Last day at work.

I'm not one for sentimental moments or any of that mushy stuff, but I do feel kinda sad I have to leave. Life goes on. There will be another student to replace me, and when he or she leaves, another student to fill those shoes. The circle of life I suppose to borrow a phrase from the Lion King.

Basically all my work here is done. The Data Collection Tools been made. It's undergoing a second round of testings which I hope the results will be promising. Clinical trials to begin soon afterwards. Kinda sucks that I won't be around to do the trials, cause that was one of the things I was looking forward too when I took the job. The "Executive Washroom" is basically complete. I ordered the two way mirror and it's being delivered in a few weeks. I hope the next student who sits at my desk will appreciate all the work I put in to get the project ready for the trials. Probably not, but anyways it has been fun here when I think about it.

Yesterday, I finished my work early so I worked in the back shop area and made myself a pencil holder. Not too shabby for my two hour shop project. Ask me about it and I'll show it to you sometime.

I've been blessed this summer. Despite my grumblings about having to write the MCAT and feelings that I wasted an entire summer, I do have positives that I must be thankful for. My job has been a major blessing. I've had the chance to expand my skills in the area of research, engineering, and hands on technical stuff in the workshop. I've made important scholarly contacts with professors and doctors while working here. I'm able to pay for all of my tuition on my own. Working hours have been flexible enough for me to study for the MCATs and to take courses. This summer, I've been able to keep in touch with my friends and we've all had a great time sharing in each other's company.

Yes, I would say this summer was great when I think about it. God's been really working in my life even though I couldn't see it. I remember back in March when Jo and I were freaked out about finding jobs and housing for the upcoming school year. Well take a look at the results of God's care. Well about the job, I've been blessed to have worked the entire summer at a job that has expanded my knowledge and skills. Regarding housing, I've got a really good place to stay next year that is cheap, close to school, close to stores and shopping centres, and a cool roommate.

In every instance and every matter that counts, God has provided. I just haven't been able to see all that He's done for me being caught up with the future and things that I can't control. I'm still learning to trust fully in God. I can always look to the past goodness God has shown me to remind myself.

Yes, I am thankful that my future is being looked after.

Mike

Wow we are so behind in blogging....two people and we can't even keep up...

Well it's been really, really busy lately.... it always gets crazy at the end of workterms....work report, resumes, wrapping up job, pack moving back to waterloo, saying bye to friends, doing things that you have procrastinated on all work term, you know, that kind of stuff.

Where did I leave off? I went to the CNE with a bunch of Kitty's friends, who were pretty cool. I felt so old though...even though it's only by a year with most of them, i still feel kinda old. One of her friends went up to do the hypnotist thing. Oh man, it was hilarious. We also went to see the dog show there, something that I've never seen before. I was imagining it was going to be as funny as the movie "Best in Show" for some reason, which of course it wasn't, but at least it was entertaining. That day, Kitty missed a wedding for a variety of reasons, so I missed Di's bday dinner. Sorry Di! Giving a ride home for Kitty turned out to be longer than expected. I couldn't figure out how to get on the DVP from the Ex, so I went all the way back to Etobicoke and then back out east. Took a very long time. I should get to know my streets better, especially out in the east and north end...

Monday was Tim's bday/going away. But unfortunately, hardly anyone showed up! I brought Kitty to meet my friends, and only a few of the guys were there! No girls showed up! That was unfortunate. It went well though, she thought everyone was nice :).

Got too much stuff to do...I'll blog about stuff later...

--nelson

Yeah yeah, I'm finally blogging again.

Dang, still got soo much to do before school starts. My room is a warzone, need to make a shopping list and actually go out and buy the things I need for the upcoming school year. I need to start packing as well. At work, I still need to finish off the projects that I'm working on. I thought things would get easier after the MCAT. I guess you just have to take it one thing at a time.

Man, I realize how crappy my keyboard is. The keys are kinda stiff. Weird, I've never noticed it before until now....

I'd like to thank my bloggin partner for keeping the ratings up during my leave of absence. Thanks nels!

Later

Mike

Friday was a guys night out. Because hanging out downtown after the Vince Carter Charity game was so much fun, we decided to go out and walk around down there again.

