Archive for November, 2006
Busy Times
Nov 30th
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been pretty busy. My thesis continues to get a facelift as Darse gives me low level feedback on it. I think my thesis will be a whole lot stronger due to his help. In other news, I should have a confirmed defense date set soon! Admittedly, the prospect is a little nerve wracking, but we’ll see what happens with that!
The ultrasound I had returned with “results being normal”. I’m not too sure what that means since my stomach still isn’t the happiest camper in the world. Oddly enough, it appears the foods that my stomach has the worst time with is milk and cheese. I really hope I’m not lactose intolerant all of a sudden! In general, I’m finding that I can eat most foods with no trouble outside of that category, so life isn’t all that unpleasant at the moment. I still very much miss milk and cheese though! My mom convinced me to call my family doctor, someone who I haven’t seen in ages, and book an appointment. Surprisingly, I was slotted in on Friday. So we’ll see what he has to say about the whole issue.
I saw Stranger than Fiction a few days ago, and was rather surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It is definitely a very different movie than the standard run-of-the-mill ones. Personally, I found the film quite enjoyable so I recommend you take a peek at it. In other flicks I’ve caught, I saw I Happy Feet with JR, Shelly, Andrew and Leah a week or two ago. It was a pretty fun show all in all, though it got a little weird for a children’s film near the end. Oh wells.
Also, Battlestar Galactica continues to impress. That is all.
Heraldk
Statue of Liberty (back)
Nov 27th
Oddly enough, of all the photos I took of the statue of liberty from just about every side, the one that turned out the best was of her back. *shrug*
The Statue of Liberty is kind of one of those sightseeing things you do because everyone does it. I wasn’t particularly excited to see it myself, but it is actually a really pretty little island with a tremendous view of the New York skyline. It was a blisteringly hot day that day but it made for some nice pictures. What I like most about this photo is there really isn’t much going on in the sky and there is no view of the crowds of people who were on the island at the time!
Wii Enabled
Nov 21st
Success! My friends and I got in line at the ungodly hour of 4:20 to try and get ourselves Nintendo Wiis at the South Edmonton Common Walmart. Lucky for us, we were early enough to earn us each a ticket to buy one of 75 Wiis available at that particular store. In reality, we could’ve joined the line maybe an hour later and still got them, but it would’ve been a lot closer and more worrisome for us. We ended up getting tickets number 37 through 39.
So now all 3 of us now own Nintendo Wii consoles, a second controller each and a copy of Zelda. Jeffu also picked up a copy of Rayman, while Curtis and I decided to wait for awhile before deciding on future games.
What do I think about the Wii? It is awesome! Wii sports has some hits and misses. Of the games, Bowling and Tennis are the most polished and feel like the most fun. Tennis is also not too bad, but I’m looking forward to a full fledged Mario Tennis like game. Baseball and Boxing aren’t as much fun for me, but I’m also not all that interested in either game in real life either! All of the games on the Wii sports disc are pretty easy to pick up, and there should be several parties coming up where we have some serious tournaments!
The game of the minute, day, hour, month, … year … is definitely Zelda. I haven’t got too far in yet — just to the entrance of the 2nd dungeon. So far though, the story line is much more engrossing than any previous Zelda I’ve played. The plot is enhanced a great deal to some very well made cut scenes.
So far, the game is a little more linear than I expected – but I haven’t made it far enough to see if that trend continues. Overall though, I’m really impressed with the game. It is extremely fun, and will likely take up a great deal of my free time as I attempt to work my way through the game!
Heraldk
All That Glitters
Nov 19th
One of the days while we were in New York, we decided to try and see as many things on our list of things to see as possible. We walked a lot, and saw a lot too!
Part way through that trip, I lined up this shot where the sun had a nice angle to glint off of shiny windows on two different buildings. I rather like the effect, what do you think?
Nintendo Wii-ness
Nov 18th
So it looks like a couple friends and I are going to attempt to get the new Nintendo Wii console tomorrow morning. It sounds like there’s a lot more Wiis available than PS3s, so it looks like we’ve got a pretty good chance at grabbing one.
I’m really excited about the system. I’m getting increasingly tired of the same repetitive games. I’m not really into first person shooters, so “the next halo” is not something that particularly interests me. In a lot of ways though, the gaming world seems to be all about the next revision of the already successful games. Thanks to Nintendo, we may finally see some new innovation in console gaming. Plus I’m very much looking forward to the new Zelda game!
