A week in review

After a week with no posts to be seen im sure most of you are thinking “Has he given up on the biog. so quickly?”. Alas that is not the case, I have just been distracted with University and such, so I have continuously procrastinated. I’ll try to put up a few key points about each day, best I remember them.

Thursday:

Cant remember much about Thursday, but I’m sure that I got up late since my only class was at 6:00pm (economics). Unfortunately Economics was much of what happened last week, mainly my teacher talking about things that were not really related to corse, such as Oklahoma and pop culture. But he got on track after not to long, (30 minutes) and we did notes on the corse material. The prof seems to take his information (and format) directly out of the text book, and rarely ads anything notable, so it is hard to stay focused when u already have read the corse material. After that I went and hang out with some people who are in my faculty. Among them is a guy that is a communist and had longer hair than I did! We had tea, it was a good time. That just about sums up that day.

Friday:

For the most part of Friday day I read and relaxed, what else is a Friday for? I should also mention that I went for a swim. Not very interesting, but I made up for it Friday night. Friday night I went to a house party off campus. Who’s house was it? None other than John Nater, my fourth year contact for Public Affairs and Policy Management. The party itself was for people enroled in Public Affairs and Policy management. This was not a dry party, in the sense that it was both interesting and full of alcohol. I personally involved myself in a drinking game know as the ‘Century Challenge’. This game involves drinking one shot of beer every minute for 100 minutes. I did not come to the party with beer but I found enough there to get me 70 shots of beer in 70 minutes. After that (6 bottles of beer) I was sufficiently drunk, and stopped drinkin. The memory of Jason vomiting in the bathroom was all too fresh in my mind. So after taking a taxi home with the people I was at the party with I went up to my room to sleep. Unfortunately there was no mattress on my bed frame.

I ‘borrowed’ some of my neighbors vodka to drink before I went to the party with every intention to pay him back (even wrote him a note). It seems that my neighbor had a perfect amount of alcohol to get drunk with, and because I had a bit, I had taken his ability to get drunk for the night. So in retaliation he, and some of the other neighbors ‘borrowed’ my bed. I eventually got it back (though my drunken state made it all rather confusing). After acquiring my bed I had an aspirin and some water and went to bed.


No Bed????


A Clue!


Another Clue!



"I'm to drunk for this"



I think I'll get my bed back now...

Battling Sickness (Wednesday)

BLAH, being sick sucks. Enough said. Unfortunately I awoke early this morning with my joints aching and the unmistakable feeling of sick overwhelming my senses. But I was not the type of person to take these things lying down so I... went back to sleep. My first class was at 11:35am so I got out of bed around 11:00am so I could shower and grab a granola bar, some Clod FX and an apple while I went out the door. The class I was going to was Canadian History, and we discussed the Aboriginal peoples of North America and how they may or may not have been the First peoples of North America. We also discussed how the microbes brought over by the early European settlers devastated much of the Indigenous population of the Americas, bringing there numbers down from Millions to hundreds of thousands. It was all very interesting, but unfortunately I was sick and tiered all the while, so it was less engaging than it may have been otherwise.

After the class was over I walked to the Cafeteria in the rain (did I forget to mention it was raining?). Being as sick as I was I didn’t really want anything to eat, but I knew I should eat something. But then I found a god send, chicken noodle soup! After two bowls of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich I headed back to my dorm with new found resolve to beat my sickness. I got back to my dorm around 1:30pm and had more Cold Fx and a neocitrin and went to sleep. I woke up at 5:00 so I could get to my class scheduled for 5:35pm. I arrived at the class to find an empty conference room, realizing only then that the class I was going to was a discussion group for a class I had not yet had. This gave me enough time to walk to the other side of campus for dinner and then walk back for my other class, The comparison of Industrial States. I had an exceptionally hard time focusing in that class because 1) I was sick 2) the drugs were still acting one me 3) the professor was extremely un-charismatic (a great disappointment after having Mr. Anderson for social last year). I forced myself to stay awake and I actually found the corse material very interesting.

I then headed back to my dorm had more Cold FX and wrote this. I plan to go to bed soon. So until next time remember, the only thing in the polio vaccine is essence of chicken noodle soup.

Time Condenses

Ever find that when you actually have to do something with your day, time starts to go faster? We'll to simulate this real life occurrence I will condense the last 3 days (including today) into one Blog. You may be thinking, "Is he doing this just because he procrastinated doing it and he is to lazy to do 3 separate posts?". We’ll if you thought that you would be right, but beggars cant be choosers and I kinda have a monopoly on the Jonathan @ Carleton thing.