Surprisingly, I had a car that night, since my dad went down to San FranCisco for some conference. So i rounded up the boys (Tim, Keith and Richard) and went straight back to my house. Yes, we went straight back to my house to drop off my car at home and bus/subway it in to TO. That way I wouldn't have to drive home. We made it downtown, hooked up with Matt and walked over to a chinese restaurant. We proceeded to have a nice 2 hour meal.

During this meal, we got on the topic of the 72 oz steak challenge. My crazy roomate Edmond has convinced a bunch of us to take on this challenge: Finish a 72 oz steak at a Steakhouse within the hour and it's free. So a bunch of us skinny chinese guys are going to go in and attempt this. It'll be quite the spectacle. I'm almost certain I won't be able to finish it, but at least it'll be entertaining (more so for the spectators rather than the actual participants, i suspect). So if you are interested in watching (or participating) please msg me right away and we'll reserve a spot for you. Right now, the tentative date is set for Aug 31. Let me know ASAP!

After chilling at the restaurant for a bit, we walked through the UofT campus. Matt showed us around a bit, like where he almost tripped over a metal railing. But seriously, the UofT campus is actually very nice. I can't believe how ugly ( and smelly) the Waterloo campus is. They don't even compare!

Our target for that night was to check out one of Toronto's landmarks, The Brunswick House. Last time around, we were so dissappointed that the Peel Pub was closed. So we're walking for something like half an hour and when we finally reached there, it was closed. :( So we ended up going to a nearby patio (Pauper's Pub) and just relaxed out there. Matt had never had a shot before, so i recommended that all of us have a round of B-52's. (all of us cept Keith) I think Matt liked it. I don't think he would have liked any harder type of shot, so that's why i picked this nice and easy one. After that, we began with the beers. Tim bought Keith a Keith's. Which I think he absolutely detested. But the funniest part was at the end of the night when he got picked up by his parents from the subway station, they smelt it right away. haha. I don' t think he got into trouble or anything, but still, that's hilarious. Anyway, good conversation and laughs throughout the night over a big plate of nachos and a pint of cold beer. A good time, but expensive. We spent more money at the pub then on the meal that night! Oh well, I don't drink that often so once in a while the expense is justified. :)

The next day was CNE with Kitty's friends, but I'll blog a bit about that later, i have to get back to work now.

--Nelson

Man, so behind in blogging...but now Mike is back and can relieve some of the pressure, right Mike?

So last thurs was one of softball captain's, (Joel's) surprise birthday party....but it wasn't much of a surprise....

Joel didn't go straight to (the cancelled) practice from work like he was suppose to. So he saw a bunch of people from the team arriving at his house, which obviously ruined the surprise. His sister Joyce, who had set up the whole thing was so very disappointed :(

I almost got lost on the way over Joyce's Oakville home though...I wrote down the wrong house number in my Clie and went on a wild goose hunt looking for a house that didn't exist. The house number that I wrote down really didn't exist! It skipped over that number and it confused me greatly, so I started walking up and down the street. Luckily Joyce and Iris were outside and waved me down. Whew, what a close call.... i really need a cell phone to stop that from happening. I think I'm going to get the Roger's deal through Edmond. It's really cheap, which is the only good thing going for it. I don't like the Nokia 8390 phone though, but I think I'll save the money and live with it for the next two years.

The food at the party was pretty good. Most of dinner was spent trying to get Greg Chan to sing his mandarin song he learned on the LoveBoat. But it was to no avail....he wouldn't sing and entertain for us... I think b/c Iris was laughing too hard... even b4 he was ready to sing. After dinner was cake time. This was where the real surprise came. I went into the room and saw two cakes, but thought nothing of it. Then they told me to go sit down behind the cake. I was like "what? why?" Then i read the cake and figured it out. The team (slash Iris) had got a cake for me too! I was so surprised! What a pleasant, warm fuzzy feeling. Thanks team!

We got Joel a first aid kit (cause he get injured so much) and a very nice engraved picture frame w/ our team name. After we just chilled and played with Joyce's younger brother's toys...which were a lot of fun. Ah, to be a kid again. Then some ping-pong, some gadget talk with some guys (it never fails.... i can strike up a conversation about gadgets with most any guy), some picture taking and then it was time for home. All in all a good evening once again.

The season is almost ending!!! :( The big tournament and banquet is next week already!

I'll blog about the rest of my weekend l8r...

