Best. Toy. Ever.

The beach here is rather cool. It has a nice playground. There's a little wakeboard toy which is a metal board on a flexible base, so it wobbles around. Looks very fun. Even better, there's this.
It digs in the sand. You sit on the yellow seat, and the whole mechanism pivots around the centre post. The digging itself is a five-bar, two input. Grab the two handles, and move them forwards and back to move and pivot the scoop.

Any ideas on how much it would take to get one of these for a backyard?

Such Good Friends

This is Charlie:This is Sophie:
Cute li'l beggars, ain't they? Sorry about the picture quality by the way, they aren't very big on holding a good pose long enough for me to get a shot in. What they are big on, however, seems to be me. Seems that they've discovered that I'm a sucker for cute things. Unfortunately this coincides well with their enjoyment of attention. I say unfortunately because they seem to think that I'm fair game no matter what.

Charlie is quite skilled at being petted. Or rather at drawing pets out from people. He will walk up to anyone stationary and jab his head into a convenient protrusion (such as my chin while I'm doing push-ups) and then drag his body along. Sophie isn't quite as pushy. She's more a fan of coming and sticking her nose in my knitti- my lap. I'm not sure I want to find out what her plans where when she followed Charlie into my room while I was doing push-ups, but I'm beginning to regret setting a bad precident last night.

What did I do last night? Well Sophie apprently really doesn't like thunderstorms. Like the one last night. And I don't like her growling and whining. Like she does at thunderstorms. So I used logic - comfort is good. Unfortunately the reason I needed her to stop whining was that I was trying to sleep. So I opened my room door and told her to come in. It worked, she was happier curled up beside me taking up half the room on my mattress. That wasn't really a problem though, I'm in a queen-sized bed. At least, it wasn't a problem until Charlie decided to come join us.

I think that tonight I'm going to close my door. Just like I had to do this afternoon to be able to finish my push-ups.

As I am now, so you will be

I'm trying to make good use of my time here in Goderich for the workterm. I've gone swimming once (cold) and intend to do so again (I never claimed that I was sensible). I also went out with one of my landlords' dogs this morning along a walking trail that goes over the river across the old CPR bridge.

It's quite the nice trail, old rail beds tend to be great for lazy people like me (when I have a purse and a dog I never feel like doing anything interesting, those two take up all my energy and strength). I went as far as the tomb of "Tiger" Dunlop (Dr. William Dunlop), one of the founders of the Canada Company. He and John Galt had a lot to do with the founding of the town of Goderich, as the port was developed for the settlers on the lands of the Canada Company.

Because of this history the tomb is something of a known attraction. Off the trail there is a little path leading up the hill.

After the level trail with fine gravel this little path with just dust and larger stones seems out-of-the way and untended. (Unless you're a lot more of a city kid than I am it's not). But once you get up to the top of the path there's a grassy clearing with a few pine trees. You can see that people obviously come up there not infrequently, because the grass is worn in a narrow band leading to a couple of benches set up by the tomb itself.

I read the plaque and took a little break, gave the dog some water and had some myself. I didn't sit though. I've never really been one to take long walks in graveyards, around the earthly remains of people I never knew. It set me to thinking - How would I feel if I knew that, after my death, my grave became what is essentially a minor tourist attraction? Are we showing respect or a lack thereof for Tiger Dunlop by trekking out to his lonely tomb and reading the plaque? He was more than incompetence and mismanagement, more than a town founder and politian. As I am now, so once was he. But just who am I?

What the Rabbit Heard at the Office

IS: Hello. I'm Brian, I'm here to steal your computer.

co-op: oh-kay...

EIT: *snicker* So polite!

IS: Hey! I introduced myself first!

I'll Hide in the Office...

So I'm in the middle of a fascinating power struggle at work. I've been told that I'm being used as an excuse, although I'm not sure if that's just being said to make me feel better. The issue here is that the guys from the plant floor out where I am (a small plant, not the main one) have been asked to stop changing in the hallways, at least if they're going to be stripping down to their skivies. One of the women's washrooms has been designated the men's change room (I use the nicer one so I don't mind) and the men who strip down when they change have been informed of the new policy.

The one says he's fine with it, the other one declares he's not. Won't change there without his locker. So, after discarding apparently tempting thoughts of declaring some cardboard box to be his locker and shoving it in the room (with a lock set to not let him out), the engineers went up to junk storage and found a new locker for him. From the stories though, he might well find something else to complain about, since his complaint about a lack of locker failed to stall for very long.

Me? Like the title says, I'll stay in the office until 15:31. We work the day shift here, and by 15:30 the place is dead.

No, that's a digger!

