December 2006

December 29, 2006

    To pick up from where I left off last time I'll start by talking about the events of the 27th. During the day I warmed up for and then later attended an event known as Annilude and while I don't fancy the name I did support the cause which was raising money to fight a known disease. The event was in the form of a soccer tournament. It was good times and well run. Our team placed 7th of 8. Not bad for having limited soccer experience on our roster. This was the second charity event for this disease that I attended over the holidays. Earlier I went to a charity poker game. All proceeds went towards fighting the disease except for the fact that the winner got his money back. It was good also. So back to the soccer tourney. It provided an opportunity for us to co-mingle with many friends that we don't often see, especially outside of a bar setting. It was good to catch up. The reunion of sorts continued that night at the Stag and Doe for Wade and Erryn. I don't yet know how they did but it seemed to a good time for most. Brown came out of hiding to join in the fun. I didn't dance or get to the drinking but I did see many people and we enjoyed catching up with many people. Yesterday was Cote's house warming party. I elected not to go, as did Dave. He is off to Ottawa to see his Nicole for New Year's. That should be a good party there as well. I went to see an old friend last night, rather late. I met her boyfriend and we watched a film and then reminisced until the wee hours. I'm rather tired today but I anticipate the chance to go out on the town tonight. Maybe fate will lead me elsewhere, hopefully back to bed but on the chance that it doesn't I could be out late, so don't wait up, Phillips out.

December 26, 2006

    Boxing Day, what a weird name for a pseudo-holiday. From my understanding it comes from the tradition of returning gifts by boxing them up and taking them into the store of purchase origin. Or maybe it has more to do with the fact that people go and buy the excess supply of Christmas gifts and cart them to their hovels in boxes. Either way I find it to be a strange name for the holiday. For many people it should probably be called hangover day. Whatever you want to call it, I was there. Right in the thick of the most capitalistic venue, Wal-Mart. In the second possible tradition of the "holiday" people go and buy up gifts and such at a reduced price. This usually includes stock of the store that was brought in from Christmas and was not sold. Such is in the past now. Many large retail outlets have begun to bring in product simply for their various sales. Wal-Mart and DVD videos have this relationship. I can't say that I support it from a theoretical point of view but in terms of a monetary angle I'm supportive, probably more than I should be. I was there when the local store opened at 6am for those psychotic enough to be there, actual lines were formed outside the store I'm told. I got there some 90 minutes later to purchase a gift for my uncle that because of a misunderstanding was not purchased previous. I got a good deal for him and was able to buy more than anticipated.

    The past week leading up to Christmas were spent running to and fro appointments. I've had a butt-load of dental work done so far and that is not likely to lighten in the next little while. A physical from my doctor revealed a healthy boy. It was weird as I hadn't seen her in like 8 years. We had to re-introduce ourselves. She was impressed with my medical knowledge and understanding of any concerns that she might have for me. Christmas eve was spent with my mom's side of the family and a delightful dinner was had. The next night was spent with the Phillips side and was a precursor of things to come. A huge meal with a large guest list. The next night, the list was expanded further as was the amount of food that was present. It was a good time for everyone and I got to see the most of my cousins on that side, which is fairly rare. So that brings us to the current time, post supper on Boxing Day. I'm tired and well fed. The time in between the meals was spent primarily at home enjoying my gifts and relaxing, which seems to be the flavour of the season. Hopefully more comes in the future. Until my next disjointed and rambling encounter with the internet I can only say, Phillips out.

December 19, 2006

    Today is John Phillips' birthday, if you know him then tell him about it. If not, then why don't you know him? Anyways, I've been away from all this for a while, about a week I'd say. That is because I was making the inevitable transition from undergraduate exam writer to newly finished lazy bum. The laziness is perhaps the primary catalyst to me not doing any posts. That and I've been transported to my childhood home. Things have been pretty busy here for the last few days and the wind and grind of everyday activity is something I haven't felt in the past few months. I did feel it during school but it was different because everything was part of a routine. I'm a man who enjoys his routine, those that know me can vouch for that. My attitude is that if it's not broke then don't fix it. That somehow includes the food I order at certain restaurants as well. Once I get into a way of doing things that suits me, I don't often change. People commonly refer to this type of hard fast routine a rut. I prefer to acknowledge it differently, I like to think I've attained such a perfection in my methods that I don't need to change or tinker with anything. It's much more satisfying to think of one's self as having reached a perfect or almost euphoric state of being. I know I'm not there but my routine could be. Think about it, am I wrong? How would know? It's too subjective for you to know. Either way, any loose rhetoric aside, I'm almost done my shopping, I have only to buy for my grandmother. She is the toughest but also the easiest. If I get what she wants then it is the easiest but I think she suggested it to make it easy and it may not be her number one choice of gift although I'm sure it would please her. A second problem with it is that she will be expecting that and I pride myself of unexpected gifts, at least part of the time. It will be a mental battle to select something that is both useful and aesthetically pleasing. I'll leave town and the answer will come to me in a dream, that will be done in the next couple of days. Until then, enjoy this trivial tidbit of insight into my wild and unruly imagination. Phillips out.

