Log Driver's Waltz

For he goes birling down a-down the white water
That's where the log driver learns to step lightly
It's birling down, a-down white water
A log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.

Great part of Canadian History. I wonder if they still show the video in elementary school! Thanks Vince for the link. Also here is the Cat Came Back video which I remember watching as well... but probably shouldn't be shown in schools anymore since it shows the guy putting the cat in a bag and tying an anchor to it. Ahh Childhood.

So, I don't have good luck with Bikes

One less thing to move I suppose.


Windsor such a great city. We've recently discovered that both Michelle and I are missing our bikes. Both chained together and then chained to the bike stand. Michelle's bike was missing a wheel and my bike was unfortunately very rusty.

Now I know I don't use the bike as much as I should... and I'm not actually sure if I should bike anymore on my busted knee... but it still sucks.

Also:
Happy Anniversary Mom And Dad!

More Midterms

Two more midterms down today...
and while most people are one their, mid-semester mind break (those few weeks between test) I don't have that luxury this semester. I've actually come to the realization that I have a midterm or test every week until the end of November. Its pretty upsetting. They should hardly be called midterms if there are 2 of them in the same class!

Today's midterms... one was really well... one was pretty bad. Its a very challenging course as Matt would say and the test was as hard as I was expecting. However it was expected to be hard and I had studied a lot. The problem is many of the questions seemed to be on tangents with regards to what was talked heavily about in class. And when you have no textbook and only the slides and the chicken scratch you manage to get down in class to study from it makes things difficult to remember all the tangents. The prof isn't exactly the easiest to understand either. Should be interesting to see what kind of mark I get.

Oh well time to get started on the next one... Informative presentation on Monday and Database midterm on Thursday.

In other news: Firefox v2.0 was released recently with some very nice upgrades. I personally love the spell checker that is preinstalled and the search box that uses googleSuggest. There are some nice little tricks and I'm still learning about them all. Patiently waiting for some creative themes and add ons. Thankfully my internet explorer tab and greasemonkey is still compatible.

Sunday Morning Report

As I sip some warm java coffee and procrastinate studying for my midterms of the week... let me tell you about my weekend so far.

Friday: I had been dreading this day, two very important presentations to do today. First was my cognitive walkthrough for work and testing a new appliction for the school. Went well.. we ran out of time to do all the tasks but I think the method worked and we got a lot of good feedback and things to change. Second was my work term presentation... scheduled for 20 minutes and I felt like had about 30 minutes of stuff... i talked fast and fit it in 17 minute plus Q&A time. It was beautiful! reviews came back and everyone agreed. I felt much relief after it was done. Friday night... I actually should have been starting to study for my next midterms but I felt like I needed a little break and I didn't want to be studying on a Friday night ... my sister would be so disappointed. So we watched the movie Labyrinth digitally remastered of course.

Saturday: Woke up late, Went to the Mall, Made some delicious chili in the slow cooker. And then we went to celebrate Michelle's Birthday. Great party at the bar near campus... within walking distance from the apartment. Good turnout and lots of laughs. I seriously lost my voice and my hearing last night.

Some of the best quotes (I will not explain them any further):

"I'm White and over 6 feet tall... I'M NOT DANCING"
"Ha, I'd pay a $3 admission to see Tyler and Bendal wrestle in pudding"
"My shirt was actually wet!!!"

Happy Birthday Michelle... I hope you had fun!

Now that my coffee is done, I have to start studying for a class where I don't understand the prof, there is no textbook, and only half the slides are posted online. Should be interesting.

October Best Wishes!

Happy Birthday Charlie -- Oct 1st
Happy Birthday Jake -- Oct 10th
Happy Birthday Eric -- Oct 14th
Happy Birthday Julie -- Oct 18th
Happy Birthday Michelle -- Oct 18th
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad -- Oct 26th
Happy Anniversary Michelle and Tyler -- Oct 12th

Love you all... Best Wishes on your special days!

How Tabbed Browsing Ruined my Degree

So...
Many of my classes are into midterms now. And that means studying.
Unfortunatly I have to do a lot of studying on my computer... and my computer is connected to the internet... Thus... hours of distraction and procrastination right at my fingertips. While studying for my Operating System midterm, (which went well) I discovered how much tabbed browsing has effected me. While I was studying I had 2 firefox browsers open with at least 5 tabs (sometimes up to 15) in each browser. The first browser was filled with scholarly tabs related mostly to operating systems and helping me study or take note (thank you writely). The second browser is filled with distractions ... gmail, ataraxis, forums, digg... etc... Suuure slows down the studying process.

