Cerebral Discharge

Well, it’s been another wild week! Between school, volunteering for Info week, and working on my technical report I didn’t have an awful lot of leisure time…and by an awful lot, I mean any whatsoever. Somehow, I managed to take on some more responsibility this week as well!On Tuesday’s Info night,I must have drawn the long strawfor area of coverage…I wound up in the E basement,which I lovingly refer to as the dungeon. While working in the dungeon, I met someone working for SSD (Services for Students with disabilities); we got to chatting a bit about what being a tutor entails…it just so happened she had a student looking for help for 5th class power engineering; now, I am in the process of taking my 4th class through distance learning, so this sort of seemed like the perfect fit. I’m thrilled to get the opportunity to help someone who’s having some trouble learning, it’s going to be a very valuable and rewarding experience. This experience will be especially useful to me, as I will be tutoring school children in Guatemala for a month in the summer…it’s a bit of a primer, so to speak. Anyhow, I met up with my ‘student’ this afternoon.In all honesty, I was a bit uncertain of how helpful I would be to this individual. I mean, I have a history of tutoring students, but usually they are my peers, and taking the same classes as me. Once we got into some of the material he was unsure about, I was able to confidently tell him I’d be able to help him. For the most part, his questions were focused on thermodynamic type theory, which (luckily for both of us I guess ha ha) I took last semester. As an added bonus, he’s a fellow Francophone; it’s always nice to be able to find someone to speak French with. The old adage, “if you don’t use it, you lose it” holds true in this case.

I’mfinally over the worst of this virus…it’s been 10 days since I first started showing symptoms, and I can’t say I’m sad to see it leave. Honestly, I’ve seen people with a similar ailment to me battle it for over a month. Eating right and exercising makes a HUGE difference in recovery time…I kept my diet clean, I only missed one gym day during the whole ordeal. Speaking of the gym, I’ve changed up my routine; I’m now lifting 4 days a week instead of 3, though now I train only 2 body parts per day instead of alternating between upper and lower. I’m really feeling the burn, it’s definitely been kicked up a notch. Need to get out the abs for Guatemala this summer!

So I have an ambitious plan for my week off…aside from the mundane (laundry, housecleaning, groceries), I’m planning a whole bunch of additional work, including but not limited to: completing my passport application, booking my flight to Guatemala, working on finding a job, working on my technical report, and cooking up a storm! Last year, I did absolutely nothingduring reading week,Isure paid the price for that! I like to think I learn from mistakes I’ve made in the past, hopefully this coming week will be both restful and productive! Is that even possible?!

Oh yeah, it’s Friday the 13th today, I suppose that deserves a mention too. I’m not the superstitious type, in fact…I had a great day! Someone told me that many people share my Friday the 13th optimism; apparently, the casinos are packed, and lottery sales peak on this day; I might be up for a little poker, but unfortunately I’m a bit tapped out at the moment. Hopefully I get something from the 2nd semester scholarships that I applied for…we shall see.

I was just flipping through my previous blogs, and noticed that about this time last year I was down and out with flu-like symptoms; flash forward a year, and I find myself in the same predicament. It started on Tuesday, I had a little bit of a scratchy throat…I’m a firm believer in taking a natural, preventative approach to my health; I promptly started drinking a lot more water, tea, chicken soup, echinacea, and vitamin C. I think that would have taken care of it, only I ended up working pretty late at the curling club on Wednesday. I still didn’t feel half bad on Thursday; in fact, I felt well enough to have some friends over for dinner. Two bottles of wine and a big spaghetti dinner later, everything still seemed fine….we ended up staying up late, watching Rock n Rolla, which was great I must say. Enter Friday…. OH MY GOD I was SOOOO sick! I’m not one to miss class, but honestly, I was SO sapped of energy I couldn’t move a muscle. I had to stay home, as I was scheduled to work that night. I managed to sleep the whole day, somehow made it through my shift. Ican honestly say that working that shift was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I really shouldn’t have been there, but I toughed it out. It took so much out of me, I literally went home to bed Friday night, only to wake up Sunday morning; enough was enough, I went and got some antibiotics from the doctor, my condition almost immediately improved. My Sunday shift went fairly well, I’m starting to recover quite nicely.

It’s a good thing I’m starting to feel better, as I will be volunteering today through Thursday for NAIT’s Info week; basically I’m going to be giving visitors directions to get to the program they are wanting information on; for the next four days, each program will be holding information sessions for prospective students; I found this to be very useful and informative when I attended it two years ago, I’d encourage anyone who’s looking for information on a specific program at NAIT to drop in! Make sure you say hi if you see me!