December 12, 2006

    I've been adventuring the last couple of days and I have to say that it has been good to get out and about. After my exam on Saturday I met up with Rich and we attempted to get our hair length reduced. We headed to our spot and were met by a crowd of little brats and their parents. Who knew Saturday was big for father - son haircuts. Either way, we made the best of it by hitting Staples and getting Rich's phone back from his friend. We eventually got home and proceeded from there. Sunday was neat also, Phil made a rare appearance and we watched sports, studied, and got supper. We watched a film and some confusion resulted between Rich, Brown and I and there was a complication and some hurt feelings. It was water under the bridge the next day though and Rich, Brown and I made a voyage of errand running and then going to see Adam's restaurant. We ate good meals and had some laughs. The good times continued when the floor manager made our meal free. Rich only had to pay for his beer. We moved on to Future Shop where I had intended to buy a new stereo (for my room) and Rich and I had hoped to goad Brown into buying an Xbox 360. While neither happened, we did have fun. We then proceeded to Will's for a random drop in visit. We amused each other with quick wit and inappropriate conversation for quite some time before we turned back to Guelph. A stop at Blockbuster yielded some new releases and we partook of Beerfest when we got home. It was good, strangely good. Today Rich and I finally got our haircuts (on the third try) and Rich managed to get all his Christmas shopping done, on a budget might I add. All in all it has been a good couple days and enjoyable as well. The books need to be hit harder now so I will part ways with my virtual audience at this point. Phillips out.

December 9, 2006

    I'm more than half way through these dastardly exams and I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel which in my case is a very, very bad thing. When I sense the end of something is near I tend to lose focus on the task at hand and begin to dream about the life beyond the task. I'm spending my time thinking about the good life I'll be reveling in for the next few months rather than the two exams I have left. That is fine for now as I don't have to really get going on them until the start of the week and even then there is not a pressing need to get on that. I have until Friday. In a perfect world I would have the bulk of my work done by the Friday but we all know that is not my game. I did find out about the one major paper I had to write today. I got an 83 on it. Not bad for starting it at eight the night before it was due. I'm good at what I do and there nothing wrong with that. The problem lies on my reliance of last minute heroics. Oh well, it makes it exciting for the fans I guess. I wrote my hardest exam today. I know I got six of the eight questions and I'm sure I put up enough of a fight on the other two that I'll be getting partial credit. I'm still pretty worried about the outcome of that class though. The rest of my courses didn't seem worthy. They just didn't seem hard, I guess the prof did a better job than I'm used to because I have vast amounts of knowledge on previously unknown subjects but I feel like I didn't have to strain to get it. That is what school should be like. Forcing students to slave over papers and assignments is not effective. Most of the time students simply prepare responses that are correct and processed. Half the papers I wrote I have no idea what they're about, I just research what I need to say and find other people who said it already and then I use their arguments (properly cited) to make me look good. Either way, this is not a commentary on the education system it is a sporadic update on my well-being which at this time is: I'm good, little worried, but otherwise doing well. And with that; Phillips out.

December 5, 2006

    Huge day today. I kicked off my final exam experience with my Weed Science exam. It went swimmingly. I would be hard-pressed to score under 90% on that exam. My next endeavour is Fruit Crops on Thursday. Time is just flying by, soon I'll on my way home. Back to the good life, actually to the good life for the first time since I was three years old. My new methods of studying for exams is really working wonders for me, I won't reveal my secret but it is awesome. I hope the rest of my testing goes as well as the one tonight went. Earlier in the day, and I do mean early, I went shopping at Shopper's Drug Mart for my groceries for the next couple of days. I think I would be dead without that place. I can't wait until the Food Basics opens in the summer, it should be a god-send. Anyways, I shopped and then returned and learned for a while then I had lunch, unstopped the upstairs drain now that Maggie (the potential cause) has moved out. Now when we shower it won't turn into a bath. Rich and I watched some television and then both went back to work. He's been awake for 2 days straight now. All of this exams are early in the week and many are of the take home variety, plus a huge paper was due. He's been going hard so I bought him an energy drink. I'm a good guy like that. I ate all my sandwiches, they were delicious. I can't think of much else to say and I'm trying to watch the House so I'll end it here. Phillips out.

