Positivity

So if I have learned anything from this past week, it would be the fact that ‘it can always be worse’. I know most of my posts stem from my moaning about how shitty something is etc. etc. but I never stop to think how much worse it can be. This last week was probably one of the top worst weeks I believe I’ve ever had. Personally and academically.

This weekend (well, starting on Thursday) I took time for myself. I enjoyed everything as much as I could. Amusingly it kind of stemmed from going to see ‘Spamalot’ and the song ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’. You need to let yourself loose to enjoy random humour and you can’t bog yourself down with things that will only prevent you from enjoying yourself. The next day I accidentally slept in and missed three hours of class, something that normally pisses me right off. I admit, I was still upset with myself for missing those classes but when I thought about it, at least I got about four more hours of sleep than I would have originally. That night I went to a Chicago Bulls vs. Toronto Raptors NBA game (my first professional basketball game too!) and to be honest, I didn’t care who won (although I really wanted a free Big Mac). I had a great time not worrying about the things that bothered me for the past week. After that Rob and I decided on a whim to go to IIT to join others for karaoke and surprisingly (and to my delight) others that I would never thought of going to karaoke joined us too. In all honesty it was one of my most fun nights without alcohol (minus the few sips). To just let loose and have no cares. To sing at the top of my lungs without caring if someone thinks I’m terrible at singing. To spend time with classmates, colleagues and friends outside of the classroom. That is what is enjoyable. Play some sports, go for a run, play foosball until one in the morning.

Sure, I haven’t gotten any work done yet but I know I’ll get down to it when the time comes. It may be stressful (as I leave it all to the last minute) but I’ll remember that it can always be worse.

“If life seems jolly rotten
There’s something you’ve forgotten
And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing.”

H. Bsc.

So I guess I should mention that I graduated last weekon the 11th. I’m glad I went to convocation even though it was so quick. It’s good to have some ‘closure’ I suppose – to sum up four years in a couple hours. Funny how convocation in University didn’t seem to be as big of a deal as high school graduation. I suppose the really important degree is still another four years away though. But now I have a fancy degree! No frame however…

It’s kind of interesting to think that now on forms I can put “University Degree” or whatnot under ‘highest level of education attained’ instead of ’some college/university’. If you’re curious, I now have a Bachelor of Science in Honours Biomedical Science with a Minor in Biology.

Anyway, off to a short shift at work.

Eric A. Woo, H. Bsc.

;)

Short Notice

So looks like I’ll be going to Calgary for the weekend! It was quite the short notice decision but Jessica and I will be driving out bring my stuff I brought from Waterloo to Morden to its final destination. My dad was supposed to come out and pick it up but plans fell apart just yesterday so tomorrow we’re heading off. It’s a long weekend so logistically it’s the best time to go. At the same time, I can renew my driver’s licence before it expires on my birthday. So in the end it saves a lot of hassle when going to work at different times than Jessica and her dad, etc, etc.

It’ll be a really quick visit, not really sure what we have planned so far. Maybe West Edmonton Mall, maybe not… that would involve six hours of more driving so Chinook might just be good enough.

Anyway… I should finish packing and go to sleep! :S

Apathy

I’ve been feeling it a lot lately.

The term is winding down and all that is really left are final examinations. All I can seem to find myself doing is distracting myself. I have no drive – I have no looming doom to keep my ass in check anymore.

What frightens me is the fact that this might carry on next year or that I’ll become used to having time to slack off and not worry because, “there’s time to catch up”. This term I chose courses that aren’t necessarily easy but for sure are not the hard courses that some could be taking (mind you I got a lot of them out of the way earlier). I also have no labs to deal with. Next year, well, this Fall I will have the opposite. I will have more courses and labs all at once compared to any term of my post-secondary education.

My brain wants to relax but it’s two and a half weeks too early.

Integrity

So I just ‘plugged’ myself back into the grid. At first I didn’t really care at all to participate in ‘Earth Hour’ as I thought it was pretty silly and that it probably doesn’t make a huge difference. Then I figured why not? It’s more so the message behind the action than it is actually ’saving electricity’. I figure I waste so much energy that it’s the least I can do, and at least I can look back and say I participated.

An hour goes by pretty quick, mind you I kept my computer on but ran off batteries. I looked outside and noticed a couple of lights on campus that are normally on were off. UW Place looked pretty dark – but it still does now. I was a little disappointed. I thought at least a couple of people in the towers would take part as Housing Services pushed it for awhile. I watched as 9:00 rolled by and I saw just one light come back on. Still no change now. I guess people just aren’t home at all.  Oh well…

It’s interesting to not have electricity for an hour. I don’t know what I would have done without batteries in my laptop (although I just barely made it through the hour without them dying :P). I had some battery powered candles that really didn’t help with the lighting, but it was better than nothing. It puts a different perspective voluntarily removing yourself from electricity. I guess it kind of makes me feel ‘good’ inside to not have just shrugged the event off. I guess it’s also kind of neat to think that at the same time, many others out there and possibly around the world are doing it too. I enjoyed the novelty in the situation perhaps, as my ‘unplugging’ has little to no effect as an individual.

Another ‘feeling good inside’ story: On Thursday I was in the Mackenzie King Village residence building waiting to talk to the Residence Life Coordinator for my residence extension. In the giant common area sat an MP3 player and headphones on a seat – absolutely no one around. To be honest – it was tempting to uh… well, you know, but I decided to hand it to the front desk. The day after it kind of dawned on me to think what the chances are that if someone else came across it that they would have just pocketed it. Or who’s to say the student behind the desk didn’t pocket it? I would at least hope that someone in a position like that wouldn’t do such a thing but you never know.

I like to look back and feel like I did the right thing and hope that I continue to do so; minor event or global event.

Extra Long Weekend

My weekend has started since 4PM Thursday after my Economics class ended. In the time since then I haven’t done much. Well… today I vacuumed my room and cleaned my dishes (finally). I hate doing dishes, it never ends. Hard to believe but I am actually going to enjoy having cafeteria food all over again. Unfortunately it will be meal by meal basis which means no more random anytime (insert food here + bacon + Nestea) runs to the cafeteria. Speaking of Nestea Iced Tea, I wonder if it’s the same as Nestea Sweet Tea in the US. Whatever…

This term has pretty much wound down. I have one assignment and a handful of simple online quizzes. Other than that, it’s just final examinations. This term marks the first time I don’t have a final exam on the final exam day (disregarding first year first term’s nine exams in eight days). That gives me a whole week to pack my crap up – another dilemma. What to do with all my junk.

First of all, I never came to Waterloo with just two suitcases, a carry-on, and my laptop. I had my parents bring out stuff on their trips to Toronto that happened around the same time. Over the past four years I’ve accumulated a bit of stuff – well, a lot. Some useful, more not so useful. Albeit I’ve sent home a large chunk of junk home, the majority of the items that I simply won’t miss, I still have a ton of stuff. Luckily, and kind of disappointingly, I won’t need any kitchen stuff anymore. I also won’t need the majority of the library’s-worth of textbooks and notes I’ve accrued. (So heavy!)

To sum up: moving is a pain. Perhaps this weekend I’ll start divvying up my stuff so come move time I know what will be going where – or maybe I’ll start studying early – or work on my last assignment…

Probably not. Maybe I’ll just relax.