There was more that I wanted to add to this but I'm not in a writing mood at the moment... Going to not thinking for a while and unwind after my midterm.

Invoke Janna.Test(Choke);

15% left on my battery

So I'm feeling a little down today, somewhat depressed. I've only had two tests of far this semester. One was quiz in Databasing and one was a midterm in networking. I'm fine... I passed...but I'm disappointed in myself. I've been paying attention and taking notes... not talking... this is crazy! I know my stuff ... I could have and should have done better. Maybe it has been too long since I've been in school... but it just doesn't make sense that I would choke so much. Sigh... I'm only taking a break to watch survivor and blog... then back to Operating Systems studying... that midterm is on Tuesday.

8% left on my battery

Presentations in my Future... not just for my speech class but for the school in general. I will be doing my informative presentation for class about how to use Google and all the tricks that I've learned. Second big presentation will be for CSS, regarding Usability and Google. I even got tShirts to give away. I'll probably be collecting resumes for Google at the same time... Which will be interesting. I'll also be doing a Google pizza party at the end of October. On the 20th of October will be the cognitive walkthrough for the campus events site.

Today I recieve an email from the Women in Engineering group at the University...

"I am writing to cordially invite you to give us your presentation of your experience in Google. Most of engineer students who heard it in this summer are interested in your story, and you made great effort for the reputation of our small school of computer science. "

So theres another one... I'm not sure when it will be... But I'll keep everyone posted.

0% Battery - 5 minutes and counting.

Must update Blog

It finally hit the top of my to do list today. Its been almost a week since I've updated ... I'm sorry, but I've been busy too. Today finally as my todo list reshuffled "blog" floated to the top.

So since I've been busy I should have a lot to write about ... right? Well... Midterms have started, and thats where the fun stops. Last thursday had a database quiz that went okay as long as the marking is fair. Yesterday had a networking midterm that went well, even if it was worth a quarter of my marks... there was one question that I think people were over thinking, and they were expecting a trick. I certianly didn't over think it so I hope its okay. Today I have a presentation and an assignment due. woo...

Happy belated Thanksgiving and Happy belated Birthday Jake. This weekend was turkey weekend in Canada. I ate way too much food... felt like being back at Google... everything was so good and free (for me). We had saturday night at my parents house... for the Webers thanksgiving and then there was ice cream and cake after for Jakes birthday. His first Birthday without my sister being there to celebrate too. On Monday we got together with the Love family, got to see little Ava again.... she was very whiny for her mom... but still very cute.

Anyways.. should get up and get some coffee... I need to prep for my presentation

Not going to be Homeless!

We signed a lease last night! I have a new place to live, with a ton of room. We have the main floor and the basement. There are two guys that live upstairs but they shouldn't be a problem. Our only hangup was that our utilities might be expensive. But it had everything else on our list. And it was very clean and unique in a good way. There is hardware floor everywhere so we are looking for some large area rugs. Also have a nice backyard for some good summertime bbqs!

In order to pay for this new place I'm going to have to do some work. I've got some great ideas for new testing methods for all the different project at the university. They have been relying on lab studies as the only method for too long. We are going to try a cognitive walkthrough, I've never done one but I'm ready to try. I'm just waiting on reading material so I can learn some more about it first. If anyone has any suggestion for this method let me know. If you have any other methods that are new and interesting I'd love to hear about it.

Google News:
New Google Groups
New Google Gadgets
New Google Code Search

Post 105

I'm not sure what to think that this is only post 105. Maybe that's a good number since I've only had the blog for maybe 6 months. Maybe that number is low... and I should be posting more often... Like some others I know

Moving: 60 day notice has been giving... We are moving. Michelle, Tyler, John and I are going to find a house to move into in Windsor. Something close to the University, big enough for all of us, and something that would allow us to have a BBQ. Some of the places we have been looking at are pretty scary/sketchy. We did see one that we could see ourself living in. Theres a ton of wood panelling in the house tho... could drive me crazy

Working: Has been slow, just starting to get back into it. Waiting for meetings to happen.

School: Getting Busy, starting to get into midterms and assignments. Its nice tho I hate having only reading to do as homework. When I only have reading... its not very fulfilling to read.

Sean: Everyone keeps asking about him. He's doing well. Missing me of course... but who wouldn't. He actually got a big promotion this week! I'm so proud of him. He's working so hard.