Sunday:

No one knows what happened on Sunday, I actually have no recollection and when I ask people they get mad at me, so who knows. I ate 3 meals, went for a swim for the first time and went to bed early, that is about all I know.

Monday:

Gasp! I have to get up before noon?!?!? Yes that was the case I had to get up at the earth shatteringly early time of 8:30am. It gave me time to shower and eat and head to my first class of Public Affairs and Policy Management (PAPM) at 9:30am. The class was fairly interesting, although we only really discussed what would be involved in the class, so i didn’t have any home work to do afterwards (awesome). After that class was over I headed over to my next class (Canadian history). It was a fairly interesting class, but again it was mostly an overview. The professor talked about how Canada's history was defined by the interaction of separate colonies, so that would be the theme of the class. But more importantly there was no home work. So with nothing to accomplish in the evening, I had a swim and well, accomplished nothing. But I did buy 2 posters for my room at a poster sale at the University. One was a Dizzy Gillespie poster and the other was a poster on Ambition. So I went to bed and that was the end of another day.

Tuesday:

Today was a little more civilized in concerns with when I got up (11 am). My first and only class of the day was Philosophy of the World Mind and Knowledge at 2:35pm. Before the class I went to the Home offices and I signed up for a practice room so I can start practicing my trumpet again. Anyway back to my class, my Prof is a great philosophy teacher because he has such a thick accent that you can't understand what he is saying in more than one way! When I could understand what he was saying It was very interesting. We talked about Descartes and I found out many things I didn’t know (as we'll as revisited things I already knew). After that was over I found out that we went suppose to get any textbooks to buy but would get the readings from the library. So after dinner and all that I went to the library and took out the book and read/ takes notes on Descartes first and second Meditations (more than half my homework for next week) . So as it stands now it seems my homework for the weekend will be limited, but I still have 3 classes tomorrow and Thursdays ECON class to give me some work. We'll that’s about it and I have nothing witty coming to mind so until next time.

Pics:

Ambition Poster







Dizzy Gillespie



Mary (Neighbor)




Erik (Jason roomate)

End of high school pic

Fashion statement of the year. Did a little something with it in paint, enjoy.

Another Productive Day

Not to break my streak of incredibly productive days, Saturday had lots of activity. It was another early morning; I woke up at 1pm, and Rafik, achieving the imposible, woke up later than me (at 2pm). After I woke up I got my laudrie out and luged it down the stairs to put it in the washer. I had lunch and put my cloths in the dryer. While I was waiting for a dryer to free up/ while my cloths were in the dryer, I watched Pulp Fiction. This was cool for me because I had always wanted to see the movie. Over all it was a good movie, though at times graphic (Samul L Jackson = awsome). I folded my laundrie after the dryer was done and put it away (arnt you proud mom). After that I basically sat around and talked with my floor. We were going to go to a pub called the Toad or somthing like that but it never panned out. It's probably for the best anyway, I have kinda had my fill of outings of that calaber for a while.

Sidenote: I'm still reading the book by Stephen Lewis and I definatly think I'm going to get involved with the AIDS awarness group at our school.

Anyway, while I was talking with everyone on our floor I had a chance to talk to Jacqueline who told me that she took a philosophy class in high school and she enjoyed philosophy. That was the biggest mistake she ever made. After she told me about her philosophical past I went on a 20 minute talk fest about every philsophical thing that came to my mind. It felt really good not to be talkinga bout things I found superficial for a while. Eventually she just got up and walked away, I dont blame her, most people would do the same, but if felt good to finally say those things to some one.

Besides my philsophical rant there were some other interesting things that hapend. There were several intoxicated girls running around screaming and making alot of notes until all hours of the night. A guy called "James" lives in a room on our floor, he always has sunglasses and gloves on and will respond in no way to people saying hello or anything. Every now and then he stumples in or out of his room. He’s not really a "loner" so much as a "staby staby" guy. It's faily creapy but the girls, completly drunk, helped him off the floor in his room (which had no lights on) and put him into his bed. A few minutes later he left the room and the intoxicated girls talking to him actually got him to say "I'm going to get a drink". Sufficed to say I lock my doors. Anyway I'm sure that will all work out in the wash and I only really put it in here so that the post would be longer. So.. I guess its long enough, Until next time, lock your doors.

