July 9, 2002

Holy....... It's been more than a month since I last updated this damn page... well, I've been pretty occupied at work since I started. I bet nobody reads this page anymore. HAHA... so much the better.... less secrets will get out I suppose.

Anyway, start from the beginning. The month of June was pretty uneventful. Just working during the day, come home and do house chores (or lack of). Yeah, house chores isn't exactly something I am used to doing, but I should cuz my dad is on another business trip. Joy. I actually let the backyard grass grow to almost my waist.... and don't forget I'm 6'1" around... =P Pretty bad eh? We had a weed growing that was pretty huge. The root was like the size of a cabbage... Nasty.. was a pain to get rid of. Oh well, by now at least the backyard looks pretty decent, but I should mow it again before it turns nasty again.

On June 22, I had a little bday bash at my house (so now you should have a better idea of when my bday is... it's around that time). Wasn't exactly large, as I could only get roughly 17 ppl. But it was still fun and it was the only bday bash I ever held in a LOOOONG time. Usually bdays were celebrated w/ family only.. and I never understood why...... Mostly cuz I never took the initiative to get a party or something going. Sucks eh? Yeah it was alright though. Lots of chatting, and a little social drinking. Nothing tooooo deadly =P Next year I will try doing something like that again, but I gotta get some entertainment at home.. BADLY..

The week after, during the Canada Day long weekend, me and a few friends rented a car and went down to Six Flags Darian Lake! Our first road trip to the USA! (Funny, we celebrated Canada Day in the US..... how patriotic of us... lol) Of course, I had to drive the whole way cuz I was the only one who owned a car and had insurance to cover it. Here's a tip: GET A CAR WITH CRUISE CONTROL!!! Damn my feet hurt once we got there... we left around 7am on Sunday and spent a good 8 hours at the park. The Superman ride was AWESOME!!! It's fast, it's long and it was STEEP! Unfortunately, I lost my hat on that ride... the hat that my 'female friend' gave me for my bday last year.. sniff sniff. =~( Oh well, I told her about it later and she will get me another one when she comes. YAY! The rest of the rides at Darian Lake were ok... most were actually the same as the ones in Wonderland... so wasn't too shabby. We stayed at a hotel for the night, and bought some beer to drink for the night.. US beer really sucks. =P The night was rather boring cuz we had no music, and we had to rush out to buy some cards or something to do.... now we know how to REALLY prepare for a road trip. Hopefully we can pull something like this off again one day, and do it right with more people this time!

Now it's July.... and things start to get a little dreary. First off, to start off the new fiscal year for the company I work for, I find out that my position is getting axed starting Sept....... >_< Wow.... I now have experienced getting laid off... unbelievable. The thing is, I didn't get permission from the prof to take my 4th year compiler course, so I have no school during Sept - Dec. So I hoped to stay w/ the company for those 4 months... but now that I'm getting axed, I have to look for another job. Sucks. Oh well, the company hasn't been doing very well anyway... in fact, the whole market is still shit anyway. I wonder if I should change fields..... I'm really thinking about becoming a pilot instead.... cuz the road trip to the US proved that I enjoy driving, but I don't wanna become some fat redneck trucker, so the alternative would be piloting a cargo plane or something. It's an interesting thought... I will probably keep it in mind for the next while until I can figure out my career path. But for now, I need a new job.

Also in July, WORLD YOUTH DAY 2002 is almost here!! YAY! For those of you that don't know, Pope John Paul II is coming to TO to celebrate this even with us youth in Toronto in 2 weeks! JOY! I've been to two previous WYD's before, so it's a great event! Unfortunately, with the garbage strike and all, it doesn't look good. But the province should be enforcing back-to-work legislation to get that fixed soon. Damn unions... one reason why I want to leave this country... stupid unions.... while I understand their role, but I just don't feel Canadian unions are doing it right. I mean, it's like every half year we get a strike from some union. It's like a never-ending cycle.... what a waste of money.... Canada would be much better off if we didn't have so many strikes and everything... ugh... sucks

May 30, 2002

Well, another month just passed and me without updating. HAHA. Ah well, nothing much has happened so far, except me going to work everyday, getting exhausted, having the weather rain on me everytime I wanted, no, NEEDED, to mow the lawn, and now my backyard is a jungle with grass as tall as my waist..... oh yeahhhhhhh you gotta love summer.

I finally found out my marks today. Yeah, stupid McMaster... bunch of lazy 4sses........ and the news is 50/50. Good news is, I'm out of probation!! YES! I'M OFFICIALLY A CS MAJOR! MUHAHAHAHA!!! Now for the bad news.... I failed my automata course. Great... now I have to retake it and go through that horror AGAIN... sigh.... someone shoot me. It's not fair dammit! Now I can't take my final CS core course without special permission. But there's no guarantee I can do that, which means at MOST, I have to be in Mac for another 2 terms, except they won't be in the same year.... =( FSCK!!!! I don't want to graduate in 2004!! I have no money left!!! I can't afford to go to school and keep my car.. FACK!!! Time to save BIG TIME... I hate this........ but at least I'm a CS major now, so I just have to maintain my average to succeed. I'll just throw in a few bird courses to guarantee that. Grumble................

