Brendan Wood

I know it’s been friggin’ ages since I last updated, I’ve just been busy as always. Heck, I’m too busy to even come up with a new excuse!

I’m taking five courses this term, and it’s absolutely my most enjoyable term yet! I’m taking Electric Circuits & Machines, Manufacturing Engineering I, Thermodynamics I, Modern German Usage II, and A Survey of Modern Physics. They’re all fun courses, but the Modern Physics course is definitely my favourite! We’re doing all the fun physics that we never learn in Engineering (such as special relativity, quantum mechanics, etc.) and it’s really a refreshing change to be taking a course just for the fun of it. I’m getting no credit towards my degree for that course, so there’s no pressure. Perhaps my favourite part of Modern Physics is the lab component. There’s a new lab every week and they’re all very hands-on with small group sizes (one or two partners), all involving some sort of radiation. It’s a lot of fun

This weekend was my first weekend I’ve stayed in Fredericton since the middle of January. I’ve been to conferences and parties every weekend, so I’ve barely had a chance to relax and just do work. Nonetheless, I’ve really been keeping on top of my coursework this term. I have yet to skip a single assignment and I’m kicking ass at everything! I even aced my Modern Physics midterm and the prof asked me to present some of my solutions to the class! Now, compare that to last term, where I didn’t bother with about half of my assignments and usually just gave up on the ones I did try…

Now for a completely different shift in gears…I don’t think I’ve even mentioned this yet, but Rosy and I broke up back in September. Yes, September. Not sure why I never bothered to mention it…maybe I just figured it wasn’t appropriate to announce to the world at the time. Anyway, that time is long past and life has improved substantially since then. Not that it was bad when I was dating Rosy, I just feel a lot more free and in control of my life now. I haven’t seen Rosy since November, but I have spoken to her recently and apparently she’s doing better than ever too! Hearing that really makes me feel better about it all because it reinforces the idea that breaking up was the right thing for us to do. I haven’t started dating anyone new largely because I’m focusing on other aspects of my life right now. Mind you, there’s certainly no shortage of beautiful ladies in my life

Living in Robot House is still as awesome as ever, if not moreso. Roommate quarrels are few and sparse, and we still host massively awesome parties every few weeks. Topher is fairly set on moving out after April since he wants to study engineering at UdeM next year instead of coming back to UNB. Joe, Charlie and I will still be waving the Robot House flag proudly, with our new roommate apparantly coming from Calgary as one of Joe’s old friends. If all goes well, we also hope to franchise the Robot House name and really get things kicking with a Robot House 2.0 next year. Here’s a picture from our latest excursion to Moncton last weekend, where we crashed Atlantic Party and appropriated Drink-a-tron 2.0 from the wussy UdeM engineers. I took the picture, so I’m not in it. See http://www.drink-a-tron.com for more Drink-a-tron action!

There’s really not too much else to say at the moment, since it’s getting late and I can’t really elaborate further on anything here without getting into pages and pages of monologue. Perhaps some other time, eh?

The members of Robot House have done it again! Last night, the culmination of weeks of planning was beheld by the masses at the 20/Twenty club. Last night was Fall Freakout and the Fred-FM Hallowe’en party at the 20/Twenty, and it was epic. Robot House did a Futurama theme, with Charlie as Bender, Joe as Fry, Jess as Leela, and yours truly as Doctor Zoidberg. Topher was supposed to be the old Professor, but we ran out of time and couldn’t get it done in time.

Anyway, to cut this a bit shorter, we collectively won First Prize at the bash, which consisted of a white envelope stuffed with twenty-five twenty dollar bills. That’s $500!!! Just pure epic. Oh yeah, and I shaved my head for the costume too, so I’m bald now.

Besides that, I’ve now got my laptop back. I should point out that I completely wasted my time trying to get my laptop back on Monday…even though the techie called earlier the day and said it would be done for sure by the afternoon. I got there and he had been called out to an “emergency job”, and so never got around to me laptop. But, as one of the other Terra Consultants employees lamented, “That’s the nature of the beast”. I wasn’t angry or even pointing fingers, but that unsolicited comment made me want to turn into the Hulk. Not sure why.

So, my laptop decided to die on me again.  Happened last Thursday. It was a lot more sudden than the last time too, so I lost about four weeks worth of files.  That’ll learn me to backup more often It was the hard drive again this time, which leads me to think that there may be something even more fundamentally wrong with the PowerBook, that’s been causing the hard drive to die so much.

I didn’t lose anything that I was in the middle of working on, thanks to our online SVN Repo for our Kin&Dy Project.  I did, however, lose the LaTeX templates that I developed for writing formal lab reports.  It’ll take me at least a few hours to replicate those, but on the bright side I’ll probably do a better job with them this time.

