To be honest, I’m a bit depressed about the coming teaching job. I just couldn’t get started with the lecture preparation. I find that the material (at least the first half of the course) is just too difficult to teach, even though I like the concepts and stuff. I’ll have some difficult days ahead… In related news, I accidentally discovered that William is marking for this course…heh.

I moved into my new office today. The new office is worse than my old office, but whatever. I managed to rearrange the desks so that there’s a lot more free space now. Unfortunately the floor is pretty dirty, so I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep here often. The location is “in the midst of things”…so it’s not so quiet. But I guess that still beats having 8 URAs around. Now if only the lights can be fixed…

Walked to school today, only to find that my iPod is broken, apparently. Managed the move. Somehow or another couldn’t decide on a plan for food, so ended up being very hungry until Li Zhen took me home to eat. I haven’t been that hungry and tired for a while…didn’t like it. Received an intriguing email this evening about a part of my PhD thesis, which is something I really do not want to think about anymore… Ed and Ingrid had people (whom I don’t know) over for a bbq, except the weather turned bad and they went out to eat instead. Now they are just at home playing things while I lock (figuratively speaking) myself in my room, sitting on my bed, typing out this useless post.

So there was a trip to Toronto. The excuse this time is to help Gary move there. Well, it turned out to be much more, of course. Here’s what happened: Drove through traffic jam. Drop off Gary’s things. Drove to Wasabi. Lunch at Wasabi. Drove to Metro Square. Bought a ton of drinks. Bought some dumplings. Drove to Eglinton Square. Gary tried to deal with his cellphone things. Drove back to Gary’s place. Had some sleep. Said goodbye to Gary. Drove through some more traffic jams. Drove to T&T. Bought some more stuffs. Drove to Bubble Republic. Bought some bubble tea. Drove home while drinking the bubble tea. And that’s the way the day went…pretty tired after it all ended.

I’m about to start teaching on Monday, and I haven’t prepared a lecture. Meanwhile, I still don’t understand some concepts for this course, so that’s not a good sign at all. The draft of the first assignment was out today. I looked at that and thought, how can I teach enough to the students in 2 weeks for them to actually solve these problems on their own? That’s impossible! Oh well…I guess it’s going to be a long semester… Then there’s the thing about moving office and stuff…so bizarre. Anyway.

I was supposed to write some interesting stuffs for this paragraph, but in the middle of my thoughts, Ingrid came into my room to do some random useless thing (as usual), so now I don’t remember what the interesting stuffs were. Maybe next time.

There was a slightly disasterous event where I managed to pull my wallet out of my backpack only to find all the bills to be wet. Turns out that I didn’t properly cap my water bottle, and everything within its reach is wet… Good news: the bills can be dried up and the computer was not affected. Bad news: The valuable plastic KEM cards were screwed, although now I’m glad that I only opened up one deck of cards instead of two, so now I have a new deck to work with. It is pretty stupid to leave an open water bottle in a backpack…

Finally got a chance to go for an ice cream at the Marble Slab Creamery after seeing long line-ups day after day. We got there after Popeye’s (which is still good), and Roger and I each got a regular scoop with specialty cone. Conclusion: Most expensive ice cream ever. I had the cheesecake flavour with oreo cookies mixed in along with a cone dipped in dark chocolate. It was very good, and it was huge. Also, it cost $7. Worth it? I don’t know, it’s sort of like going to Red Lobster’s, you don’t go there every week, but maybe once a year as a treat or something.

Moved some big ticket items from Li Zhen’s place tonight. So now I got my own bed in my room! And because the bed is small, my room is so big now. Also temporarily donated my “manager’s chair” and my floor mat to the Wei household. Hmm… Anyway, more moving coming up.

I did my tax this morning, finally getting out of my old-fashioned past and submitted to the call of modern technology by filing (gasp!) online. Yes, I have always submitted by paper, and would have done so again, but apparently the software found a little more money than I did, so that’s a good thing? After the standard church, there was Costco, car care, and furniture building. Overall, extremely tired. Good news is, I got a variety of emergency food now.

Car care: Ed managed to get the rust off my car, and Ingrid vacuumed the inside of my car. So it’s like new again, except it’s not. I’m definitely the extreme passive type since I have left the rust on the car to bother me for over a year now, and Ed almost immediately went to work on it after I told him about the rust. I guess that’s why he is married with a house with a ton of furnitures, and I’m not.

Furniture building: So yeah, they bought more Ikea stuffs, and of course I would be there to help with the “easy” assembly (or so the wordless manual implied). So many times I wanted to say “screw this” (literally). I guess I’m not the assembly type person.

I guess I shouldn’t really write everyday, since my writing is usually boring, just like my daily life. Which shouldn’t really be like that. And I do too many run-on sentences. Oh well. I do find myself getting disinterested in what I do, even winning a poker game at Li Zhen’s place tonight wasn’t really enjoyable at all. Oh well.