-- Nelson

I spent most of yesterday horizontal, resting my back. It's a lot better today. I just hope that in the future, this type of thing doesn't reoccur. I also managed to start watching The Godfather Part II, but didn't finish it, because it's so long. I originally thought I'd be watching more movies at home this summer. Before I left from school, i got a whole bunch of movies copied (thanks Victor), but I have hardly watched any of them. Next term, I'm living w/ my elec buddies, and they have a very large collection of movies. Good quality movies too. That'll definitely be distracting.

Today is GTAA golf day. Which means the office is very, very empty. I don't feel like doing any work... In fact I haven't felt like doing any work for a few weeks already. It always gets like this though....near the end of the work term, I always feel like I've had enough of work and I want to go back to school. Once you're in the Waterloo coop system, your body gets into this 4 month cycle. Every 4 months you feel like picking up and moving again. I hear once you get out of school, the feeling stays with you. If you get a job after graduation, then when the first 4 months have passed, you get antsy and feel like moving on again. It'll be interesting to see how I handle a working life. I can't imagine what it'll be like yet...right now it seems kinda scary...

But till then, there's always the present to worry about. And the present determines the future.

-- Nelson

I stayed at home yesterday and watched the The Godfather. After watching it again, it still remains one of my favourite movies of all time. My sister says the mark of a good present is that it's something that the person recieving the present wants and likes, but wouldn't buy themselves. So true in this case. Thanks for the present!

Something quite bad health related happened to me today. I was walking around the home in the morning today and suddenly my back seized up. I was on the ground in pain. I was able to get up and go to work though, and it got a little better, but in the afternoon it got worse. It was painful just moving or even sitting. I really hope I don't get back problems, because that'd be horrible! I went home early to lie down and rest, so for now, it's better. I want to keep an eye on it though, because I can't bear the thought of giving up an active lifestyle.

Today my friend Vince came over for a bit. We had been going back and forth over a $500 bet. We finally hashed out the terms tonight. Vince thinks that he won't have a high salary once he gets his degree from IVEY. I think he will; so much so, that he will make a lot more than myself. I've always believed that engineers have a relatively high starting salary, but their maximum salary is not very high. A salary ceiling, if you will. I believe that right when Vince gets out, he won't necessarily be making that much, but very quickly it will increase greatly. So today we were able to quantify the bet. We are going to find the average salary per hour over a 6 year period after we graduate and compare. The one making more is the loser (of the bet that is). It's an interesting bet and I'm very interested to see how it'll turn out. I'm almost certain I'll win, but then again, so is he, which makes for the best kind of betting - the high stakes type. :)

-- Nelson

What a relief. I'm done my exam. It went ok, didn't ace it, but I definitely passed it. That's almost as good as it gets these days for exams. At least I didn't come out of there swearing and mad as hell. More studying probably would have gotten me a higher mark, but this course doesn't even count in my average, so it's not too important. Now that that's out of the way, I have job hunting, resume writing and work report writing to look forward to. yay.

Some good news is that I have internet at work now! Which means it may be easier to do some blogging and keep it more consistent. Now I just have to wait for my new computer, which I bet will arrive on my last day here, just like last work term. My current video card only supports 16 colors, which probably means I'll get more work done. But I have to make up for Mike for at least this week, since he's studying really hard on his MCATs. And yes, this is my quadruple blog entry. I don't know how certain people can take that simple statement and warp it into something else...

After my exam it was lunch with my dad, who had drove me downtown so he go stop by the office. And right after that was back home to sleep. I'm always so tired after exams, because it's such a mental workout. That night was Jeff's going away party in Waterloo. As an extra bonus, Richard drove, so that I didn't have to. For this whole summer I had been driving everywhere, almost all the time! It was getting quite expensive too! So I'm thankful that Rick drove. Thanks Rick. Rick also brought his GPS/labtop device, which was cool. I could track our position as we were driving, although at certain times, the device said that we were off the road. But the technology was still quite impressive.

So Monty, Richard and I first went over to pick up Whanger and then we headed over to Jeff's kegger/BBQ. It was nice to see a bunch of people that I hadn't seen for a while. It was pretty funny though......I went there and geeked it up pretty good. Jeff and I spent a quite a while with our PDAs beaming each other contacts and applications. I'll see Jeff again during frosh week and then it'll be a year before I see him again! He took out a site, www.jeffinjapan.com, to keep everyone updated on his experience. I'll definitely be reading that once it gets going. Since we stayed dry, we drove back that same night.