Well everyone, I had the opportunity to attend Saturday’s 109th street classic played between our NAIT Ooks (hurrah)and the Grant MacEwan Griffins (boo). The pre-game ceremonies saw the unveiling of our new logo, with new jerseys displayed for all our sports teams. The unveiling was highlighted by a short video, team modellings of respective jerseys, and (last but not least) inflation ofthe new mascot!

Here’s a pic of the old, outgoing Ook…

And the new, improved Ook….

Here’s a shot I snapped of all the new jerseys our teams will have!

The game itself turned out to be a rather lopsided contest, which saw the Ooks pummel their opponent. NAIT built on two unanswered first period goals to eventually win by a score of 7 to 0! That’s what I call starting on the right track! The energy from the logo unveiling clearly carried over to the dressing room, as the Ooks outplayed Grant Mac on both ends of the ice. I had the opportunity to sit and socialize with the Deanof my program during the game, we actually got into a pretty interesting conversation about mortgages and current economic realities. On that subject, now might be a really good time to look at renewing your mortgage!

Here’s a shot from the game itself…

NAIT Athletics will be unveiling the new NAIT OOKS logo during the 109th street hockey challenge this Saturday…the OOKS will be taking on the Grant MacEwan Griffins at 2:00p.m. in the NAIT arena. Our OOKS are the defending champs, I’m sure they will be trying hard to retain the title!

In a release from corporate communications, the new logo is described as “an energetic, bold, competitive symbol
that builds on the tradition of the original Ook while incorporating the look and feel of NAIT’s new corporate brand.” Having had the opportunity to get a sneak peek of the new Ook logo at the December Board of Governor’s meeting, I’m in full agreement with this assessment. The new Ook has a modern, edgy look.

“The new-look Ook logo will be an important part of our overall strategy to gain increased recognition and success in the
competitive world of sports,” Linda Henderson, Director of NAITAthletics and Recreation explains. Hopefully the Ooks start out on the right foot by winning the game on Saturday!

Hey everyone! I’m happy to report that I am finally starting to get settled back at home! I ended up working last night, but still managed to catch the All-Star game at work…what a thriller! I’ve never seen a shootout in an All-Star game before, it was quite a treat. I’m still a bit miffed that Lidstrom and Datsyuk weren’t playing, I’m pretty sure the West would have won had they been there. Where was Hossa?

Oddly enough, I had this crazy craving for Chinese food out of the blue yesterday afternoon. Since Sunday is my ‘free day’, I ordered a dinner for 3…hahaha I know, what a pig hey! Anyhow, I was completely oblivious to the fact that yesterday was Chinese New Year; at least until the delivery guy wished me a Happy Chinese New Year! The food was great, a friend and I destroyed the whole meal! I think I got MSG poisoning…ugh

Today was pretty low key…had a couple classes, though they were really just to go over the course outlines and instructor expectations. I had to hand in the final two Enform labs this afternoon…I’m pretty sure they were well written.

Be sure to polish up the old resume for tomorrow, as NAIT will be holding a Career Fair in the North and South lobbies! I’m going to spend the best part of the morning visiting the various booths that employers will have set up, hopefully I will get some good job leads.I’d really like to have a job lined up for after I graduate in the next month…

Well, it’s official…I’m hooooome! I ran the gauntlet twice in as many weeks, and to be quite frank, I’m grateful to have made it home unscathed. The drive home was a little better than the drive down for the most part, except for the first hour. I had to drive like 75kph, the whole highway was a complete skating rink.

My work experience was absolutely amazing. I learned so much while I was there, the people I worked with were really great. I’m actually considering going back after I graduate, if they would have me. The only drawback is the locale…I really have my heart set on pursuing an international career, but maybe this would be a good way to chock up some experience first. At any rate, I have a bit of time to decide what I will do. My 3rd semester grades are up, so I’m going to start pounding the ‘digital pavement’ looking for work starting Monday.

I arrived home at about 5pm, only to drop of my bags and head for the gym. That’s what you call dedication! I got a call from one of my friends, a group of my friends want to take me out tonight to welcome me home…somehow I think that I’m going to end up repeating my drunken karaoke exploits of a few weeks ago. I’m hoping to get a poker game going as well, though I’m thinking I might have to wait until tomorrow for that.