Hopefully I’ll be able to talk about how fun the Wii is when I next post!
Heraldk
Stomach Problems
Nov 13th
So the past couple weeks have been uncomfortable for me of late. A little while ago, I started feeling uncomfortable — my stomach was unsettled and I couldn’t really sit still. On Thursday the 2nd of November, I had a lot of pressure build up in my stomach while I was talking to one of the profs at Darse’s free beer. The pain started around my waistline up to my chest. I excused myself and went to the bathroom where I relieved some of the pressure by throwing up. I still was in a lot of pain so Diane and I ended up catching a ride from campus security over to emergency where I would sit for 4 hours waiting (yay emergency!). By the time I had to talk to anyone, the pain was already fading and by the time I actually got to see a doctor the pain was just about gone. The doctor concluded that I didn’t have anything serious like appendicitis because the pain went away too fast.
Over the week since then, I was unable to keep much in the way of food down. I threw up three times over the week, and finally went in to the medi-centre on Thursday morning. Another couple hours later, the doctor I saw now has me booked with an ultrasound to check for gallstones. That appointment is set for the 22nd so hopefully we find out what the deal is.
The good news? The doctor gave me some anti-acid pills which seem to have helped me out. I’ve been able to eat some more complicated foods than chicken noodle soup, and have been feeling decent afterwards. I also haven’t thrown up since then, so that’s another good sign. So hopefully I’m on the way to getting better!
So now you know why I haven’t really felt like updating the blog. I want to get back to it soon, so hopefully you’ll be able to read more about my last couple weeks!
In the meantime, be sure to check out the new webcomic my friend JR and I are starting. It’s the new webcomic link on the right: http://www.guiltypleasure.org. Comments are welcome of course!
Heraldk
3 Arches
Nov 13th
Keeping up with last week’s theme of arches, here’s yet another shot of St Michael’s Abbey on the way up towards the sanctuary itself. These arches were added after the original building was built in order to provide structural help to keep the Abbey from sliding or leaning.
I really like arches, if you hadn’t guessed.
Arches
Nov 6th
At St Michael’s Abbey next to the Susa valley near Torino Italy, I took a lot of pictures. This particular one stood out for me today because it blended old and new. The platform built up there is one that helps support an elevator shaft and a set of stairs. So a combination of present day architecture and the architecture of hundreds of years ago in one picture. Fun!
The “Great” Debate
Nov 2nd
Ugh. I’ve been meaning to post this for a long time, but haven’t gotten around to it in awhile. Of course, now that I’m editing my thesis, I can’t find enough stuff to distract me from it!
I am becoming increasingly annoyed at the number of people debating each other over something that to me is a no argument kind of situation. That debate is the one that pits Religion versus Science.
This point was driven home to me a few weeks ago when Richard Dawkins appeared on the Colbert Report promoting his new book “The God Delusion”. Essentially he is trying to prove that God cannot exist. He admits that it is impossible to prove that God doesn’t exist, but says that it is extremely unlikely that any higher power exists.
Here’s what I don’t understand, and maybe somebody can explain this to me. Where’s the conflict? Is it so terrible to believe the scientific explanations for the formation of everything we live in and around today, but also believe that God exists? Let me explain my reasoning, and my own belief system and perhaps somebody can tell me where I go wrong. To me, science and religion play two very different roles in people’s lives. Science explores the natural world and tries to explain how all the pieces fit together. Religion is a spiritual journey, where people develop and prepare their spirit through all stages of life. Don’t these sound like different things?
Science has come a long way. I think part of the problem is that when science wasn’t as mature, religion was used as a way of explaining and understanding the world. However, knowledge is not stationary, and now that we know more about the world, why is it necessary to stick to the past religious beliefs when the scientific explanations make sense? On the flip side, why do some scientists want to disprove God’s very existence? This is impossible to do (as Dawkins does say), since God’s existence is a matter of faith … and forgive me if I’m wrong, but this seems totally outside the realm of science.
I’m not a good writer, and this is a complex issue that I don’t really understand that well. My main source of confusion is why people in both camps are fighting each other when it seems so clear to me that they really aren’t arguing about something that really doesn’t deserve all this energy.
Of course, the relationship between science and religion is intertwined over human history which makes it hard for people to take a step back and really look at the issue. But if they could do that, maybe they’d see that they are wasting their breath and should be diverting that energy to something more important … perhaps the environment?!
Heraldk
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