convergence of the old and new ...

a country girl no more:

let me start off with some w(h)ine and dine:

so, Ottawa is where i am at these days. i know the city much better than i currently think i should, or than i really wished to have known at this point. basically i have been taking the long route (in other words the lost route) to get to school in the mornings. since i am living just outside of the city on, believe it or not, a farm i have been driving to school so far. and let's just say that i am uber glad to be anal about getting to places on time, because it means that if i get terribly lost, i might still make it to class on time. now, as for people in owen sound: you should know that when you are told in driver's ed that "if you can drive in owen sound, you can drive anywhere" it means only one thing: the instructor is from wiarton. then, hamiltonians, you may think that getting around in hamilton, the city of the one-way street is frustrating ... you might want to visit toronto or "pot-hole city" but in all seriousness, i think the prize for worst driving conditions should go to ottawa, which not only has pothole, after pothole, it seems that its roads don't even connect to each other. well, and for those who know ottawa quite well i am talking baseline/riverside/prince of whales/bronson area ....

anyways, that is the extent of my frustration. other than that, i am just hanging out in class and in the library for the coming few weeks. i have already handed in an assignment and am getting ready for an exam. in the meantime i am getting to know lots of new people, and finding new cafes on a daily basis. also, i am spending sometime doing nothing at all, and rereading tons of economics materials -> theory that is.

i can't help but try to compare between mac and carleton, almost constantly. for example, i can't believe that carleton only has one library. while i also can't believe how handy it is that everywhere there is plugs for computers and such in cafeterias etc. anyways, apparently mac and carleton are the only two universities in canada where you can get free transcripts: no wonder i had to come here. although, i will have to save my bus pass rant for another day.

i have also observed that i really feel like a tourist, and feel like i should take a picture when a bus passes by with ginormous ottawa senators advertising; when i remember that i will be seeing that bus everyday, and that well, everyone is a sens fan here. (except for my one roommate, and another large group of .... well [insert comment here])

i am calling it a day; i will be trying to find this apartment building that i will be living at later, with an actual address, which should make it much easier. otherwise, i might do what i have been getting pretty good at: drive around searching, doing u-turns etc.

back to my assignment ....

thursday's mutterings

time flies ... especially when you have a pile of files sitting on your desk that you need to finish before the end of the summer; and you know you will never get through them. i have noted this ability to always get my paper stuck in the holepunch ... i also walked into the door today, and managed to screw up all my printing. another reason why i know i was supposed to be born blond.

as for the olympics; i am still doing some moaning and groaning about the time difference. i love to watch most of the events (with the exception of boxing); and have been getting my cheer on. of course, if i was canadian i would have given up a while back; but i am not, so it has been considerably more fun. i have even been getting my anti-cheer on. the united states was always on my blacklist; but just as the rest of the world i have a tiny little crush on michael phelps, and have chosen the chinese to be on top of my blacklist instead. certainly they have built some really nice facilities; but come on, a 7 year old girl who is not pretty enough to appear on tv? seriously, who has got a good image now?

anyways, as i have to make daily decisions between watching the olympics, or Reba and Hope and Faith on CMT, i am plugging along pretty great, and looking back wondering where oh where the summer went.

i know. it went. it went. why would it went?

6.5 more days of work.

08 08 08

i am not sure if i am liking this whole olympics business in china. i had to miss the opening ceremony because of work at 8.30. and i love watching the opening ceremony. i believe that the olympics should be a two week international holiday.

in the meantime, i am extremely busy with getting packed up and ready to go to ottawa, while still working, and living the country life. with all that i am going to schedule in some studytime, the olympics, maybe some blogging about said olympics, shopping for wedding presents, parties, and i am going to marineland for a day.

and only this morning i realized what TGIF (which the finance lady puts in her e-mails at work) stands for. i am feeling a little bit blond right now.

Cheers to Friday.
Happy Birthday to Brett!

wednesday funny

it is the middle of the week; and i thought i better share some comic relief to deal with, well, the wednesday blues.

this is from this week's edition of the Ontario Farmer (its tailender column):

How to Properly Place NEW EMPLOYEES:
1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room.
2. Put your new hires in the room and close the door.
3. Leave them
alone and come back after 6 hours.
4. Then analyze the situation:

a. If they are counting the bricks, put them in the Accounting
Department.

b. If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing.

c. If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in
Engineering.

d. If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in
Planning.

e. If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.

f. If they are sleeping, put them in Security.

g. If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information
Technology

h. If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.

i. If they say they have tried different combinations, they are looking for
more, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales.

j. If they have already left for the day, put them in Marketing.

k. If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.

l. If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved,
congratulate them and put them in Top Management.

m. Finally, if they have surrounded themselves with bricks in such a
way
that they can neither be seen nor heard from, put them in Congress.

i am eating lunch now, and just wanted to say that ranch dressing is highly overrated.

baby, one more time

i just came across this quote that i had written down. i have no idea where i got it from, but i thought it was pretty interesting:

i believe that one ought to have as much market efficiency as one needs,
because everything that we value in human life is within the realm of
inefficiency - love, family attachment, community, culture, old habits,
comfortable old shoes

---edward luttwak

here and now

where, o where have you gone my sweet summer? with only 22 more days of work, and school in a month, i can't help but wonder what happened to the summer. i have not even spend a day at the beach yet!?! doc walker at holstein rodeo
holstein rodeo - bull riding
it was raining all afternoon ... but that did not stop anyone (from splashing us with mud that is ...)
corb lund and drummer at hamilton place

certainly corb did not disappoint with his rendition of the hockey song, and a 4th verse:

oh goodness me, fox tv where did you get your sight, can't you
keep track, the puck is black, thats why the ice is white. And that big red
glare you see up there, well we've seen that for years, for goodness sakes, all
it takes it a couple dozen beers"!!

