me to not go to class and to study for a midterm. I was thankful for that. I was also thankful that Rebecca made it home safe from Rome. Rome sounded fun.

In the midst of all the business, its still nice to relax. Believe it or not, I enjoy shoveling the driveway. I love the type of work that I can see results. If I feel like I'm not doing much, I simply need to look behind me and see all the snow that's been shoveled so far. That's harder to do with school. You can do a lot, but not see anything for a while, until you get assignments back. But that's still not the same. I shoveled the driveway already today, and it's still snowing. That makes me somewhat happy. I think that means I'll go back out tonight and shovel it again.

April is also a good month. It's usually sunny and warm, and I don't have many labs or assignments. I have some final exams, but I like those. That's my favourite time of the year. However, in April I will also be seeing my sweetheart in England. That makes me happy. It's only 6 weeks away, which also makes me happy.

I'm a guy that likes to schedule thing. I might have taken this from my mother, as she is quite organized as well. I have times when I go to sleep, wake up, do work, and relax. The schedule is not set in stone, but it is well followed. I suppose that's why I keep a to-do list. I like to be able to cross off things so it feels like I'm productive. I suppose that's one of the perks of university.

I'm tired right now. I'm tired of school, tired of the looming work needing to be done, I'm tired of waking up early to do work, and staying up late to see it finished. I would like April to come quick. But that's what always happens when you're busy. Time flies. Like a dragonfly, or a horsefly, or a bird. All those things can fly.

Penguins and Bunnies

I never really know how to feel coming out of a Physics midterm. Half the time I feel like I bombed it and end up doing alright, the other half I feel like a nailed it but then discover a "see me" on the top of my page. And no, I've never had a "see me" at the top of my paper, because I don't think profs are allowed to do that. At least, I know it would make me feel uncomfortable. Whatever the case, struggling to do integrals for an hour has put me in a melancholy mood, so I will now share with you five things that I would do if I had magical powers. Please note, I do not actually have magical powers.

1) I would take all the cutest animals (no baby animals, because they're naturally cute), such as the penguin, the bunny rabbit, and the garner snake. Then I would sew them together with magical threads into a super cute animal. I will then sell these creations and proceed to donate the earned money to the animal shelters, where I got my humble beginnings.

2) I would fly. Now, I'm not talking about the "I'm Superman and somehow I am able to lift my body off the ground" type of flying. No, I'm talking about, "I have jetpacks/leathery dragon wings/ some sort of helicopter propellers attached to my elbows" type of flying. This would make commutes easier.

3) I would be able to breathe fire. This, however, would not be a discomfort. Instead, I imagine that it would be like a gentle massage in my esophagus. What would I do with the fiery ability? I would either be a street performer, a "stove less" chef, or a children’s story teller. Most of the stories I would tell would be about fire breathing dragons, of course.

4) I would be able to enchant an instrument (most likely a recorder or an accordion) and by simply playing it cause everyone around me to burst into dance. With this ability, an weekend would look like this.

Friday

7:00 pm - Head over to the ACC and get all the fans to start grooving in their seats. 10,000+ people dancing? You wont get that at any club that I've ever been to.*
10:00 pm- Head home because I was tired of all the dancing. Please note that I am not exempt from the dancing either. If I hear that music, I must dance.

Saturday

Sleep all day.

Sunday

9:30 am - Go to church, but afterwards in the fellowship hall, bust out the music and watch the people of all ages "get down."

12:00 pm - Fly back to BC with my dragon wings and have soup at my home.

3:00 pm - Fly back to Ontario, then sleep for the rest of the day, due to being tired from the post-morning service dancing, as well as two cross Canada flights.

* Please note that I have been to one club, in which the dancing was sub par.

5) I would be able to control the weather. One of my most favorite things is the look of untouched snow, so I would delicately bring clouds to snow on specific areas that have been disturb or lack snow completely. Also note that I would not make very many snow days due to this ability, though I would consider it.

I do not have magical powers.

Good day.

I was Tagged, So suck it up

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people. Unless you only want to tag 3. I'll tag 0.