December 3, 2006

    Good day. I'm coming off one of my best evenings in a long time. I spent most of the day yesterday day cleaning the main floor of our home here. I get domestic sometimes and just clean really hard. While I was cleaning I listened to traditional Christmas carols. This is always fun as it reminds me that I'm getting closer to Christmas which is not only a wicked awesome holiday but it happens after exams and as such exams are coming on and will soon be over. For some sick reason I'm really pumped up and looking forward to exams this year. It could be because I've improved at exam writing and I'm doing well in all my courses or it could be that I'm on the verge of completing my undergraduate degree and have nothing but 3 months of bliss to look forward to. Either way, I can wait until Dec 16th, the day after the last two. It is an exciting time. Back on track though. Rich and I collaborated on a huge meal last night also. I made pasta and meat sauce and he prepared some meatballs, that's right meat sauce and meatballs. It was very meaty. The left over sauce will be used in a rice casserole I'm making today and the rest will be eaten as leftovers as is (with prego). On the business of food I have a further announcement. I've been wanting to try something for a long time and I finally found the courage to do it. I ordered a platter of sandwiches from Subway. It's not that expensive and I plan for it to feed me for several days. It will be an interesting experiment. I only asked for one of the seven choices of sandwich, cold cut trio. I figured it would be the cheapest. I'm very intrigued at the possibilities that this move could open. Either way, as we were eating our meat feast we watched the Big Lebowski. I'd never seen it, good movie, really enjoyed it. Afterwards I downloaded some music. I got a couple of songs that I've been after for a long time, including my favourite Christmas song, Carol of the Bells. I had to do some research to find out what it was called and knowing that it was in Home Alone I checked the soundtrack. It took some doing and some moves but I got it done. I really enjoyed that. I went to sleep not long after that. Today is a rest day before the studying begins. Let's hope all goes well, I'll likely see you back here on Wednesday. Good tidings to you and your kin. Phillips out.

December 1, 2006

    I missed a half a month of posting. Holy crap, that's like 5 posts that I just didn't do. I hope those of you that check frequently didn't give up on me. It was just a reflection of my life. I didn't have time for anything, not even the slightest thing. I haven't even been able to get my hair cut. The last time I stopped by here I was telling y'all about the party I had gone to. Since then the only non-school related things I've been doing have been watching Rich play Scarface on the Xbox and going to Shopper's. Even some of those trips were school related. I managed to get all my work done except for the short paper I have to write by five today. I only have two other short assignments to do after that and I'm fully done the class portion of my undergrad. Yesterday I managed to apply to graduate and I booked an appointment for grad photos. I blame Aunt Beth and her constant encouragement for that one. I'll be captured on film sometime later in January. I also met with the head of graduate admissions for Plant Agriculture this week. He was very impressed with my preparedness and with me in general. It went well, I'll be applying early in the new year for entry in the fall, it looks good. I only had one presentation this year, and it wasn't even a group project. I guess I did all the important ones last year when I did around 12 or 14 group projects and presentations. I got an 80 on my poster presentation and for anyone interested it will be on display in the Bovey Building for some time. I have five exams on the horizon but I imagine I'll be on here more frequently as they are all I have to do. No more class! So I can't think of much more to say at this juncture other than to quickly describe my experience in the Tug for Tots charity event. This event was set up by the OAC 2008 aggie class. They got two tractors donated for the day and accepted teams of 8 with an admission fee of at least $250. They got 30 teams registered. Each team pulls both the tractors, so two teams each pull a tractor then they switch and pull the other tractor. The distance to pull is 150 feet. I was a last minute addition to the 2007 class' Heavyweight team. Our first pull was on the more than 16000 pound tractor. We pulled it the distance in 34 seconds. After some huffing and puffing and about 8 minutes we lined up to pull the second tractor. We pulled the lighter of the two down the track in 28 seconds for the best time to that point. I slipped and cut my knee in the first pull, it is a pretty gross looking wound, but I did manage to get up and finish the pull. The Police had a team of hulks that pulled last and upset us. We eventually finished third. I won a hat and a ribbon but I didn't stick around to pull again in the finals. I had to get home as per the arrangement to work on my assignments. It was a good time and then exceeded their fundraising goal of $4000 by raising over $12000. My hat is off to the 08's as it was a well run and enjoyable event. Nice work. Phillips out.

