Ouch! Damn you Squirrel

So I see my "friendly" squirrel gathering nuts so I called him up to feed him. I only had de-shelled peanuts left so I attempted to get him to jump on my knee and feed him by hand like I normally do. I guess it must be getting late in the season or he's gotten a bit more adventurous or something.. Either way, he bit my finger instead of the nut. It didn't hurt, but it drew blood, so I quickly washed it out with rubbing alcohol. DAMN HIM. Ah well, I guess I learned my lesson. I won't be doing that anymore. This is the second time I've been bitten by a squirrel. Sheesh! Lets hope I didn't contract anything.. *fingers crossed*

Equilibrium

What is it about emotion that makes it so fleeting. Why is it only at times you can willingly direct not only your train of thought but your emotions as well. The balance of life, emotions, chemicals. It seems to be the only thing everything in this world has in common. If you pull the elastic band too far, its going to come back and slap your hand.

From this basic experiment as a child we see that we can gauge when we ourselves are going to far, and have a reasonable understanding of when something external has exceeded its balance.

In nature, we see this; everything works so perfectly and yet people simply walk by without even realizing such a marvel exists. Such ignorance. Those who truly understand themselves understand they too are bounded by the laws regarding balance. But those who have risen to this level of understanding still have so much trouble, and it seems, the more effort they put into keeping balanced, the more our awareness grows of how unbalanced the human world is.

One day, the elastic band known as humanity will snap back with a sting so fierce, we very likely may find this lesson being forced upon one and all.

Heed my words, seek your balance, and know when you are too far from equilibrium.


- End Rant.

No Sleep, Long Bus Ride

So I'm laying in bed, looking at the clock, its 1am and I've been laying there for 2 hours. Weird. I can't sleep, and when I finally manage to drift off im waken every hour
Its been a long time since I have spent the night tossing and turning. Thing is, I don't have have any clue why. Oh well, I got up, rather slowly, and got ready for my day.

I was feeling fairly unmotivated and tired, and Melissa offered to drive me to school so I took up the offer. Today was the first day in 12 or so that I haven't ridden up the hill. Since I had gotten the ride up, I went to catch the bus down and accidentally got on the college heights bus (which was labeled the right one when *I* looked). I guess the bus driver didn't change the sign until they stopped and I was anxious to get home and didn't check before hopping on. Anyways, it took me on a 30 minute tour of college heights so I busted out my algorithm analysis homework and got a fair portion done. WOOP!

On a more positive side note, Melissa developed her film with the pictures of sly the squirrel on them. They didn't turn out super well, but ill get the scanned and posted on the blog soon.

Interesting Differences

Well, over the course of the morning.. from about 9am to the current time, I've been drinking mate and doing logic homework. I managed to complete my assignment and subsequently managed to drink 4 cups of mate. Woooooie! Definitely buzzing. Now that im done my homework and thinking about the effects of the mate it has become clearly evident that there are some peculiar differences from traditional caffeine. So, being my inquisitive self, I looked into some research and came to some interesting conclusions.

For many years, and even now, in some sectors, yerbamate' was (is) thought to contain caffeine. It turns out that mateine is not identical to caffeine; it differs from caffeine in some rather dramatic ways. -Daniel Mowry, PhD

Well, this much I had already established. But I pressed further and found out this:

For example, like other xanthines, it stimulates the central nervous system, but unlike most, it is not habituating or addicting. Likewise, unlike caffeine, it induces better, not worse, attributes of sleep.

It is a mild, not a strong, diuretic, as are many xanthines. It relaxes peripheral blood vessels, thereby reducing blood pressure, without the strong effect on the medulla and heart exhibited by some xanthines.

We also know that it improves psychomotor performance without the typical xanthine-induced depressant after effects. -Daniel Mowry, PhD.

Definitely interesting. And when I come to my own experiences with matiene, I can relate directly to the results of these studies. I haven't had a craving for yerba mate, yet when I drink a single isolated cup of coffee ill have recurring thoughts and desires to drink more. Yet, since I highly dislike how agitated I can get after a single cup of coffee I usually refuse to drink more. As I previously mentioned caffiene makes me quite jittery and agitated on the come down. This is not so with matiene, I have yet to notice this and have been drinking it for a few months now.

Something to consider. For more info on this study click here.

Saturday Morning Tea

Ah. A nice cup of Yerba Mate. Can't beat it, especially on a Saturday morning. I've spent the last weeks busy with school, as expected, but the relative freedom has been absolutely enjoyable. I've had tons of time to play videogames, mostly frozen throne and Burnout 3: Takedown which is only the BEST game i've played in a long long time.

Basically take your average car game, make the point of it driving bad and crashing into the other racers then add a lot of speed. These essentially are the ingredients for one of the most entertaining game I've played in a long time. The first time I played it I sat down for four hours and laughed my head off the entire time.