I had quite a quarrel with Apple about it too.  The university tech shop told me it would take weeks to get the parts and repair the laptop, which I simply cannot afford.  I requested that they provide me with an intermediate rental laptop, which I didn’t request last time because I had nothing important to do with the laptop when it died.  The Customer Relations guy to whom I spoke was a complete and utter ass, with no sympathy for my situation at all.  He told me to suck it up and fail a course if I needed to.  That made my blood boil, so I found my own solution to the problem.  Rather than take it to the standard cheap repair shop on campus, I took it to a top-of-the-line Apple consulting firm who promised to have it back to me by Monday, Tuesday at the absolute latest.  Since Apple is obligated to pick up the bill, regardless of who repairs it, I win anyway   The Terra Consultants Apple Tech also said he’s see if he could easily recover any of my files for me, which I would very-much appreciate.

I’m heading out with Schwartzie right now to pick up the laptop, so I’ve gotta run.  Woo!

I had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner last night courtesy of Jess and Erin, who totally know how to cook. There was delicious vegetables galore, specially-made vegetarian stuffing, and a giant turkey (of which I had none…yay for being vegetarian!). Graham also went out and bought a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label to split between the group. The whole thing totally made my weekend!

After the dinner and the dishes, I got some beers delivered and took off to Zaheer’s place, where he was having a little party. We hung out, had some excellent live music from a musician who showed up at the wrong party and decided to stay, and then hit the bars. I woke up with a throbbing hangover this morning, but it was absolutely worth it. Absolutely!

Tomorrow comes the day of work. I pulled an all-nighter working on a formal lab report for Electronics last Thursday, and I have another one due for Fluids on Tuesday. Not to mention a German write-up and a Kinematics and Dynamics assignment. Oh, and an Electronics assignment for Wednesday. Gotta love engineering, eh?

School is tough, but life is good. The last month since school began has been really awesome with lots of good times. It’s nice to see all my friends again, and make new ones too. My roommates are pretty kickass too. Joe and Topher are here now, and we call ourselves Robot House. See below…

That picture is from the kegger we hosted to kick off the start of a new year. We ran around the apartment, met everyone on our floor, and convinced them all that it would be a good idea to have a huge floor party with a keg as a centrepiece. They bought the idea, so we pulled it off. It was a 60L keg of Picaroons Irish Red, and it was drained in two hours. Next time we’ll have to get two.

Robot House also has an official website, which currently only has a huge repository of photos from parties and such. We’ll add content eventually, I’m sure

I’m off to bed now…tomorrow’s going to be a long day.

Another month flys by, and I finally find another moment to post here.  Actually, I have no excuse, save my rampant laziness.

I just got back from PEI today, where I have been for the last few days visiting Rosy and her family.  It was her nephew William’s birthday on Sunday, and everyone was there for it.  Her entire family came from all over for the party, and it was a good time.

On the downside, I was surrounded by cats and dogs the whole time, so my allergies were going haywire the whole time and my lungs were seizing up.  Allergy pills helped, but were really no match for the great abundance of fur.

Also while in PEI, Rosy and I stayed at her aunt’s summer home for a night and recorded Rosy playing and singing some of her songs on guitar.  I couldn’t fit them all on my flash drive as raw AIFF, so Rosy’s aunt is going to send them down to us, likely on a CD or something.  See the action below…

So, in other news, I finished up work for good last Friday, and am ready to start school again in only a week or two.  I’m actually not counting the days.  This term, I’m taking Kinematics and Dynamics, Fluid Mechanics I, Electronics I, Stats for Engineers, and Modern German Usage I.  It should be an interesting term, I just hope that I do better than I did last time.

Dad and Taylor are swinging by tomorrow and staying the night. Taylor’s on her way to her very first year of university at SMU!  Yay!  I’m actually still pretty amazed that she’s really finally done high school and off to start a new life in Nova Scotia.  I think the three of us (plus Rosy) are going to go to a bar or two tomorrow night, as long as we can get Taylor in.  Uptown Dooly’s is probably our best bet, so I’m very-much looking forward to that.

And finally, the roommate situation has changed, with Kaley moving out over two weeks ago and Rosy moving out about a week ago.  Topher has already moved into Kaley’s room (but he’s not living here yet) and Joe is arriving this Saturday with expectations to turn our apartment into a wild party to celebrate his arrival.  No objections here

Wow, these past few weeks have been insanely hectic! Newfoundland was a rockin’ blast (except leaving…that was tough), work is going well, the weather is beautiful, EWB is up my ass 24/7, and there so much to do!

I don’t even know where to begin with things. Like I said, Newfoundland was killer! I met lots of awesome people at the EWB Retreat, went camping with Steve, went cave-exploring with my family, spent days at the beach, drove thousands of kilometres, ate baskets of strawberries (it now appears my old strawberry allergy has re-appeared…bastards!), and even had to hitchhike back to Fredericton from Truro. It was quite a fun week

After getting back to Freddy, I discovered that Rosy and Kaley have been playing little shows at The Capital, a bar downtown. Every Tuesday, there is an open-mic night (Jam Night) where random people can sign up to play music. Kaley and Rosy have been doing this weekly, and are becoming very good performers!

