In linguistics we have to write all of those crazy symbols they use in the dictionary to tell you how to pronounce the word. Luckily, I very quickly found how to write them through the IPA website with simple html codes.

Math, on the other hand, is a little more complex. There are a few ways to write math for browsers, however, they aren’t supported across browsers. The other option is some scripts that will take input and then it will create a images. I still have to figure out how to implement it, but I think I’m going to go with the image option.

The Idle Thumbs podcast ended last month and I’ve taken some of my spare time to listen to it from the beginning.

I’ve also picked up Bored to Death and Modern Family as two new TV shows to watch. No, I haven’t finished Buffy, get off my back!

And with a week off, steam shows what one week of vacation can do for me:



What do you do when a single, drunk girl walks into your room? I continue playing Guitar Hero.

And what do you do when a single, drunk girl walks into your room and sits on your lap? I continue playing Guitar Hero.

And what do you do when a single, drunk girl walks into your room, sits on your lap and tries to kiss you? I continue playing Guitar Hero.

Eventually she got fed up and left saying my favourite line of first year, “And that’s why you’re still a virgin, Mike.”

You see, I don’t do drunk chicks.

And thanks to this little incident conversation has been akward with her ever since. She keep trying to talk to me on MSN which I kind of brush off. It’s not like I have anything to be afraid of from stalkers, I’m a 6’6″ guy.

Normally this is a very strange thing for someone to do but for a Waterloo mathie pink is the colour to be. From the normal pink ties that are given out ever year to the giant pink tie we hang on our math building’s wall.

So I, like a bunch of other people who do so every year, decided to die my hair pink. Partially because of peer pressure, partially because of the total awesomeness.

The first try was with a much lighter pink, roughly how light it is right now, but that washed out without leaving any colour whatsoever. Then I had to try a darker pink which I wasn’t really a fan of at first. It was more vibrant and not the bubblegum pink I wanted in the first place. On our tie which is a gradient this year it is on the very tip of the darkest end.

The pink has done about half the dye’s life cycle now and it’s still just as soft as it was before for anyone who is worried . It should be gone by the end of next week and then I’ll just be the 6’6″ blond guy instead of the 6’6″ guy with pink hair.

It took 2 trips to bring everything here without much squishing. My stuff fits in rather nicely and I prefer rolling out of bed onto my chair to having to walk across the room to get there. Desk and bed took a bit of time to build and fit in but now it’s nice and cozy.

We were going to go with Teksavvy for our internet, 5Mb down/200GB limit/$30 but they could only deliver 512kb here so we are going to go with Rogers, 10Mb down/95GB limit/$60.

I say going with because right now I’m stealing wireless from across the street and 4 houses down. Rogers is backed up until the 19th. So after some great router positioning skills and a lot of patience I managed to “liberate” an unsecured connection that’s rather fast and good enough for anything but gaming. 1.5-2 second ping just doesn’t seem to work when playing games.

We lost water for a few hours on the second day, didn’t have a shower curtain until the 4th day and still lack good food supplies but I’m sure it will be a great term!

Here we go:

5. Finding panties behind my bed a few month into first term.

4. Staying up until 4 a.m. and waking up at noon – for 4 months.

3. Playing Dungeons and Dragons with 2 separate groups.

2. A girl picking me up on my way home from playing Dungeons and Dragons.

1. Having a girl leave my room saying “And that’s why you’re still a virgin, Mike!”

That said, I did have a lot of fun this weekend. I found out who my team members are. I was specifically overjoyed to find that two of my frosh leaders are part of my team this year along with at least 3 others being somewhere in orientation week.

Which is awesome because they are the reason I became a leader in the first place.

The day went like so:

• Meet other group members, make a skit and present to the rest of the leaders.
• Meet with friends from first term, eat lunch at pita palace
• Get back together with group, sign 150 or so letters
• Stand outside in the rain, get burgers

When writing my signature it went from “Apocrypha” to my name once or twice.

And then I hung around with the CSClub guys for a while and went home.

I’m back at home now and it feels weird. It was Tuesday and I wondered why no one was around. My brother was writing and exam, my sister was at school and my mom was at work. And I get to sit and home and play video games, just like at school. But there is something exciting coming up…

My job is starting on Monday. At about 8:30 am Monday morning I’ll be walking into the Net Integration Technologies Inc. (makers of Nitix, small-medium Linux business server) building. But wait, I said I was working at IBM! Well I am. Net Integration Technologies Inc. was bought by IBM about a week before my interview. They still got to choose me as their coop student, but afterward it was really an IBM process.

So I am still technically working for IBM but I won’t actually be working there… Until partway through the summer. About halfway through the summer we’re moving to the newest IBM building in Markham from the Net Integration Technologies Inc. building. It’s just down the street but it’s a big upgrade on the inside.

And how could I possibly get a job this awesome? You have to answer questions like “Why did you go into Computer Science?” with answers like “Because I’m awesome at it.” I actually said that. I actually got the job.

<there was a day break here>

So it’s 2:30 now and I have another final tomorrow. But that one is at 12:30. I think I’ll be fine. Wake up at 9ish, couple hours of studying. Hopefully actually sleep before 5:30. And my other 2 finals at at 7:30… p.m. A good last weekend.