November 2006

November 16, 2006

    It's early in the day and I'm struggling to get my mind in gear. I still haven't found my drive although desperation and stress are replacing it nicely. I'm fully motivated right now at this moment to have a weekend of hard work and get everything done. I had to pull out on Dave and Will because I didn't get anything done while I was sick, in fact I missed a couple of things that I now have to catch up on. Good times, adding things to a full plate. I'm starting to see the light and realize that only a few weeks of hard work and I'll be clear of this mind fogging tunnel. I got a taste of freedom last night and yesterday afternoon. I was slated to go to a potluck dinner with some friends who decided it would be a hippie (or is it hippy? I don't know or care.) theme. That really idea prompted them to really put the pot in potluck. While I knew which baking to avoid, it seemed to matter little. Joanne's boyfriend, Charlie was there and he is a wealthy Brit. When the beer ran out he wanted to keep things going so he dialed a bottle and ordered 100 Shlitz. It was a huge splash. I got out of there before and pot was consumed or otherwise taken in. I did enjoy the food and the company. Poor Gordo wore his suit as we had planned to do that together in order to show that we weren't the free spirits that some were. I didn't feel up to it due to my sickness so poor Gordo showed up dressed to the nines while I wore only jeans and casual shirt. He stuck out like a sore thumb. It was a good time though. I had to walk partially home in the rain which was less fun but eventually I did get the bus. I managed to beat Brown and Laura here which was impressive I felt. I've got a full day of school to get to so I'll move along and let the rest of you do the same, stay tuned for more. Phillips out.

November 13, 2006

    The whirlwind surrounding the Social Mixer that was D is starting to die down. I would say that the D could stand for dumb or maybe delight. I think in this case it should stand for both. The party was a delight in the respect that we all had a really good time until the dumbness started. The whole story is laid out and I have to go back to my previous point that drunk people are stupid. One other malady was born that night also. It was the beginnings of a cold in the surly chests of Rich, Tal and I. We all spent today just laid right out on the furniture in the living room. None of us moved all day. It was a pathetic and necessary. We ended up watching the Rocket and Brick. It was rather entertaining, if not useless. The cold did not subside. Rich and I traveled to Shoppers to get drugs to chemically assault the illness, we'll find out tomorrow if it worked. Sunday was spent doing work and watching football, mostly football but I did get a huge start done on my Fruit Crop Poster assignment. I found 26 articles on my topic that I also chose. Hopefully I find some time to get into that in the remainder of the week. My drive for academic success is waning slightly right now. This undergrad is sucking the vitality from my bones and the spirit from my soul. I can only take solace in the fact that it can only torment me directly for a few more short weeks. I haven't done much in the last few days so I don't have much to mention. I hope things pick up and I find my drive to destroy school again, my school mojo as it were. Here's hoping. Phillips out.

November 11, 2006

    Today was Remembrance Day. I celebrated it by having a moment of silence in my room for over a minute then listening to Amazing Grace in silence. This was the same thing I did last year with Dave but no one else was awake in the house to participate this year. I'll work backwards this time in recounting my adventures. I just got back from having dinner with the Mayor and his wife. Phil accompanied, being their son and all. We dined at Casey's after Phil had gotten his fill of supplies from the grocer. It was a good solid feed, I had the usual from there, the Clubhouse. It's good, try it some time like right now! Anyways before that I had sat for an hour dejected in my garage waiting for a bunch of guys to come and play sports just like they had all raved about the night before. Guess they're pretty unreliable at best. That was the third death of Sports Saturday and I think that one finally killed it to death. I'm washing my hands of it in the future. While sitting, enraged in the garage, I began to lift the weights. I pumped iron somehow and my arms are now sore. Random work-outs while soothing at the time can later be painful. The morning was spent tip-toeing around the house in a sleep-deprived state. I did manage to create my first Facebook group. It was in celebration of the previous night. I stopped my movement around noon to watch the movie Brick, good movie. You have no idea what is going on until the very end. I like it when that happens, when I can't solve it like I do to those five minute mysteries in the back of Reader's Digest. The previous night was the reason for my lack of sleep. The real reason is Social Mixer D. It was a festival of laughs, witty banter, and of course, drunkenness. A select few unwelcome guests caused some ruckus that put a bad taste in the mouths of many at the end of the night. I was in bed by the time that happened. I learned some things at that party. One thing is that I know some really funny people. You can have a really fun time sober when you know a lot of people at the venue. Drunk people are stupid and can't understand simple concepts. The police are liars and fines eat profits. Other than that I would say it was a good time had by most. The whole of the day Friday was spent in the living room with Tal and Rich, just laughing it up and watching Rich play video games. It was a good weekend so far. I have to start my major poster and genetics manuscript tomorrow. I hope to have a lot of work done by the end of the week so that I can go and see Dave next weekend in London with Will. It's all hypothetical right now but discussions will be had on Skype to move things along. If you don't have it, get it and add me. It's so much better than MSN Messenger. Phillips out.