chris daughtry - what about now

norah jones - the story

this last song from my blueberry nights is just fabulous, just as the film actually. i have never been a fan of jude law, but this film did not disappoint. together with my earlier post about stopless, i have to say i am glad my movie night fell through (that is the theatre was all sold out by the time we arrived), so that we had the chance to rent these films. i like!

once a nerd, always a nerd- i was pretty stoked today when i discovered the data analysis toolpack on excel. call it nerdy if you will, but it will save me a lot of time: it is just so cool! teehee!

anyways, see you at the baseball game!

exactly what i was wondering: winning or losing?

just over my lunch hour today i was doing some online reading, and came across this article, which basically answered some of my recent questions about the war on terror. it coincides with a conversation i had yesterday as we were watching stoploss, which addressed the issue, well as you can guess of America's stop-loss policy. it was basically a comment my mom made about how there were already so many movies out about the war in iraq, and the war on terror. well, it has been longer than ww1 or ww2. basically, i realized, that we are just plugging along, while there is still a war going on. sure, we remember our fallen soldiers as another CBC segment on the war is on, but really the distance is not only one in terms of kilometres and culture, but even more so in our minds. hardly ever do we hear anything concrete. actually no, let me rephrase: never do we hear anything concrete. and as much as technology supposedly makes the world smaller, imo, there has never been a time where the world has been so disconnected.

anyways, just thought i'd pass on the link.

workly wisdom

everyday at work there is a new quote posted on the company extranet. just thought i'd share:

"Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But choose them as your guides, and follow them until you reach your destiny."Carl Schurz

sunday best

in beeld

since we were driving for 7 hours straight, i turned to my camera to keep myself entertained. the one good thing that comes out of not stopping for so long, is the strength of our bladders, such that i am convinced we are more than ready for a road trip across canada.

while i take the next few days to fret over getting pictures loaded, i might as well give a basic summary of the trip, which pretty much involved hitting every possible red light.

this was taken at rockford, rather close to home, but yet again we hit the red light.

augustana - stars and boulevards

when it is all said and done

again, it certainly has been a while.

and again, a lot has happened. i am no longer unemployed. the red wings won the stanley cup. holland performed brilliantly, and then when it mattered most, completely unbrilliant. so now that i will be ridding the house of all the flags, i am going to prepare a little statement for everyone at work as to why i wont be driving around with my flags anymore.

:(

since my last update, i have also graduated. and have gone to see my new school in ottawa. if i could calculate my feelings in to percentages, i would probably say i am 40 per cent excited, and 60 per cent scared. little chicken that i am.

i also have tons of pictures to add, but since i am both lazy and busy, and alogether tired of this supposedly high-speed internet, i will do that at a later time.

till then.

long time no see

it certainly has been a while. and seeing that i have previously established a distinct pattern of blogging a lot when i am busy, and not very much when i am not so busy, it can be concluded that i have not been very busy. well, i have kept busy, but not really. the next few weeks look promising though, as there will be tons of visitors from holland, and much fun to be had.

ps. go red wings
ps. HUP holland HUP!

Ottawa: here I come!

goodbye Hamilton. hello Ottawa.
dear Ottawa though, you will have to wait about 4 months before I will grace you with my presence, as I will be making a pitstop in Owen Sound.

can I just say how excited I am?
also about how excited I am that I found a copy of Boyzone - by request for only a few dollars, same as Matchbox 20?

:-)

all i want to do ...

.... is laundry.

why?

because i know i have to study. and i can think of a million things i'd rather do.
coffee count: 3

augustana - stars and boulevards

"do you not know, have you not heard ..."

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?

... He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

... the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall:
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles: they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

from Isaiah 40 (NIV)

What is it good for? Absolutely nothi...: eh. This one is for the memories

We may have tried hard ... to no avail. Or we may have been in a losing battle from the beginning. No matter how you look at it, it has been producing some embarrassment. Especially for the fans, who really cannot control anything, but how loud they are in the building. And CBC announcers being drowned out by the boos and cheers, taunts and praises, is sufficient evidence that the fans, have not failed our team. The other way around, is subject to enough debate as it is. But for how much it is worth, the senators produced some memorable moments, while the team of flightless birds, well, will be moving on, without any flash. So, this is why the series was not all bad:

5. the Gary Roberts pillow factor.

4. the anthem sung at SBP

3. the a-train putting the flight in flightless bird: hit on Crosby

2. Gerber save after Volchenkov gets puck in the face.

1. game 2, when the senators were down 3 goals, and caught up. the silence in pittsburgh and surrounding area, was definitely worth hearing. even though it did not last nearly long enough. this was also the game where we finally scored. yay!

goodbye 2007-8 season: hello, next year.

ensemble of ones

1 more exam

1 huge decision

1 more game?

Series: 0 - 3

foo fighters - home

|cc| mission control

still my superstars

0 - 2

please don't make me sing linkin park in the end ever again. please?

on another note: i am officially done classes. assignments. essays. tests. only one more exam, and hasta la vista 'too bad we never made too good of friends' mcmaster. now, there is only the future to (worry about) look forward to. and a calculus exam.

coffee and donuts

who needs energy drinks when you can just get yourself a good old-fashioned sugar high?

lupe fiasco (ft. matthew santos) - superstar

spring is here!

between the bushes i was able to take a snapshot of this beautiful creature on my walk to school this morning :)

matthew ryan - jane i still feel the same

4 more hours of econ classes, 2 more hours of calculus, and 1 more hour of history. one more presentation, one more essay, one more assignment, and one more final exam. wow!

and can i just say how much i am going to miss my history seminar class entitled the north american city. i know so much more about hamilton than i would ever really care to, but i also feel so much more enlightened about cities, space and its people.