The problems with memory...

Unfortunately I procrastinated this post for 2 days and my short term memory doesn’t extend back that far, so a lot of this will be brief. Friday morning I woke up at the crack of 12pm. That means I got 10 hours of sleep sufficed to say, it was nice. Rafik got up early for a class (which I don't have on Friday!!) So he was out and back before I was awake. But wakening up late didn’t stop me from having a full day first I... uh I had lunch then... I sat around and read then I well... I had dinner and that took me to about 8pm. This productive regiment of activity was only possible due to my highly motivated personality and my ambitious goals for the day.

After all the activity of the day was done I figured I would actually do something in the evening, so I went with a bunch of guys on my floor to a club in Hall(Quebec) called Cosmo. To be honest I'm defiantly not the 'clubbing' type so I didn’t really enjoy myself but it was an interesting experience and it helped me to remember who I was and who I was not. So when the time finally cam around (12:30am) when the guys had enough clubbing we left only to have it start POARING rain on us! After running around in the rain for a bit (away from cabs who said they wouldn’t take wet passengers, back to a bus stop which bus we realized wasn’t running....) we eventually got into some cabs (with drivers who were not so stuck up) and got a drive back to Carleton. After that I went with Rafik and Jason to buy some food at the convenience store. I had "roast chicken" chips, which seemed strange to me so I gave them a try. They were surprisingly good. After talking for a while we eventually went to bed. There you have it my shortest post ever.

Pics:

Guys in the Cab


At the club



Getting out of the Cab



*Note to viewers* This looks like a rocking good time right? We'll most the people here were thinking it’s a bust so don’t believe everything you see.

First Day of Class

Maby first "Day" of class is a little of an over statement considering I only had one class, Economics. When was this class you ask, well fairly early 6:05....pm. Ya, with that as my first scheduled event of the day my actions that preceded it were... relaxed at best. I woke up around 11:30am, I then showered and went for lunch/breakfast with some other people on my floor (including my room mate Rafik who had class at 8:30am!). After that I came back to the room, napped, read and did my blog for yesterday. By the time that heavy regiment of activity was over it was time to catch an early diner so I could get to Economics on time.

Good thing I was on time for economics, cause if I wasn’t I would have missed a lot. That is to say I would have missed a lot of my professor talking about his teaching experience in America, his childhood in Vietnam, moving to Oklahoma and other side tracked rants of nothing that consumed an hour of my life. After about an hour of this talk he tells us that we have course work we have to do and that "we better hurry up so we can fit it all in." WHAT!??!?!? Is this some kind of cruel joke they play on the first years ?? At that point I was ready to strangle my professor in front of a class of 300 witnesses. Anyway, I contained my rage and took notes on what he was talking about (stuff he ended up rushing through...) and I met some people in the class who were in PAPM (Public Affairs and Policy Management).

After that was all done I was in need of a good laugh so I went to the Yuk Yuk’s comedy show. It was absolutely hilarious. All the comedians toured with Yuk Yuk’s and two of them were on The Comedy Network on ‘Comedy Now’. They were incredible, I was in tears for a great deal of the show. After the side splitting was over I went back to my dorm.

When I got back I was talking with a bunch of people on my floor and they were all heading out to the ‘retro’ 90's night dance party. As most of you know im not exactly a ‘dancing’ type, but I decided I may as well go. Despite my own awkwardness I danced and after a couple of songs I was actually enjoying it. The dance floor was about 100000 degrees Celcus so I was sweating like a pig but I still must of danced for a solid 2 hours. After that I headed back to the room where I found the door open, but no Rafik. I went next door to investigate and there was my neighbor passed out in his bed, with Refik and Jacqueline (from across the hall) sitting in the room. I asked them what happened and the explained to me that Jason (neighbor) got really drunk and puked all over the bathroom. Rafik had come back to our room (after being in Ottawa) and went in the bathroom to go pee and found Jason passed out in his vomit. They had security to to check for Alcohol poisoning, but he wasn’t at that point. After the stories were over I stayed up talking to people on the floor and eventually went to bed at 3:00am, another day, and a bit done.

Pics:


Jason (taken by Rafik)



More Scenery (old pic)



High school memories (made pic at end of high school)

Day 4, even more

Hello to everyone again, I didn’t have my camera yesterday so all you'll have to go on is words and pics taken before and after.