I’m planning on doing absolutely nothing on Saturday…I need a day to recover from all the travelling and being out of myhome these last couple weeks. I truly doubt I’ll get away with doing nothing…more likely, I’ll do a bit of laundry, maybe clean up a little. The crib has been collecting dust for the last month or so! I have to work on Sunday, so between that and watching the All Star game….it doesn’t leave me a lot of time!

Back to school Monday! Geez, I can’t believe I’ve been out for over a month! Time is passing so quickly…

Hey everybody, just noticed they FINALLY put up our grades for semester 3 on the NAIT website. Good news! I got straight As!!! Something I found to be a little peculiar with the conspicuous absence of the A+ grade…apparently the registrar did away with them. Weird.

Have you ever had a near death experience? You know, your life flashes before your eyes, you and the almighty have a little heart to heart…well, that was exactly the position I was in yesterday night on my drive up to Fort McMurray from Edmonton. I ended up working at the curling club until about 3pm, I didn’t end up leaving the city until about 4:30. Edmonton and area was under a severe weather warning, we were expecting 20cm of snow that evening. Couple this with the fact that my car only has all-season tires on it, and it makes for some serious white knuckle driving. The drive wasn’t really that bad until I hit Bon Accord, it was pretty well whiteout conditions from there to the Fort McMurray side of Mariana Lake. Now, they don’t call highway 63 the highway of death for nothing! I saw several ditched vehicles on the way, and had a few moments when I thought I would ditch my car. My most anxious moment occured at Wandering River, where all of a sudden there was like 6 inches of snow on the road…guess the plows hadn’t done that stretch of highway. Anyhow, I resisted the urge to hit my brakes as I felt my car begin to fishtail…as luck would have it, a semi was bearing down on me in the opposing lane. I managed to plow through that nasty stretch of road, adreniline pumping. Note to self:buy winter tires!

I ended up making to my cousin’s place at around 10pm, just in time to have a little bite to eat, and get a good night’s rest for my first day at my work experience. For the next two weeks, I’m going to be working as an Account Manager for Baker Hughes’ chemical company, called Petrolite. Today basically consisted of meeting the group of guys I’ll be working with for the next couple of weeks, and going over some of the expectations and objectives of my work term. From first impressions, I can say that this is a really nice group of guys, I’m sure I’m going to have a great time. I’ll be getting a chance to work in the newest SAGD facilities in the world, it’s going to be a great experience!

I managed to find a nice little gym a block or so from my cousin’s place, so I’m definitely going to keep training during my stay. Man is it cold here! The forecast for the next few days is pretty bleak: highs of -30 in the daytime! Yuck. Luckily for me, most of the work I will be doing will be indoors. In addition to my work experience, I have to get cracking on my technical report while I’m here…I managed to get a bunch of research done this weekend, I’m hoping to get a good portion of my rough draft completed over the next couple weeks.

In addition to all of this, I have a 1500 word proposal to write for my Milennium grant. I’m not sure if I’ve written about it, but in August I am planning to spend 3 weeks working with needy children in Guatemala. We’re going to be teaching them to read, write, and speak English. Also, we will be tutoring them in math, teaching computer skills, and helping them learn teamwork. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity, I think it will be a very enriching experience.

Well everyone, back to the grind! It’s been a bit of an adjustment getting back into a routine of sorts, but I think that I’ve been managing quite nicely. I was sort of hoping that my first few days back from holidays would begin in earnest…I guess we don’t always get what we wish for!

I was greeted at the airport by a few friends, and -30 temperatures. That was quite the change from the -5 to +5 weather that I was enjoying in the BC interior. I arrived home at about 5pm…I decided to go to dinner with a friend in Sherwood Park. On my way there, I managed to (slightly) put my car in the ditch, just on the east side of the Beverly Bridge. I wasn’t quite able to drive out, but a few good Samaritans stopped and gave me a bit of a push to get out. I had better pick up one of those tow truck in-a-boxes. Anyhow, I can be thankful that no one was hurt, and no damage was sustained to my car. There was a bit of a shimmy in my steering at first, but it turned out to be snow packed in the wheels.

For the entire week, I will be at the Enform training facility in Nisku doing 2 labs per day. Luckily for us, we have four people in our lab group, which translates to me doing two write ups. That’s not all that bad, but just driving an hour each way, working, and all the while keeping my butt in the gym is actually running me down. It’s always hard for me to get back into the swing of things after a little break. For the past two weeks, I ate and drank pretty well anything and everything that I wanted. To make matters worse, I only made it to the gym twice…tsk tsk!