Sun was my very small birthday party. Spent most of the day cleaning up and preparing for it. But I did have a softball game I had to go to first. Once again I played very poorly.... I can't hit! But I was most disappointed with the outcome. We lost...but if i had hit a homerun or triple in my last at bat, we would have won the game. Instead I grounded it to third and a baserunner was forced out at the same base for the second out. So disappointed in myself... Oh well, it only really counts in the tournament, which is only two weeks away!

My party was actually a lot of fun. Somehow the guys and the girls got segregated. So the guys were outside BBQing and eating, while the girls remained in the air conditioning. Keith was at my party too, and whenever Keith is around, somehow the conversation takes a turn downward. Which also means there's some serious laughter. So much toilet humour, but all so funny. Tim said it's worse than he remembered before he left for Costa Rica. I agree, because since he was away, they've been practicing on me! I think I have overtaken Keith for the lead, and for those of you that don't know, that's probably not a good thing. But still, it's pure jokes and I don't get to laugh like that enough.

A big thank-you for all the gifts, which were all very thoughtful and things I wanted. And thanks to the people that came out.

I want to mix it up a bit next year, so I'll try to think of something new next year.

Till then.

--Nelson

PS Happy birthday to me. Looking forward to tonight :)

This always happens. I leave studying to the last minute and I don't have enough time to finish all the studying needed. It happened so many times in University, and yet I still don't learn. Oh well, I hope it's easy tomorrow.

Read something funny and bball related on the net. Here's a quote from the Canadian T-Mac, who was recently traded back to the Sixers:

``I don't know if I could've taken the weather for another year. I'm glad to be in a much warmer place,'' MacCulloch joked. ``I'm also glad for all those thousands of kids who had Todd MacCulloch jerseys. Now they can pull them out and wear them again.''

--Nelson

I've been kinda busy recently, studying for my distance ed course. For those that don't know, I'm taking a correspondence course, Nuclear Science, so that I can complete my engineering requirements for List A (Impact Courses). I really didn't like any of the courses on that list, but Nuclear Science seemed the least boring out of all of them, so that's the one I picked.

It's sort of a drag though. For every tuesday night throughout the whole summer I'm stuck at home listening to the lectures (in RealPlayer) and then doing the internet quiz right after. This can go pretty late too, since I always leave it till the last moment (tues night) to finish (we're talking 3AM some nights...). The course itself is moderately interesting...The course is basically an arts/science course, which feels so different from what I'm used to. It's not very technical or math intensive and it focuses more on a very general overview of the material. This is good and bad: good because it's very easy & not intensive and bad because it seems like such fluff.

It's almost over though, my exam is this sat and unfortunately, I just started studying for the final. Going to play soccer with Monty yeseterday wasn't such a great idea, because I became so tired that I didn't get any studying afterwards. Oh well, at least it was fun. I got to watch Tim and his crazy Costa Rican soccer skills. My fine cherry picking skills translated into 3 goals :)

back to studying....

-- Nelson

I know, I know, i should be posting more regularly...and so should the Boy Wonder. haha, j/k. But understandably, Mike is studying for MCAT's which should take precedence over anything else.

My weekend was fairly plain. I was trying to leave it sort of open to be flexible, so I didn't plan much at all going into it. Just had the Vince carter Charity game written down in my Clie for the whole weekend.

The Vince Carter charity game was ok. I was expecting Vince to do a little more than he did...maybe he's still taking it easy after the surgery, at least that's what I'm hoping. It was fairly entertaining overall though, with the Beale Street flippers at half time and Vince dancing after the game. Plus Vince promised that the fans wouldn't be disappointed with the raptors this year, but I have my reservations about the upcoming season. The team comes and goes with Vince and i'm not sure he can carry the team to success.

The activities after the game were really fun. We walked around downtown aimlessly for quite a bit of time. Patrick Ma brought a whole bunch of us to his work (where free coffee was had by some of us). There was actually a very large group watching the game, but we lost a lot of them afterward. I barely said hi to keith, barry, dan&cynthia and steph the whole night. We walked around very aimlessly until I hit upon the idea of going down to Peel Pub (and only one driver among us!). So we all walked over there only to find it was closed!!! wtf!!! It was still fun though, walking around downtown was cool b/c it was such a lively place. We bumped into Paul Min and he hung out with us the rest of the night too. We finally ended up at the Chapters beside Paramount and had a coffee. Overall the night was really fun (even though i fell asleep on the ride home...so tired...); I want to go back and just hang out/walk around down there again.