Alright so yesterday (Wednesday) started bright and early at 7:30 for academic orientation. I "jumped" out of bed and in 30 mins I was showered dressed and on my way to a complementary breakfast. I arrived in an open court yard called the "Academic Quad" where there was a 30 mile line up for breakfast. I decided since I had a ton of meals left for the week I would go to the cafeteria. I had a bagel and fruit there and then headed back to the Quad. When I arrived we were lining up for shirts for our faculties. By the time I got to the end of the line all of the Public Affairs shirts were gone so they gave me a BA and social sciences shirt instead. I was then led to a gymnasium where there were speeches being given by the president of Carleton, the dean, a history professor, and more importantly Stephen Lewis. I'm sure most of you know who he is but for those of you who don’t he is the UN Secretary General's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. He is an exceptional Canadian Citizen named "Canadian of the Year" by Maclean's Magazine. His speech was passionate and inspiring. He stressed the joy of being in such an intellectually enriched place as university and the thrill of being able to debate the issues of the day. He also talked to us about these issues; AID's in Africa, the war on Terror and global worming. He also stressed that we could make a difference, and I think that is what was most exiting to me. Mr. Lewis has done incredible things and I think he will act as a big inspiration for me in the years to come.

After the speeches were over I went to the Public Affairs and Policy Management specific orientation. They talked about the resources and classes at Kroeger College (the unique part of the University that holds my faculty). I think I will have a better grasp on it when I finish my first class in it (Monday). After that I went to another speech Mr. Lewis was giving (not just for first year BA students this time). After the speech was done I bought a book entitled
“Race Against Time”. It is a compilation of a number of his speeches about AIDS in Africa. At the time he was doing a book signing so I now have a signed copy.

After that was over I headed back to the Academic Quad where there were booths for a number of clubs. I signed up for information (via email) to the debate club, toastmasters club, AIDS awareness club, the Carleton Music Association, the UN club, CUSA (Carleton University Student Association). I'll try to fit classes around these clubs, but if I get to busy I'll just have to stop going to class. (Just kidding mom.)

After that I headed back to the dorm room to relax and listen to music. After much relaxing I was invited by some people on my dorm to go to downtown Ottawa. We took the bus and walked around parliament and then went to the Rideau Shopping center. Rafik was among the group of people I was with and he bought an Ali poster and a Beatles poster for the room before heading off with some people he knew who lived in Ottawa. I then continued to wander with the rest of our floor people and by luck found a bus stop with Carleton bus. On the bus we met up with some Criminology first years who got on the bus on the wrong side the road and had ridden the entire route (hours..) to get back to the University. Fortunately we were back at the University in 20 mins and we headed back to our rooms. With the knowledge that I had no class until 6:00pm the next day I headed out in search of parties at other dorms with a group of people from our dorm. Alas no parties were found but I met some nice drunk and sober people. After that we headed back to our dorm and talked until about 2 am then I went to bed.


Pics:

Stephen Lewis Book




Scenic Pic From Ottawa



Amazing Race Ottawa




BA and Social Science shirt




Rafik getting a bed time story Leah

The Madness Continues.. Continued

Alright, this is the completion of Tues, as best I remeber.

I went to parking lot 7 at 5:00pm and got on some busses to go into Ottawa, to a beatufially seanic point to eat burgers and watch the sunset until 7:30pm.

Pic's of scenario around dinner















At 7:30 they anocened the first clue for the "Amazing race Ottawa". That resulted in us all running to parlement (the answer to the first clue). basically there was a huge number of first years runing through the streets of Ottawa. After runing around the Paralament and then behind it to the librbary then down spark street then to a park... we eventually arived at the busses that would take us away from down town Ottawa.

Night out on the town:






From Ottawa we were driven to IKEA. At IKEA we had a cheer off against a local Colledge and then got to shop in the store, which was staying open for us the students. I bought a lamp, some trays for stuff and some Mugs. I also enjoyed 2 hotdogs and a cup of pop for less than a bottle of pop from a machine.

IKEA ya..





I then headed back to my dorm where the same drunken redicoulsnes was occuring. That prity much brings me up to writting this post, and just like that another day was done.

Crazy people



Until Next time, have fun and never ask whats in a $0.50 hot dog

Look Ma' I made my bed

The Madness Continues

A bunch of stuff has happened since my last post, unfortunately my memory is short so this might not be all of it.