It’s pretty well going to be non-stop for the next three weeks, as I will be headed to Fort McMurray on a work experience. I’ll be working with Baker Hughes as a technical sales engineer/account representative in the oilsands sector. I’m looking forward to the experience, I’m sure that I will learn a bunch. I’ll be saying with my cousin during my time in McMurray, I’m sure that it will be busy around there. He has two daughters, 9 and 6….needless to say, not too much quiet time for the next few weeks!

I’m still waiting for my grades to get posted online. I guess that’s going to happen sometime around the 16^th of this month. I’m holding off on applying for jobs until my 3^rd semester marks are posted, I figure my potential employers might want to have an idea of how well that I’m doing this year. I’m fairly confident that I should be able to land a job before I graduate. With the recent drops in the price of crude oil, that may not be an easy reality.

Anyhow, it’s late and I need my beauty rest….I’ll write some more when I get to Fort McMurray!

Well everyone, it’s Christmas eve…is everyone as excited as I am? The last few days leading up to this have been a combination of restful, exciting, and eventful…if that makes any sense at all. After my exams, I took the first couple days to recharge. Exam time always takes a lot out of me; I spend hours upon hours studying, though I usually only start a day or two before any given exam date. That’s just my way of learning; I tend to do far better when placed under a great deal of stress. Anyhow, although I had to work both Friday and Sunday, I managed to get a tonne of ‘couch potato’ time in.

The weekend also marked the arrival of a new found friend, and fellow millennium laureate from Calgary. He spent 3 days visiting, we had a great visit. Some of the highlights of his visit included an epic poker game, and an inebriated karaoke session at my local watering hole which saw us sing a horribly off key rendition of ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’ All in all, some great times! His visit ended on a bit of a sombre note, as I managed to take a chunk out of my bumper on the 109st bridge when driving him to the bus station. Luckily, the damage was relatively minor, though chances are good it’s going to cost me around $1000 to fix.

Yesterday, I had my cousin, his wife, kids, and a few of my friends over for a pre-Christmas dinner; I decided to make prime rib for the occasion. Having never cooked a roast quite as big as this one (11 lbs…that’s a lot of beef!) I was a little apprehensive. The meal turned out to be a resounding success, hope you enjoy the leftovers Pasha! After the departure of my guests, it was straight back to business, I needed to pack for my trip to Kelowna this morning…

Today has been a little bit of a whirlwind. The day started well enough, I managed to get to the airport a little earlier than I anticipated. Being there 1 hour 15 minutes prior to my departure would afford me a lot of time under normal circumstances…but this day was far from normal. The self service kiosks were not functioning, which created a HUGE line to the counters…luckily time was on my side, so I patiently got into the line, waiting for my turn to drop my bags and get my boarding pass. About half an hour into my wait, a lady from the Edmonton Airport authority was going through the line asking people if they were aware they were in the ‘special needs’ line…it sure would have been nice had they posted a sign indicating this! At any rate, the lady pulled us out of this line (I was only about 20^th from the front) to put us in a line with no less than 150 people in it. I protested, saying that I had already been waiting for half an hour, and my boarding time was in about 45 minutes. The lady with the airline basically told me to go back to the other line, as there was no way that I would make my flight standing in that line.

So, back to the original line I went, back of the line. Ahead of me, some people headed to Winnipeg for Christmas were in a similar situation, though their flight was only 20 minutes from departure. It broke my heart to hear the airline tell them their flight was boarded and on the tarmac, and that they would have to pay for another flight, only due to the mistake of some airport lackey. What a lousy way to spend Christmas.

Anyhow, I ended up _JUST_ making it to check my bags in time, only to find the flight was to be delayed by about 20 minutes. That gave me just enough time to get a couple slices of Sbarro’s breakfast pizza, which I can say with conviction is the BEST! I swear, I’d drive to the airport for it if they’d let me through security. Don’t laugh! I’m probably the biggest fan of pizza the world has ever seen, to the point of being eccentric about it! I’ve actually had pizza flown in from my hometown, which is about 1500 miles away….but that’s another story, for another day.

I arrived in Kelowna about half an hour late; my family was elated to see me, the feeling was more than mutual. We spent the day just relaxing back at my parents’ place, drinking Bailey’s and coffee. In the evening, we made the decision to present my brother with an early gift…well, in all honesty, the gift was kind of for everyone. My parents bought my brother an Xbox 360, and I picked up Rockband for him. We had the best time just enjoying each other’s company, living out our hair metal fantasies!It’s getting late though, and ‘Santa’ has to put out presents and eat him some cookies! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, I’ll be back in the new year to write my latest exploits!

Ciao!