I tried one of the (now apparently monthly) promotional satellite tournament to the Turbo Takedown which promises a top prize of $100K, or at least $90 if somehow or another 60% of the field is eliminated before you do. This time, though, they made the satellite tournament a super turbo, so it’s just mostly luck. Well, I got lucky in the beginning and middle stages, at one point sitting at 11th place, but things went sour afterwards and (of course) due to a disasterous river card, I was left with a 214th-place finish when 100 places win. That was pretty disappointing and I was exasperated. Having such a deep run yet coming up short. Even though they run the tournament 10 times, I didn’t have any desire to do it anymore. Maybe next month. Maybe.

Wild wild weather: It was super hot early this afternoon, which I didn’t know because I was confined to the house which was still a bit cold. Li Zhen showed up in t-shirt and shorts, signalling the high temperature out there. Turns out it was 28 degrees. Yikes. Anyway, went to Home Depot to get some bricks for Li Zhen without playing a real game of brick breaker. Came back to Li Zhen’s place only to find the clouds getting darker and darker, eventually turning into a full thunderstorm. I quickly tried to drive back home, only to come across huge wind, huge rain, and huge thunders. I even had to avoid tree branches that were crossing the street under very low visibility. And the brief seconds getting from my car to the front door got me totally wet. There was also a rumour about a tornado going around, which I would totally believe. Anyway, the freak storm was over in a couple of hours while I sleep at home. Wacky weather.

So much for trying to write everyday…I was too tired last night from (a) walking to and from school, totally >90 mins and (b) playing with Gary. At least it fixed my unusual sleep schedule and woke up at 6 this morning.

So there was a big meeting with the engineering people with the postdoc project. I was mainly just sitting there doing nothing while supervisor sweat it out. Still felt pretty uncomfortable with the entire thing. Good thing: I got paid yesterday, and now I’m rich! Well, not really.

Hmm…either I’m sick or this room is so stuffy that I can’t breathe properly…

It’s so weird to be inspired to write after reading a poker player’s blog. Granted, he writes good, and I write bad. But whatever. I’ll make myself write something everyday, and surely there are at least 3 things I can write about each day, right? Right? Hmm…maybe that’s a trick question. Anyway, still on the subject of poker, my downswing continued, and as a result, I played a lot less. Tonight I suddenly was in a mood to play an 8-game sng, which I still find quite frustrating to play, but it’s better than pure HE. Somehow I managed to get 2nd for a little profit, and bring my account to over $50 again. Still a massive downswing considering that I started the year with $100. Oh well.

Had a supervisor meeting today, and worked night and day to get a report done. It was just a pain to write it, which is why I delayed the actual writing for two weeks… But a meeting is more than enough motivation to get it done with very little sleep. It’s been a while since feeling this tired without physical activities. At least the report had very interesting pictures with animals and stuff…so supervisor was pleased. Tomorrow’s meeting with the engineering people will be daunting…

In other news, my life is a wreck.

So the short trip to Saskatoon is coming to an end. A few things learned… First, kids change minds a lot. Prime example is when Roger brought out Stitch, Joanne initially loved it, then immediately rejected it because Stitch has a tail! But a couple of days later, Joanne loved it again! I have no idea what goes through a kid’s head…

Second, kids have too much energy, jumping all around when they are awake, but really moody when they are sleepy. I can’t keep up with Joanne for sure. Good thing Roger could and I just let him play with Joanne while I sleep…heh.

Third, ice cream is a big thing here, apparently. Or maybe we just ate too much ice cream. But all good ice cream. And we probably ate too much of everything anyway. And who knew it would be snowing the last day we’re here.

Elite sucks: There are certain priviledges that come with being an AC Elite member. Well, that is, if I know how to use them… First, there is supposed to be a special check-in line, which I couldn’t find…so I ended up in a short line up that took forever to proceed. Then there’s the lounge, which is ok, and I guess it’s better to wait here than to wait at the gate. I supposedly get priority boarding, but that would leave Roger behind, and going to the front when people lined up felt really awkward, so I didn’t do it. After landing, I thought my Elite luggage tag would mean that my luggage would be one of the first ones to come out…comically, it was the last one out. I’m not complaining or anything, I just find it all pretty funny.

First day in Saskatoon: All I can say is, I scare kids.

Facebook: I thought it was funny when a student from my linear algebra class last semester added me on facebook…though later he admitted that it was a computerized routine add…so, nothing special.

Wooo…the Maple Leaf Lounge at Toronto’s airport… It’s not too bad, but I couldn’t eat or drink much due to a prior visit to Bubble Republic… Oh well. Probably not worth the $35 that they are charging random people for it, but always nice to get in for free.

In other news, why do I always do things that I did not agree to do?

Off to Saskatoon!