The other "project" going on outside my school life is our cave/ fort myself, chester, and st, are building on the side of cranbrook hill. We spent last Sunday digging out the side of the hill with tree planting spades and got suprisingly far. We managed to dig and flatten a place where at least 5 people could sit comfortably. This weekend we plan on working on it some more and hopefully it will have a roof on it by the end. We plan on covering the roof with first spruce bows, then dirt and grasses to make it blend into the rest of the hill. Hopefully, the grass will begin to grow on top of it next spring and we'll have ourselves a little hobbit hole. :D

Melissa is in whistler today at her cousin's stagette. I'm betting that will be something crazy. I look forward to hearing her storys tomorrow evening. I spent last night with my cousin Matt & St. It was amazing to be back in the presence of a few close friends from our early early years. The bond we share is something special and I wonder if any bond in the future will ever even come close to the one we all still share. Of course, we spent the evening playing burnout 3, which was, of course, enjoyable as ever. :D

Now I am off to do some readings and homework, and enjoy my lazy Saturday afternoon otherwise. Tonight, a rave. :D

Till I post again, Peace!

New Computers At School

Seeing these new monitors at school has made me really realize I need a new monitor. Mine seems to be getting darker daily, I have both the brightness and contrast at 100% and it is to no avail. Ah well, it works fine for now so long as im not watching dark movies or playing doom 3. ;)

I'm in the windows lab however, since the comp sci labs are being setup still. It's kind of funny, 3 of my 4 classes are in the deepest darkest classroom in the school. Now the comp sci labs are also in a far far corner. They are on the fourth floor of the new addition to the lab buildings waaay in the back. Oh well, I'm not complaining.. they are stocked with new computers and new monitors. Walking up all those stairs daily is a worthy sacrifice for having new hardware. At least in my books. :)

My bike ride up the 2km hill is getting better. I'm now on my third day of what I like to call my "getting to school exercise program" and its gotten significantly easier. I'm feeling better as a result of it too.. I went nearly 2 weeks without riding before school. Much, much too long.

Oh, and I'd also like to bring attention to Melissa's blog. She just started it up so there are only a couple of posts, but feel free to check it out here.

Zipity Bop!

WOOP!

First Day Of School

Ah, that was interesting. I had hoped it would have been after spending over five-hundred dollars on books. Such is the bane of the Computer Science student. As usual I had my introduction to my classes, what I am going to be doing and who the teachers are. Both foreign. Also as expected. However, they are easily understood compared to some of my previous teachers. Or perhaps I've just gotten better at listening to thick accents and broken english. My first class today was an intro to logic and design, which in english is basically learning how computers work on the most basic of levels. We will actually be coding the logic and making a small computer using boolean algebra, truth tables, etc. My second class is about how real world computer science projects are developed. We learn where programmers fit into the game and the stages in which projects are developed.

Oh! Look, my little squirrel friend wants to say hello. I'll see if I can get him to type something: "dd"

Well, not very exciting, but authentic. I hope you all appreciate the work I put in to get sly the squirrel on melissa's keyboard.

Thats all for now, my dinner is ready.

Books

Ah, last day before the grind of school starts again. Im doing my best to enjoy it while it lasts. However, preparations must be made for the coming year ahead.. and we all know what that means... time to buy books :\

Melissa gets off easy this year, as she inherited two books of her required books from me and her sister. Looks like ill be paying 400$ at least.

Ah well, as expensive as they are, they are usually quite interesting. :D This is a good thing, cause things are pretty boring around here.. its like the calm before the storm. Everyone is moving and getting setup, preparing for another winter and another 8 months of school. The IRC Channel most of my friends frequent is quiet but for short unheard murmurs as the user count drops below five. I should be thankful I don't have to move all my stuff.

Welp, time for videogames.

Double Layered Keyboards

Home again. Relaxing before school. Life is Good. Video Games and Music oh my!

Dangerous Precedents

I thought I'd bring to your attention that something entirely unjust has recently happened in regards cannabis prohibition. Marc Emery, a political cannabis activist, was sentenced to three months in jail for trafficking marijuana. So what, you might say? This happens all the time. Well, this time it was different. All he did to acquire this sentence was pass a single joint. I believe cannabis prohibition is wrong, and that this sentence was entirely politically motivated. If you also think this is wrong, read Marc's blog to find out more about this, and what you can do to prevent others from having their freedom seized.

Just doing what I can to "Overgrow the Government."

Kamloops

Not a lot to update today. I've been spending most my time with Melissa which has been really nice. Pretty uneventful as far as the public is concerned. ;)

I'm back in kamloops and we have the house to ourselves. Turns out Ken is having truck troubles and won't be here this evening. Looks like the Nelson train will be arriving tomorrow for Sam Roberts instead. :D However, Melissa's friend Linda just arrived and we will be spending the evening with her and possibly visiting her other friend Kristen who recently moved here.

Tis all for now. Soaking up the relax'o before the marathon known as University starts up once again.