Ok, it wasn't a digger. But I got to drive it! This is officially the best co-op term EVER. I'll take being stuck out here for the chance to drive heavy machinery. I took one of the graders out for a couple of hours this afternoon. Got to move some dirt around, and then took it out to the track. I discovered that if you go over 30 or so it gets really bouncy. So you have to floor it and go up to top speed (48).

In other news the Grad Student Association seems to be stalking me. They sent me an e-mail today to come to a presentation about grad studies. I wonder if it would do any good to point out to them that a) I'm out of town this term, b) I'm really not cut out for grad school, and c) I can't stay in Waterloo after I get my bachelor's. Yeah. Right.

What the Rabbit Heard Around the TV

"So is he like a Mennonite or something?"
"Actually yes."
*time for a quick recovery*
"Well I always figured that if I said that often enough it would work out to be true."

**In fairness that last statement might very well have been true. There was a complete lack of embarassment present.

Purpose

The old catechism asked "Why did God make me?" and answered with "God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and be happy with Him forever in the next."

What does this mean? It means that our purpose is to love God, as happens from knowing him, which brings the desire to serve God. And because love is not something that can flow in one direction, it means that our purpose is to be loved by God. And God's love does not end, nor is it stingy. God loves us warts and all, no matter what we do. God wants to be there for us, and for us to be there for Him.

And God? Thank you for sharing.

Roadwork

So my road-bike tires are rejoicing that Ring Road at the university is finally getting paved. Actually I guess it might be my lack of shocks too... I think it's rather unfair though that they started with the last bit that they tore up. I've been without pavement on the parts of campus that I most often frequent for quite some time.

Actually when I came in for my exam the other day I discovered that that was getting fixed. Which is a mixed blessing. I would really rather not have to climb over the markers that really look as if they're there to keep people out. However, given that both the entrance I would normally use, and then the one that I next walked to were out of comission, I didn't really have a choice. I understand that the work is important, but they really need to give warning. Yes, I leave myself extra time when coming in for an exam, but not so much extra time that I'm willing to go 20 minutes out of my way just to get on to campus.

Does anyone understand why the university is forgetting that there are people on campus this term?

Scratch That One

So I discovered the most wonderful thing the other day. I can trip the traffic light sensor to get an advanced green at University and Albert. I had thought that Allan could trip some just because he is heavier than I am. He can't trip them all, so that would explain why I wasn't able to do it in the past.

However, I am now leaning towards K-W just having better sensors than Toronto does. Which is great. It also means that it's possible to make sensors like that, so I guess that's one fourth year project idea down the drain.

Evil Prof

I managed to finish my exam with a bit of time to spare (it really wasn't worth checking over more than once). As I hand it in the instructor asks me if I thought I'd aced it. It was a fair question to ask, given that I was leaving early and didn't look discouraged. However, leafing through the exam as I'm gathering my stuff and gasping in a horrified manner is rather less than fair. Of course, so was me knitting through his class, so maybe I oughtn't complain...

This is not Studying

Could you tell?

I have a final in two hours. I think I've stopped studying for it already (I'm looking over my notes for Saturday's exam though). Why have I stopped? Well basically I'm making two kinds of mistakes. One is chosing the wrong formula from the 10 that the book offers, all of which *should* be applicable in the situation (at least the solutions don't say why they picked the one they did, and the constraints given on the use of the one I used doesn't exclude the situation I used it for). The other is not noticing the units. Oh. that was Watts per metre squared, not Watts? And that sort of thing is NOT going to get any better by me doing more problems, at least not now. It would get better if I did more problems a week ago, but I think that at this point my best bet is staying somewhat unsure, so that I pay enough attention.

Wish me luck

Worst Time of Term

So I've been suffering insomnia lately. Not that this is unusual. Nor is it unusual for someone (anyone) to not be able to sleep this time of term. However, it is eminently frustrating when I have less sleep than some of my classmates AND was told to stop working at midnight. SIGH

Socky Happiness

I got new sock needles recently. They're rather necessary: my old ones are 4 mismatched needles, with various amounts of bends in them. My new ones? For $6 at what is probably my LYS now (I don't think that Michael's or Lens Mill count) I got a set of 5 2.5mm dpns (20 cm long). They're a little longer than I'd like, but they're lightweight, strong, and not very pointy. I personally like pointy needles, but these are fine for socks, and don't make holes in as many things.

As for how they're doing, I started a sock on Monday. These socks are strictly for in-class, as it's a busy time of term. I am turning the heel (on a men's dress sock, that I am knitting intermittently due to my lingering sprain and taking notes) today. I would have done so during my tutorial but I wanted to look up how to do an eye of the partridge heel. And the delay is no bad thing - I think I used the wrong yarn. As in the yarn that I have 3/4 of a skein left. Now I've been known to mix sock yarns before, but given that my other yarn is wool, and this is superwash... I'm going to go yarn shopping on Saturday. (no complaints about that one, trust me).