When sodium ions do lead into the neuron, they are immediately escorted out again my the action of a sodium-potassium pump, a protien molecule imbedded in the cell membrane (see Figure 4-10C). A membrane's many thousands of pumps continually exchange three intracellular sodium ions for two potassium ions. The potassium ions are free to leave the cell through open potassium channels, but closed sodium channels slow the reentry of the sodium ions. ~ An Introduction to Brain and Behaviour - Bryan Kolb and Ian Whishaw

When The Birds Fly Into Windows

So, it appears that these posts are a lot like birds flying into windows; they are fairly rare, but when it happens, people smile. I suppose they smile, that is if you aren't a fan of birds. I, myself, am, so I guess this blog isn't much like birds flying into windows, so thus, omit that first sentence.

These past few weeks have gone by fairly quickly, and I am now currently in my second week of tameness. Despite the four labs in my weekly schedule, I have now had two weeks of slackness. That's not to say that I'm not attending my 27 hours of class a week, but instead, after class, there is little to do.

I'm grateful for two main facts. 1) That there wasn't a scale (or at least I didn't weigh myself) at my parent home over Christmas, and 2) That there isn't a scale at my house. The only scale that I have access to at the moment is the scale at the athletic centre. The great thing about this scale, however, is that it measures in kilograms. Having no idea what I weighed in kilograms previous to Christmas, weighing 92.5 kg now has no large affect on my moral. On the contrary, saying "I weight 92.5 kg" sounds a lot better than "I weight 195 lbs." For the record, pounds is a measure of force due to gravity, and kilograms is simply a unit of mass, so it's tough to compare them anyways. So, whether or not having some pairs of pant fit quite snugly to the extent where the top button usually isn't done up doesn't get me down, for I only weight 92.5 kg.

Now, let's hope that it gets cold again so that ice hockey may be played.

The Italian Dictionary

I don't really have much to say. The only reason why I'm doing this is because of 30 minutes left to kill before my last class of the day. I go from 9am -4, then continue with a night class for another three hours. That's all there is to it, so why wouldn't you?

This is weaksauce.

Your job is to tell a funny joke that is clean. Go.

What I've Come To Realize

Howdy there. It's been good for the past week and a bit and the relaxation meter is near full. It's been pleasant being back home.

There have been a few things I've noticed when I come home every year though, observations if you will. Nothing crazy profound, mind you, though interesting enough to mention. People are social creatures, and they can't get away from this. For the most part, if you look at someone who has little social interaction for quite a while (except wilderness men, though the animals are their friends) then you most likely find someone who is sad and lonely. We're designed for other people and other people for ourselves. So, if this is the case then we must interact with each other to have some sort of personal benefit. This can be carried out in a number of ways, whether it be board games, a trip to a movie, a drink with a friend, or simply hearty conversation. However, it seems like the more our culture progresses forward with communication, we loose something essentially human. Bear (rawr) with me for a second. The amount of face to face conversation and communication has gone down, replaced with texting, msn, phones and even the occational gift basket. Facebook encourages one to have many "friends" in which light, fluffy conversations can be had. However, amidst all this, it seems that a fear of being ourselves and being open with each other has developed. Our friends can simply be those who we have a drink with, or do activities and often hinder conversation. Along with this, the conversation that is often produced from such meetings can be irrelavant to any of our cognitive needs, but rather relates better to our physical needs, such as food, excersize, or housing. Throw in a few luxeries such as materialism and technology, and you can have someone who is in contact with many people but has had little true connections with people. I love technology, but it almost seems like we've lost something.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Now go spend time with your families.

Just Do It

Hello. 

It's supposed to rain in Hamilton this week and all the snow that was accumulated will soon melt away. That's too bad. It's going to rain soon in Vancouver too, so I understand what you're going through.

The following are 4 1/2 things that make me smile.

1) Old People who aren't bitter and are generally happy. I feel like the wrinkles of an aged face, when their lips properly contort to form a concave-up slope, show the most joy.

2) Hot showers. Because of the time difference, I was up at a healthy 7:30 this morning. It was alright. I started with a shower that melted my heart, and partially burnt my skin. The only poor part of the shower was the little bit of soap left in my eye due to unsatisfactory rinsing. It stung.

