The Boys of Summer

Well it is nearing the end of the summer break. So far it has been a good one. I went to California for three weeks and travelled around down there. I returned to SFU for a summer intersession but I managed to get an A+. After that I went to Quebec and got tear gassed three times, hit in the neck by a rifle casing, rappelled, zipplined and stayed a week. I then went to NYC for a few before heading back to SFU for residence orientation.

Tomorrow I will be getting my macbook and I must also ask, what is the best MSN client to use? I am also going to try and pick up the board game Citadels.

Monday classes start, I am sort of excited for that. I will finally get to take a break from my fast moving summer.

Resnet, the internet we have here in residence has been broken since I have arrived. The basic problem is that the switch which distributes the bandwidth to each person is broken. That means the bandwidth is being unevenly distributed. If someone is torrenting and using 60 connections, that means 59 people are not getting internets. Someone must be givin’ ‘er with the torrents since there have been many times where even MSN has not been able to stay connected.

In a few hours Res-O will be over. When I first arrived here I was not too excited for this years orientation. Maybe it was because I was still transitioning over from being in a military basic training course for the previous eight weeks, or maybe I was a bit bummed that I was not picked as a TL. I turned twenty on my second day being back to SFU which was not the most exciting birthday but since tonight we are allowed to drink again, we ROL’s are going to get a bit silly.

Training was a lot of what we call in the military “fucking the dog.” Basically we had a week of workshops which were only two a day, or so, and they would take maybe a half hour to go through. To summarize what we learned in that week: be inclusive and don’t break FOIPOP.

Luckily, once Res-O started my opinion changed completely. My group was awesome and they didn’t leave after the first day. The other ROLs are awesome and so was the program. I am going to most definitely do this again next year though hopefully as a TL.

If I were a TL next year a couple things that I would like to bring is a workshop on the types of leadership and the 12 principles of leadership (stuff like maintaining situational awareness, build teamwork and cohesion and mentor, educate and develop subordinates). Also, instead of a scavenger hunt I would like to do some sort of Amazing Race across the downtown Vancouver area.

Now I must finish up getting ready as my last clan time is in less than an hour and then we have our ROL wrap up before we head off to the shadows of this mountain.

The Walkmen

I ended up going to see the Walkmen play last night at Richards on Richards. Great concert. They had a band called Man Man and they were just crazy good. My friend describes them as a “Jewish Circus gone awry.” The Walkmen were also really good. They ended up playing my favourite song, The Rat, after they had been called back on stage at the end.

This was my first time at a concert at a pub and it was really cool. Much more fun than going to GM Place or the PNE Plaza and being squished into some seat.

Mac

Well I decided to finally get a new (yet much smaller) laptop. I will be picking up my Macbook on Monday. I have not used a mac that much so I must ask all you mac fan boys what software you would suggest to use for PHP/HTML Scripting, FTPing and general Java/C++ programming?

Randoms

Michael Phelps unsportsmanlike? You be the judge.

And some CSI Miami

Reanimation

I’ve been looking for this video for a while.

Sundays in New York

I have yet to write about my trip to New York and I must say that it was awesome! I am definitely going to go back. I left Montreal on the Saturday and ended up missing the train. I then found out there was only one train a day and the next day’s was full. Luckily there was a bus. I took the bus to New York City and then I walked across Manhattan to my hostel.

On the Sunday I woke up and left at 8:00am. Even though it was New York there was not much for me to do. I walked a bit and took a look at the Little Church Around the Corner. There was a mass in session. I quickly left and found that the Museum of Sex was just across the street.

I walked to the Chrysler Building and the train station there on Lex and 42nd st. There was a huge street fair going on all the way down to 57th st. I walked up and down that looking at all the neat little souvenirs they were selling.

I then headed out to the Bronx where the Bronx Bombers were playing the Kansas City Royals. It was such a fun game and you can sure tell the Americans are into baseball. I was sitting behind the centre fielder and whenever the Royals were out in the field, this little kid around twelve years old was just ripping apart David DeJesus, their centre fielder.

I definitely want to go to more of these baseball games. Infact next Saturday I will be going to Seattle to see the Mariners play the Yankees.

After that I headed up to 110th St, back in Manhattan where I was at the North End of Central Park. I must say it is much bigger than I ever imagined. It took me three hours to run around the entire park to see everything and even then it was dark by the time I was done.

Finally to top it off, that night I went to the top of the Empire State Building and I got an amazing view of the city from night.

Unfortunately I do not have any place to host all of these pictures online so I can’t put them up here. I did manage to take about 300 photos in the few days I was there.

That was just my Sunday though. I will write about the other days later.

Read My Mind

In my last week in Quebec there I finished off two more books, only two more books till I reached my new years resolution of a book a month.

The first book was Empire by Orson Scott Card. It was written by the same guy who wrote Ender’s Game. The basic summary of it is that the modern day United States get into a civil war. It reminds me very much of a Tom Clancy, and thus I am not a huge fan of it. It was also written in no similar way to Ender’s Game.

The second book was the short I Am Legend. This is the book they made the movie after but it is in no way similar to the movie. They are completely different but they have the same overall premise. It is definitely a good read and I would suggest it.

I am thinking for next years new years resolution I might try and not drink any pop. I did it before for a year and a half so I might try it again. I definitely could use drinking less coke. This would include not drinking coke, pepsi, sprite, seven up, dr. pepper, root beer, pop flavoured slushies or rum and coke. Basically anything with pop in it is not allowed. Ice tea is allowed. The only downside to this is that I would need to find a new alcoholic beverage to drink for the year. Or I will just stick with beer.

Wow… we finally won a game

Looks like the SFU Football finally won a game since I have been here at SFU. Last night they beat UBC 24 – 10.

More information here.

I’ve been at this school for fifteen years and I have ne-e-ever seen a performance like that! Not Ever!

Basically my new favourite MadTV character, Coach Hines.

Moved In

Yesterday I moved into my townhouse on rez. I managed to get the room with the balcony which is cool but it is the smallest room with the smallest bathroom. I met one of my roommates, I don’t have an opinion on him yet so we will see.

We also started Orientation Leader training, a bunch of fucking the dog if you ask me.

Oh well, a week and some till school starts.