Finally Finals

My last two exams are tomorrow! I've been studying like crazy the past couple weeks. It's going to feel strange being done. I haven't been thinking of anything but exams, I don't even know what I'm going to do during the break. Maybe buy a car if I have the cash, I'll have to do a financial check on myself. TOMORROW IM DONE WEEEEE! I may in fact drink myself into a stupor tomorrow night.

The Dusty Road

I'm sad to see that it's been almost seven months since I posted anythign here. I have no excuses. For some reason I just haven't and I certainly could have. I feel like I haven't had anythign to talk about for ages. Maybe it has something to do the fact that I feel a little embarassed and ashamed with the way things have gone lately. Anyways, here I am, I'll see if i can get back into the habit.

Here's what I've been up to. School. That's it. For the past few months I have been at school for 10 -14 hours almost everyday. Even for 3-4 hours on weekends. When I'm not at school I'm usually working on homwork or procrastinating because I don't feel like fighting with the buses. No vehicle at all anymore so I'm taking the bus everywhere. It sucks. Easily slashes two hours off the day. At first I never got around to buying a car because I didn't have time to look for one. Now I don't think I have the time OR money. I'm broke. The ammount of work I've had to do lately is absolutly rediculous. I swear my program has got to be the only one at NAIT where you can regularily find our entire class staying untill 8pm.

I haven't trained in a few months and as such I believe I'm in the worst shape I've ever been in. When I'm not working on school stuff I spend my free time feeling burnt out, sleeping, vegetating, playing video games or hanging our with friends. I don't even try to make plans for anything anymore. Not much of a social life lately.

This all sounds depressing I'm sure but I still don't want give the impression all is dark and dreary. I do enjoy much of the stuff I'm learning, some of it I'm quite good at, some of it not. I'm happy to almost be done. I'll be in a fantastic position when I can graduate (oh god don't fail) and shouldn't have to worry about careers/cash so much. The thrashing my life has taken is a necessary sacrifice and I don't regret it. Unfortunatly it's only natural that not being around anywhere/contributing to anything must lessen others opionions of me. It really hurts letting people down and loosing prestige. Although I don't feel like apologizing too much. This is the way it has to be... for now. C'est la vie.

As for how long things will continue to go the way they are now? I can't say therefore I won't even guess. Meanwhile I will try to get back to journaling, I'm sure it's good for me. Sorry, I won't have anything interesting to write about. I think I might talk about school and some things no one will understand or care about. I eagerly, with great anticipation, await, can't wait and look forward to Christmas break.

Bleaching my Blue Collar

So last week was the first week of my new job. I’m working for a utility company called Fortis, in the distribution design department. Basically I’m designing power lines. I’m not going to go into the specifics, it gets pretty technical, but it involves a lot of electrical/civil engineering with just a dash of programming. By the end of it I should be an Excel master and have my bible memorized. My bible is a four inch binder full everything you could ever put on a power pole (or underground).

So far so good. I am really enjoying it. I’ve never had to use my brain so much at work, the first week was just an overwhelming amount of information being thrown at me. Hopefully most of it will stick. I started my very first project today with only an hour to work on it and I almost wish I could have stayed later to make some progress. It took me an hour just to get all the plans printed and survey files opened. It turns out that my surveying experience will actually really come in handy since we have surveyors working for us to physically lay out the lines.

It is my first desk job, I was a bit uneasy going into it but I’m beginning to get comfortable. I will miss the exercise of working outside but at least I’ll be out in the field now and then.

Summer

My first final exam is tomorrow. I have one every day this week except Friday, then I’m done for the summer. I am very eager to be finished and becoming antsy with how soon it will be. This summer should be fantastic; I plan on really living it up. I’m tired of sitting on my butt looking at text books. I never thought I’d ever be so eager to be working again but I’m really looking forward to starting my new job. I feel like I’ve been in an endless slump and I hope this summer will finally bring me out of it, school really does bring out the worst in me.

None like it Hot!