Spent most of sat with my sister. It's so sad, I'll only see my sister like 3 or 4 times a year for the next several years :( So I dragged her out to Cary's to clean out his tents. HA. Cary very generously offered her a labtop case (which she forgot there...can i pick it up sometime Cary?). At night, took my sis to see Austin Powers 3 w/ dano and C. I would describe the movie as very random. No plot, just a sequence of jokes held together with a thin plot. But what could I expect, right? Some of the jokes were really funny though (mostly toilet humour though, but still good). If they make another one, it's going to be really messed up.

Sunday was another workout day, where I showed how weak I was. Man, I was pathetic. I can't keep up with Matt... he works out at least three times a week, whereas I workout like once a week. Oh well, it was fun as always. This time we were making jokes about how Mike could actually workout with us now that we had 50 more pounds. haha.

After a really tiring workout, we (matt, carol, dan&cyn) went to the range, where i sucked even more. Man, I'm bad at golf. I have to do it more consistently if I want to get better. Each time I go to the range it's like I'm learning everything new again for the first time. I think Matt and Carol had a good time though. It was Matt's first time. And Cynthia brought her books, which made me very nervous b/c I also have an exam this week....and I haven't even completed the course yet!

Dinner with the family was at the restaurant where Diana's mom works, which we frequent fairly often. I still can't figure out which one is her mom yet... mostly because i haven't met her yet. My sister treated, because she is finally earning money. That was really nice of her.

On sun, rick and I decided to go out mountain biking again. We went back to Dagmar Resort, all the way out in Pickering/Ajax! Rick lost his speedometer last time we went, so we went back partly to go look for it (which we didn't find). This time we explored a lot more trails and took it kind of slow. Man, I'm so out of shape... it wasn't pretty on the trails. No major accidents this time, just small cuts and bruises. I think I wimp out too much on the trails. I take all the downhills so slowly, so i can remain in complete control. I literally ride the brakes on them. And I also end up walking a lot of the large uphills, because my stamina is so crappy. But in general, it was even more fun than last time. Can't wait till Mike is done his MCATs so we can take him too.

And to end my weekend, I did something that I used to do previous summers, but haven't been recently. I went out to see a late movie w/ Tim. Both of us hadn't seen Star Wars yet, so we checked that out at Colossus. Yes, it is still playing. I hadn't seen it b/c it was on no passes for the longest time (and i still have access to a crapload of passes). And of course Tim hadn't seen it yet because he was in Costa Rica.

I thought ep2 it was better than ep1, but still a tiny bit dissappointed. The technology was impressive though - everything looked super clear and clean, especially since I watched it in a digital theatre. Some scenes were very exciting to watch, like an early chase sequence and Jedi Knights in battle. The dialogue was fairly weak though, Lucas should have gotten someone else to write it. The acting was better (Hayden Christensen was better than I expected, but maybe it was b/c i had such low expectations) than the first one, but still not very good overall. But really, disregard what I've just said: the movie was definitely saved by Yoda. I think my jaw dropped when he brought out his light saber and fought Count Dooku. That scene alone is worth the price of admission (in my case, that's $4 :) ).

Well better get back to studying... still have to start studying for my exam on sat.

Lates.

--Nelson

Yeah yeah, I know I haven't been posting regularly (nels, I told you early on that you're the main star of the show, I'm just playing Robin here). I've been kinda bogged down with MCATs and lately with my grandma's deteriorating health. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me through it.

For the past while, there has been a lot of relatives calling to see how my grandma is. One of my several aunts in Ottawa came down to see my grandma and it was really nice of her to come down. My aunt also brought along her grandkids (this makes sense cuz she's the elder sister, my mom's the youngest and no, it doesn' t make me old). Anyway, my two neices are pretty cute. The older one is Connie and she's 8. I'm quite impressed at how well she's playing the piano (I'd like to think I had some part in that). The younger sister is Sarah, or as she likes to pronounce it, "Sawah". She kinda like Elmer Fudd in that she doesn't pronounce her "r"s properly. So it's really funny when she talks.

Well, tonights the Vince Carter Charity Game! I'm looking forward to some high flying dunks and hope that our seats are good. Can't wait to see all my buds there! Gonna be a fun night!

-Mike