3) My cat. Last Christmas we got a new black cat. Although our unlucky streak of three cats being eaten by coyotes would have encouraged most pet owners to call it quits, we decided to go for a potential four-peat. Fortunately, he's stuck around, and he's the size of a dog. He pretty much is a dog. He's not fat, but I wouldn't call him muscular either. He's just Shoot. 

4) Family. It's nice to be home. 

4 1/2) My dads jogging shorts. My luggage didn't make it to Vancouver, so I'm wearing my dads clothes until they ship my stuff over. This normally would have received a full mark due to the way the cotton gently tickles my legs while complimenting my muscular thighs, however, the inconvenience of not having my own pajama's lost it some marks.

See you around. 

Simply Blow the Horn of Cenarius to Wake the Druids

The past week has been relaxing and I've had lots of time on my hands. In addition to hanging out with friends and having a jolly time, I also enjoyed a fair amount of time on the computer as I beat Warcraft III front to finish in 5 days. It was quite glorious, though, it had to be done. If I hadn't beat it before exam time, it would seriously mess up with my study time. Regardless of the fact, exams are here and my first one is today. I hope to kick its ass as I blaze through this week.

I'll catch you on study breaks in between.

Eagle

Two more days until I'm pretty much done here. Exams are the easier part of the semester because there is no classes, labs, or assignments. My next four weeks here are going to be breezy. Not only that, but there is supposed to be a lot of snow next week. I'm very much looking forward to it. Now all I have to do is three more lab write ups and three more assignments. Glory.

I love sour cream. I could probably eat it by itself. Scratch that, I do eat it by itself. So tasty. Jordan is lactose intolerant, so he can't have sour cream. I wonder if they'll ever have sour cream flavoured ice cream.

A scary thing has happened in the past month; I haven't been able to enjoy a beer. A solution has been to have it in a tall frosted glass. It still didn't do it for me. I'm just not sure what to think anymore. Maybe I won't have a drink anymore. Qui sais? Maybe I'll follow what Joel does and have a Coors if I want a beer. At least then I wouldn't have to taste anything.

Please forgive me.

Four Cheeses Are Better Than Two Cheeses

I think that's all I have to say.

Life. That's All It Can Be.

Alright. Big deal. My wallet is still Velcro from when I had it in Grade 8. Should I be embarrassed? Should I get a "man's wallet" and conform to the rest of the world? My wallet is colourful, patriotic and is easy to open and close. Keep your damn leather, I don't want it.

Someone asked me once if not being able to indent my paragraphs on blogger ever bugged me. I answered yes. Yes it does.

Today was the first time that I wasn't looking forward to the next semester of school. Usually by second semester you're well into the groove and second semester is gold. This year I have a freaking heavy course load and two of my favourite people out here are leaving. I'm damn homesick. Come January 6ish, I'm probably going to want to stay out west. I had that in August leading into my second year and I got over it. Maybe because I'm hormonal. Does that work for guys? Now tell me- honestly tell me- does it ever bug you that cholesterol and testosterone have a similar chemical structure? Do people with higher cholesterol ever have elevated aggression. I don't have high cholesterol, but they do say it's the silent killer. Does that mean you die quietly? I'm not sure. Our school lobster died. He has been replaced by two pathetic babies bought from Sobey's. They have their pincers closed shut by some constricting elastics. That pisses me off. Just let them pinch each other. They have claws for that, don't hold them down. They'll be dead soon anyways. The endocrinology class has that affect on them usually.

My cholesterol is fine. Estrogen and testosterone are very similar chemically as well. I wouldn't worry about my mood.

Instead of sending a half finished angry letter to my History prof, I'll spill it out here. When marking a paper, make your comments on my arguments, thoughts and conclusions. Please don't circle the three grammatical errors and leave my paper at that without a grade on it. Those are easy to comment on. I used my brain to write the paper, please use yours to mark it. And use proper punctuation and capitalization in your emails. You're a professional, don't use slang. And your teaching me knot two ewes homonyms?

There's a llama on my desk from Bolivia. Its plastic eyes pierce my soul like eyes that pierce. I'll end with a metaphor.

I am like a golf ball.

Get it? Gold.

Meat Fence

I'm alive. Don't eat lobsters.