I’ve recently been inspired by the friendliness of Fredericton, too. After a Jam Night and a few beers, Rosy accidentally left her brand new guitar and case at The Capital, right next to the back door. Neither one of us noticed for a week! When we finally noticed, Rosy panicked. I wanted to, but I knew that wouldn’t make Rosy feel any better about it. Rosy went back to The Capital the very next time it was even open, and inquired about her guitar. The manager had no idea what she was talking about, and was clearly clueless. He offered her her choice of any of the guitars stored in the basement, but she honestly told him that none of them were hers. As a last resort, she walked to the back of the bar and there it was, right where she had left it. Nobody had so much as touched the guitar in an entire week. I love this city

And what else…oh, did I mention that I finally bought an iPod? Yes, I bought it the day before I left for Newfoundland. It’s a beautiful white 4 GB iPod Nano, with a black silicone skin. Everyone thought I was crazy to buy a white one over the sexier black ones, but they underestimated the beauty of a black skin with white accents. Very unique! Anyway, I absolutely love it and consider it one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. It works flawlessly with my Mac, and had all sorts of neat features I didn’t even know existed. I’m quite pleased!

But yes, I should get back to work. Hopefully I’ll find time to update and post pictures soon.

I’m attending the EWB Atlantic Retreat in Codroy Valley, Newfoundland in a few weeks, and I’ll also be staying a few extra days on the Rock! I’m actually not sure how it’ll all go down just yet, but things always work themselves out. Hopefully I’ll be in Newfoundland for about a week, with two or three of those days spent in Codroy. I think I’ll arrive in Codroy on July 7th, and be in Deer Lake on the 9th, maybe.

Dr. Carretero is very relaxed about everything, and has no problem with me just disappearing for a week as long as I make up a few days at the end of my workterm. I’m really enjoying not having to worry about the crack of an employer’s whip.

So, yesterday I did a lot of laundry. I think I did like three loads last night, and had to stay up until around 2:00am to finish it all (friggin’ dryers don’t like drying my clothes on a single loonie…). I also cleaned my room for the first time ever!!! I’m very proud of myself

Rosy and I are going clothes-shopping this afternoon too. That means even more laundry to do Actually, I’d just like some “new” clothes (I prefer second hand, but new to me), since I haven’t really had new clothes in a long time. I think the last article of clothing that I bought was my “QUACK!” shirt that I got at a second hand shop back in October 2004. I shit you not!

In other news, I watched some Saturday Night Live comdey sketches with Rosy for the first time ever a few days ago. Now I finally understand all those cowbell references and comments like “Rough, just the way your mother likes it, eh Trebek?”. My life has been an empty void until this week. Actually, Christopher Walken is the only guy I consider really funny, so blah.

Back to work…stupid event handlers…

I spent at least a few hours today doing dishes and cleaning up the apartment. I must say, the place was absolutely rancid. Both sinks were overflowing with disgusting dishes and cutlery, while the counters were covered in dried up food and sticky unidentifiable goo. Yes, goo.

What’s more, the fridge seems to be having trouble keeping cold and is doing an awful lot of moisture condensation. The condensation could be because of the humidity, but the spoiling food and mould cultures aren’t as innocently explained. I ended up throwing out half the food in the fridge, only to realise that there’s now nothing to eat and the grocery stores close early on Sundays.

Bah…but, on the bright side, another work week starts tomorrow, so I have an excuse to spend less time here!

Like I say in the About page, I’m always improving things here at the ol’ blog. Today I’ve added some 250 new photos and I’ve finally figured out how to add photos to the blog. Turns out, the option was there all along…problem was that I was using the Safari browser which can be a piece of shit at times. The good folks at WordPress disabled the image-insert feature for users of Safari.

Anyway, here’s a picture of me showing some skin at the bus terminal in Montréal in January. Sexy, isn’t it?

I’m really not used to this whole “public weblog” thing just yet. I just sat here for the last five minutes, trying to think of something to write. I mean, I’ve kept a sparse journal for the last year, but that was easy to write in because it was completely private and nobody ever saw it except for me.

But this, this is something different! I’m actually curious as to how I’ll manage to keep this updated, if I do at all.

I got home late again today, largely due to my late arrival at work this afternoon. Yes, yet another afternoon when I’ve shown up for work. We can all thank Rosy for this one too! Rosy and I went out to Jam Night at the Capital last night. I had actually intended to stay out only until 1:00am, but 1:00 turned to 2:00, 2:00 to 3:00, and 3:00 finally to 4:00. The funny thing is that I don’t really mind going to work late and staying late as a result. It’s kind of nice, in an anti-social way, to be the only person in the Robotics lab for hours at a time.

So yeah, as I was saying, I got home this evening around 9:00 to find Charlie and Kaley (two other roommates) jamming on their guitars. Charlie was teaching Kaley new chords and how to tune her guitar. It was very relaxing to make imitation Kraft Dinner to the background music of acoustic guitars, and even better to sip on ginger ale while eating to the tune of it.

That’s honestly all that’s really gone on today. I really should clean my room and do my laundry, but that takes time, effort, and money. Neither of which I feel like parting with at the moment. Perhaps tomorrow, if I get to work on time and home at a reasonable hour.

I guess my one regret of having so much to do is that I can’t find time to do other things I like. For example, I’m trying to learn to program in Cocoa (a Mac OS X object-oriented language), but it can’t be done on my current schedule. I’m going to have to start cutting things if I want to get anything else done. Wouldn’t be the first time, eh?