May 4, 2002

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (in a relaxing tone). It's overrrr. ^_^ Well, I didn't do very well on the exam, but then, neither did the class. LOL. One thing about that automata prof is that his exams are LONG. VERY LONG. Even with 3 hours, you CANNOT finish all of it even if you tried. 18 questions...... 12 constructions and 6 proofs. I spent 2.5 hours on the 12 constructions, most of which I didn't even get! I only did one proof in the end.... joy....... here's to that great bell curve!

Anyway, with exams over, it's back to work I go. I started work on Tuesday. Things are great there I guess. There's a lot more to do than before, but only because unlike the first time, I'm taking more initiative to get more done. Which is a good thing, sometimes it gets pretty void during the day only because we're in the slow parts of testing and not near a software release. When it's release time, oh boy, it gets crazy.

I've finally started driving my car! YAY! It's really great since I only had 2 practice runs with my dad but by Monday night I was actually able to drive it well enough to go to work with it the next morning! WOOHOO! Sure, I've been stalling quite a few times this week, but it's pretty normal for a beginner. But most people think I drive great! So yeah! Happy!

April 28, 2002

D-Day minus one......... Tomorrow will be my worst exam ever, only on the count that I really don't want to write it. =P I hate the material with a passion.. and I can't study it anymore... argh... but I'm still soo clueless on most of it... it's not funny. Sigh....

On a high note, had my first driving lesson with my dad this morning....... and I FEEL GOOOOOOOD =D. Driving a manual is not that hard.... just have to master 1st gear and pressing the clutch properly. The upper gears are no effort..... I went up to 4th gear today and I swear I think I can handle the highway. Hee hee! Can't wait! My dad won't let me drive it on my own just yet... but after a few more practices and I'll be fine. I just need practice and to get used to it. Ah well, that's all for now... gotta keep cramming for that STUPID exam... =(

April 18, 2002

ARRRRGGHH!!!! I really hate this term.. I really do.....

Just to put it simply, I failed my exam yesterday..... BADLY...... and I just don't understand why I didn't remember the things I studied.... argh... I can probably point that out to the fact that the day before, I had to present my year long group project... and I had to memorize things I had to say. Basically I ended up forgetting what I've studied before.... ARGH! FSCK!! HATE this...... well, I guess it's not 100% bad since my friends in that course was kind fscked up too... but not as badly as me I don't think......... I'll pass the course, but that's not what I was shooting for. I need a C avg among my two courses and the project to remain in the Honours Comp Sci program.... and from the looks of things, that's getting unlikely. My next exam is on the 29th, plenty of time to study.. that's good... but still.. a lot of material to cover.. and since that exam is OPEN BOOK... I'm not expecting to get a very high mark... this is very bad......... definitely going to be drinking after all this is over......

Well, I guess I can revert back to my 3 year Math Sci degree if things don't work out.... it would be nice for me to get a CS degree, but going into the IT field, might not be necessary... as long as my knowledge on IT is good, and I can supplement that w/ certifications... so might not end up being that bad... but still, I'm just very disappointed. Damn, that bell curve must be pretty huge for me to get away with anything, or my project presentation ended up being ok and getting a good mark from that... dunno.

Oh yeah, my presentation didn't end up that well either! We had to improvise the entire presentation because we initially made it a kind of oral presenation but they didn't want that. They just wanted us to demonstrate our software. WTF..... that wasn't the focus of our project... I'm just scared that they'll think we didn't do much when we did end up doing quite a bit. Just that timing issues popped up that we didn't anticipate... ok.. bad excuse that will get us killed.. but still.. argh... with all the courses we had to handle, and this project too... I don't know.. I'm just really feeling low from all these disappointments... I can't wait until this is over and I can start working and learning some GOOD shitz... and I'll be driving my new car soon. YAY! Finally gonna drive a manual! MUHAHAHA! UPDATE: Well, went to the dealership with my dad today. I'm going to be getting the car very soon. But just not according to my initial plans... I had hoped to grab a Vibe (since it's technically a Toyota Matrix =P) but couldn't afford it.... 6.9% APR man... frig.. i'd be paying for how much my dad pays for his van... can't afford that for sure.. so.. will be going for a Cavalier for sure. A LOT cheaper.. and it doesn't matter anyway.. I just need a car to beat on for the next few years. Problem is, I'm going to be racking up SIGNIFICANT amount of mileage (since I'm leasing).. and looks like I will go over for sure (since I have to work and THEN commute to school too for at least a term or two... ARGH)... man.. not good... oh well, story of my life.