After Ravenpalooza and creating this blog I went to sleep at around midnight. At 7:30 the next morning a bunch of the seniors in charge of frosh week "gently" woke us up by running down the halls screaming and beating on our doors.

After that pleasant wake up call I got to understand what sharing a bathroom with 4 other people is like. I waited for 45 min to have a shower, and by the time I was done my dad had shown up to take me to Montreal to see Trev and Ryan and my Grandma.

On the way we stopped for breakfast and I had bacon, eggs, butter soaked toast and hash browns. After that fine meal we headed off to visit Grandma. It was a good visit, but dad managed to time our arrival exactly for lunch time at the seniors home... but eventually grandma finished eating and we went to say ‘hi’. We drove around the Island and had coffee/muffin/bagel break at Tims.

We then visited Trev and Ryan's where I acquired a cinder block to use as a stand to raise up the height of my monitor (who ever said I don’t have class?). After a few beers and a lot of junk food dad and I headed back on the road to Ottawa. After a few minor directional problems we got back to Carleton and I had the pleasure of hauling the cinder block up to my third floor room.

After that was finished dad and I departed to go meet my mom's friend mi mi (don’t know how to spell). After a lengthy and very informative tour of town we headed to dinner at The Blue Cactus for wings, chips and a chimichanga. After that we walked around the town and stopped for a beaver tail which is basically deep fried dough in the shape of a beavers tail(very tasty) (based on what I've been eating today, my life insurance has gone up 200%).

I then headed back to residence and said my good byes to my dad (insert dad making "punting" motions here). I then proceeded to go upstairs to my room and fall asleep.

The following day (today) I was woken up equally as gently as the day before at 7:30 for frosh. This time I rolled over to get a 'couple minutes" more sleep... At 11:30 I rolled out of bead. After realizing that it was 11:30 I promptly yawned and had a shower. I explored the campus and walked along the Rideau Canal and then went back to my room to laze around until now (4 pm). All in all I think I have had a productive day so far, but I plan to meet up with the frosh group at 5:00 pm for "Amazing Race Ottawa". I'll report later with more info about what happens.


Pics:




Rafik AKA Roomate







The madness of the Basketball Game
(previous post)






The all-mighty Computer Set up
(including the cinder block stand)






Another Ravenpalooza Picture




My Shrine of Buddhism/
Full Metal Alchemist

First few days at school

Hey family and friends, this blogs for you

I'll be writing about University and posting pictures to keep you all updated.

When u guys want to talk to me live just send me an email massage and either phone me (parents) or send a time in a email when we can talk on msn.



Im sure I could write 10000 words about all the things that have happened, but unfortunately I don’t have the time or patients to do so, so I'll keep it short and sweet.


Well university is great. I've moved into my room now and met my room mate Rafik, who is a really cool IT student here. He is originally from Ottawa but has lived in Texas for the last 2 years.



For the last few days I was up in North Bay visiting my Grandma Jane. I drove up with my dad and that was a lot of fun.







We got into Ottawa on Sat and unloaded a lot of stuff in the room. After attempting to unpack for a while we got mostly organized and headed out to the Best Western we were going to stay in.






Then we got up Sunday (today) and headed out to do some shopping. Little did I know that Dad was planing to take out a second mortgage on the house. We spent 370$ at the superstore (which we drove 20 km to find) on everyday things and bedding and such. We then precede to spend 500$ at Staples buying a new 19 inch Samsung monitor, new keyboard, sound system, security cables and some blank cd's. After that we precede back to the dorm to set up the system (to be shown photographically later), and after encountering a few minor problems (insert Dad muttering here) we finished and headed off to eat.



The food was AMAZING. Lots of selection and more importantly all you can eat. I think that deserves to be repeated: ALL YOU CAN EAT!!!! Anyway after lunch we went to the library to spend 500$ more on books. SOOO much to read... After hauling the 10 lbs of books back to the dorm, dad left and I remained to finish sorting out my room.







I continued to organize and such until 5 when I went to a "Revenpolooza" which is basically a giant pep rally for the basket ball game/ an intro for all the first year students. There is a dance on right now, I might go and check it out later but its almost 11 and that is past my bed time.









Well for the last little while there have been intoxicated people wandering around the dorms introducing them selves to one another. Its been a lot of fun so far and I should add to this all later.

Until then just remember it could be worse, you could have 170$ worth of economics reading material.


(done)