Let me know if anyone has suggestions on things that I ought to be knitting. I have a thrummed mitten to finish before I decide instead that the stink of burning wool isn't that bad a thing, and a binary scarf to do for Christmas. Oh, and I've ordered the yarn for my shawl (before you ask, no this shawl does NOT mean that I'm getting married). Aside from that though, once I've finished Allan's sweater repairs and these socks there's nothing. Well... aside from two years' worth of finishing up.

I don't seem to be helping my cause there... Unlike some Fools who think that hitting rock bottom is cause to dig harder, I'm going to call this a night.

God Bless.

Freaking Out

So I'm sitting here, supposed to be in class. This is due to a lack of freaking out on my part (rather than the normal cause of freaking out). I seem to have a habit of dawdling somewhat when I have late class. I never miss my morning class, but twice out of the last three late class days I've arrived after the lecture begins. I'm really beginning to wish that it wasn't always the same class, because this is probably the worst class to miss. (I'm looking over the lecture notes, and I don't get what we're covering today. I will have to bug a classmate about it later).

So any suggestions that can be given on making sure I freak out in the morning, and hurry as if I had early class would be appreciated. I'm aware that part of why I make it on time for 8:30 classes is that the professor for that class tends to not start the lecture until a few minutes after, however I make it for that, I should be able to make it for almost an hour later.

English Language

The Career Services website has warnings to make sure that we use proper grammar when writing our workreports. There are even links to resources on the proper use of the English language. None of this changes the fact that the use of the word "whom" is asking for your marker to complain that your report is unreadable.

Now With Twice As Many Needles

So work has been going a little slowly. Not that I don't have enough of it, just that it takes a while to do. And a lot of that time is thumb-twiddling time. Or, as I like to think of it, knitting time. So, since I've finished the shawl (it is blocked! Pictures coming when I get my camera back), I brought the lace scarf that I started last summer. Now this scarf, like most, is knit flat. Unlike most of my knitting, however, this scarf is not knit on a circular needle (they're great for knitting flat, just work back & forth using the two ends as two different needles). It needed the needle that I left at my place. Fortunately I remembered said needle today. (It was found when I was trashing my place looking for darning needles. I guess I need to lose something else so I can find the darning needles now).

Pass The Pass!

Yes, it's unoriginal, but it's something of a solidarity thing. The anti-bus pass group around campus has lots of posters up, and I'm scared that it won't pass. I'm also really disturbed that people could be opposing the bus pass for any reason other than extreme lack of funds. To put it in perspective - if you have enough money to go out to the bar & drink you can afford the bus pass. It's a lot better for your liver too. If you can afford to drive (to class or elsewhere) you can more than afford the pass - it's a heck of a lot less than insurance for the under-25 age group.

The other thing that annoys me about the anti-pass group is that they're pretending that it's a commuter pass. At $50 for the term this pass is not aimed at students who take the bus to campus. (Students who do take the bus to campus will definitely be doing a happy dance if this passes, because it's an incredible deal when looked at in that light). This pass is more of a "I use the bus occasionally, and it would be nice to take the bus home without having to worry that I don't have any tickets" thing.

So please, for the love of COMMON SENSE remember to vote for the pass!

"...to help other people,..."

So the other night I was walking along, heading to guides. Those of you who know me, I'm sure, are nodding your heads at the fact that I have yet to fix my bike. What makes this interesting though is I'm walking along carrying groceries, rather more than I had intended. I had two different people, one of the girls' parents and one of the other guiders stop and offer me rides. (Yes, this means I didn't take them. In my defense the rides were offered when I was almost all the way there). The amusing part? This is the first time I've had people stop for me on the way to guides, and I've been walking all winter.

It's nice to know that people do look out for each other. And nice to know that they'll still keep talking to me after I refuse a ride.

Good Day to Be Canadian

So this is my March saint's day. I don't have a drop of Irish blood in me (although I do like the music), so St. Patrick's day isn't really that big a deal for me (although he is a cool saint). St. Joseph, on the other hand, is the patron saint of Canada. As an aside, I've always thought that we got the short end of the stick somewhat there, as he's also the patron of the universal church, of workers (as one himself) and of adoptive parents, as well as many other sundry things. However as I believe that the States has Mary as a patron I guess I oughtn't complain too much.

So what am I doing today? Well.. not a lot. Danielle Bean has linked to some traditional recipes, but I have guides tonight, and need to go shopping before that. I didn't make it to mass this morning, and I don't know of any this evening (even if I didn't have guides). Does that change the fact that it's a special day for me? Not in the least.