Then one week free and then I start working at IBM, ever CSers dream job, you know, back in 1970!

It was the morning of the… 14th? of January. And like an idiot I stayed up late the night before AGAIN. I guess I’ll never learn. Woke up around 8:20, grabbed a bottle of coke on the way over to wake me up, and I started writing the easiest final I’ve had yet.

Not that the final itself was easy so much as I have no trouble at all with Comp sci. I barely studied at all. It was more of a quick few minutes before I went to bed. I had about half an hour to spare which I spent looking at the art in the room. It was a conference room in one of the newer buildings in the school and I bet no one else had looked at that art as long as I had.

So I waited and waited, and a few weeks later I found my final mark in CS was a 70. Which is roughly what I was told the average would be before going in. Which means I probably got higher than that and they had to round down. Good. Crisis averted.

I get why repetition in movies is necessary. I get why repetition in music is necessary. I get why repetition in writing is necessary. I don’t get why you have to tell the guy sitting next to you that you should have sat on the balcony four times in less than half an hour.

He heard you the first time. He’s repeated it back to you twice. You agree already. It’s over, make a none of it and sit there next time. For the time being, you are stuck where you are so shut up! Talking about it any more does not help.

If you have nothing to talk about you should try something I like. It’s called not talking. Thanks.

I’m not sure if he forgets that he’s said it or he just has run out of things to say.

Sometimes I like to play out the conversations differently to get a different reaction.  You may call this cruel but I figure, why go through the same experience twice?

And if I did do it the same way more than once then I could start off by saying “Remember when you told  me about…” and I’d remember he told me that twice, or three times.

The following horrific turn of event occurred on December 19^th, 2007.

The day before I slept from noon til 5 p.m.. It was 5 a.m. now. I made the call to take a nap before my 12:30 final. So I set my alarm for 7 just in case I went to bed longer than I wanted to and I played around on the internet for a while. Then it was 5:15 then 5:30 so I went to bed then. 5:30, after being awake for a little over 12 hours. I figure that it normally takes me an hour and a half to go to sleep normally and I don’t even feel tired so I’ll be fine. I drift off.

I wake up. I don’t hear that annoying music I set my alarm to? A frequency which seems to pick up two radio stations at the same time. I think… that can’t be good, why did I wake up then? Why do I feel so fully rested? I look outside and find my roommate cooking. I see the clock behind him, 2:30.

2:30!?!?

Half an hour left in the final? 10 minutes to get ready and walk there? No way is that happening… Roommate keeps telling me that he thought I had already left. Whatever. Not your fault. My fault.

Entirely my fault.

So I take a little more time to get ready so I don’t look like total shit. I head down there and talk to the first person I recognize who looks like he’s in charge, a person who watched over my two midterms. I ask him if I can write this final during the next time slot. He asks the guy next to him who I don’t recognize at first. That guy starts answering no, no way, not going to do it. Then I recognize him as my prof for that term, a guy who’s class I wasn’t the best student in. Not looking good at all. I ask him where I should go next because I’m obviously failing the class now. He points me to the Office for Undergrad Math Students so I go there immediately to see what they can do for me.

I head over there, finding it with little trouble. Stand in line for a while behind people with forms that say they were sick exactly on or around their exam days. They look fine now of course… Once I step up I tell the secretary that I slept in and missed my final and ask him what I can do. He tells me that unless the prof, who I just asked, lets me write it, I will fail. So I’d have to take a CS class the next term. However, only CS 125 (Java based) is available not CS 135 (Scheme based) which I was taking. So either I’m four months behind with a class I don’t want to take or a year behind taking the same course I should have passed the first time. Fuck.

I walk back to residence and think. I screwed my life by an entire year because I have a messed up sleeping pattern. I decide, because there is no hope any other way, that I should send my prof an email. Worst case I’m exactly where I am still, best case I get to pass somehow. I take about an hour or two to make sure it’s polished and send it off because I have another exam the next morning for philosophy.

My mom gets on MSN. I wanted to tell her since it happened because it’s better to get it out quickly I assume. I did the best things I could have given the circumstances I believe. So I give her the whole story and as I’m going through it she tells me to do exactly what I tell her I did next. That’s a great sign I guess. I messed up but I messed up well.

I get a reply around 9:30 that night from my prof. He explains that he doesn’t want to write another exam just for me (of course not, there are 2 days til holidays and that’s a *lot* to ask for *my* mistake). He has marking to do for everyone else. He says he’ll talk to his colleagues about it when he gets the chance. I thank him for considering the possibility at all. I tell him I’ll be in town as long as I can if some opportunity does come up.

The next day at 3 he emails me back saying that on January 14^th I will be given a chance to write another exam (either an old one or from another school I presume). My final mark after that exam will be decreased by 12.5% (so it’s worth ¾ of the normal 50% final). Then the lesser of the class mean and my mark will be taken for my final mark. Heavy strings but better than an absolute fail. Much better.

So I get a second chance. I call home, tell my dad to pick me up and I wait. I wait and I feel like shit. I was so close to fucking up my life.