I was listening to the radio the other day and someone was arguing about whether or not global warming exists. While listening I came to a new opinion on the whole issue. My new opinion is that, in a way, it’s a moot argument. There is the constant battle between people who believe in global warming and those who believe it’s all just a natural cycle of the planet. Regardless of which side you are on I think everyone can agree that climate change exists. There is no denying the rapid changes our planet has been going through.

So, now accepting climate change as an ongoing fact of life, regardless of the source, let’s look at what those two sides are arguing for. Keep in mind these are just my opinions. The side that believes climate change is a natural cycle of the planet is fighting for... nothing. They believe our pollution is not the cause of our warming the planet. I think their general attitude is that we shouldn’t worry so much. That continuing on as we are now isn’t that bad as we think. These arguments seem to pop up often as a defence after someone being accused of environmental irresponsibility.

Now the side of those whole believe in global warming. These people tend to believe we are being environmentally irresponsible is some matter. These people often fight for environmental change and use the idea of global warming to support their actions. They are fighting for less pollution and a more sustainable way of life. Their general attitude is that if we don’t start changing our ways we could potentially destroy the planet and wipe ourselves out.

Now let’s look at a few facts. Pollution is bad. More and more species of animals are going extinct. We continue to destroy the environments of other livings things, burn forests and pump toxins into the air and water. Fresh water is becoming alarmingly scarce and will likely become as valuable as oil. This water isn’t vanishing, it’s still out there but it’s becoming contaminated to the point where it isn’t usable. We continue to burn through natural resources at an alarming rate and we WILL eventually run out. The world is not living in a sustainable fashion. How long until tuna fish is but a memory? All in all, the world is acting in an irresponsible manner, like a man throwing all his wood on the fire at once. The bright light and heat of a bonfire may be glorious but once it dies out and he finds himself without fuel, he’s forced to suffer through a very cold night.

The things I mentioned aren’t secret, everyone can see them. They are happening and have logically negative consequences! The proof is irrefutable. So regardless of which side you are on. Whether or not you believe we humans are heating the planet, why wouldn’t you support change towards a sustainable way of life? Does it make sense to sit back and continue burning the world thinking everything will be just fine? Shouldn’t we be trying to fix our problems? Maybe we shouldn’t focus so much on arguing about whether global warming exists and focus more on the simpler problems that obviously exist

Weiner

I was driving home tonight after Kung Fu when just a few blocks from home I almost ran over a wiener dog. I stopped for him to cross the street and was surprised to see him wander up to my car instead of running away. Guessing that this dog might be lacking a few brains I got out of the car to check him for tags. As I excited my car he promptly rolled over for a belly rub in the middle of the street.

Luckily he did have tags so I called the owner. I got voicemail and decided to bring him home with me instead of letting him wander around lost. Luckily the owner called me back fairly soon, happy to know I found him safe, and came to pick him up. I played with him for a bit while I waited...he really likes belly rubs. The owner thanked me profusely and asked me about my uniform (I was still in uniform from kung fu) so I talked about Kung Fu for a bit. She thought it sounded pretty cool; maybe we’ll have a new Kung Fu student somewhere in Edmonton.

I feel pretty good right now, what a pleasant way to start off my night. I look forward to my roommate coming home and being puzzled by the muddy paw prints in the kitchen.

Darn

Turns out I didn’t get that job I wanted. It went to the most unlikely candidate actually, leaving me utterly perplexed. Darn. Well it looks like I have a lot more work cut out for me. I’m going to have to look into some other options, throw some resumes around and hope to get lucky.

In good news I’ve made some progress on the tiger form. I have a few moves down and some good ideas. Picking a theme and getting the general outline done was the hardest part. Now I just have to transfer vague images in my head into precise bodily movements. As Sifu Brinker put it, as I explained what I wanted, it will be a slinky form. I want the form to be consistently fluctuating from close range, tight moves and exploding outwards for long strikes. Of course I’m going to try to be as feral as possible. Let me know if my eyes have too much dragon in them.