November 8, 2006

    What a day I had yesterday. It was wild, fun, sad, frustrating, scary, and revealing. I'll attempt to address all of the adjectives as they come up in my tale of adventure and misadventure. I started the day off with Brown coming into my room. It was the first day off he'd had in a long time. He was going to his one class and then coming to pick me up for a day of good times and errands. He got back as scheduled. We headed up to an express oil change place to get his car done. That went well, couldn't have gone better in fact. While sitting there waiting we saw a guy go by in a wheelchair but he was using his legs as well as his arms to propel himself, I thought that was slightly curious. We stopped at Value Village near by to get some good gifts for Phil's roomies who were having a birthday this week. The gifts were awesome and wild and fun could be used to describe the shopping experience. Next we went for lunch at A&W. It was very good. This was about the time when things began to unravel. While driving to our next stop we struck a car. This lead to a stupidly long wait and investigation by the police. It was very incontinent more than anything. No one was hurt and minor damage was done to both vehicles, while most of it was cosmetic the other party insisted on being stupid about everything. Charges were laid on Brown and we went on our way. I don't want to get into it, that is where sad and frustrating came in. Scary was how the other party acted for the whole thing. It frightens me that humans can act in such a manner. Again though, no desire to discuss that in detail. We completed our errands at CIBC bank, Staples business Depot, Blockbuster and finally Zehr's. Arriving home I ate my meager supper and settled in to watch television and movies. I like to watch Friday Night Lights on NBC as mentioned last week and then the House on FOX, as mentioned also. I did these things. Just as the House was wrapping things up I got a call from my landlord, the Burton, Scott Burton. He informed me that I had an unhappy camper on my hands. This was news to me but not totally unexpected. Maggie had been requesting a copy of the lease for a while now. I figured she wanted to confirm that she couldn't have pets (such as cats or dogs). I was wrong, she wanted to find a way out of the lease. That was revealing. Apparently she is stressed too much by living here, she didn't explain much and I'll respect that her reasons are her own. When I had found out I intercommed Brown and set up a secret meeting. Rich came home just in time and we three conspirators headed to the basement (luring Rich with false hopes of going to Shopper's afterwards). We talked to Lara then heard Maggie in the kitchen so we beckoned her down and discussed the whole thing. I called Scott back to let him know what was going on no more than 15 minutes later. As always he was impressed with our efficiency. I pride myself on it, being the speaker of the house (representative). Either way she is going to pay whether she lives here or finds someone else so everyone's behind is covered. That was an exciting day, today was less so, homework and school dominated. That is where we are. Phillips out.

November 5, 2006

    I would have had an entry for yesterday except that I didn't have the internet in the middle of a field in Essex county. I tasted the underbelly of the earth that day. It tasted desolate. I saw the biggest fool I've ever seen. The land that the farmer grew the plot we were harvesting on was over ten feet of pure black muck. It was re-claimed land from lake St Clair. Black as witch's heart. You would think that it would be weedy. It was weedy, lamb's quarter (Chenopodium album) that was over 12 feet high, a good two feet higher than the corn. Why? The farmer felt that spraying would be too expensive and wouldn't be worth the cost. His average yield from the year before on the same land (different part of the field) was around 230 bu/ac. This year he'll be lucky to hit 200 bu/ac. Current price of corn in that region is $3.30/bu. That would make a rough difference of around $100/ac. The spray program suggested to him was $30/ac. Huh, well I guess he should have sprayed. That just blew my mind. We spent 7 hours doing a 2 hour job because of break downs. I don't care, I get paid either way, and by the hour to boot. It was a long day for sure, started at 7 am and continued until I got home at 9 pm. When I got up I tried not to wake Nicole who had to unexpected spend the night due to a car failure on her way to go see Dave. I didn't get to talk to her but I hope it all works out. She was gone by the time I got back, to London no doubt. Either way, I had a long day yesterday, aced my quiz and cleaned the house on Friday and generally just lived life on Thursday. Hopefully everyone else is having a wicked awesome weekend. Phillips out.

November 2, 2006

    Alright, two days in a row, gotta streak going here. If I do it again tomorrow that is called a winning streak, it has happened before. That is Lou from Major League II, one of the classics from my generation. So I'm home today, well in Guelph at home I guess would be more clear. I've decided that today I can take a break from school. Mainly cause I have all the notes for the classes and don't like guest lectures that much so I'm home. I'm actually getting some things done that I've wanted to do for a long time. I've done some cleaning and whatnot in my room and I've had an unhealthy breakfast, far worse than McDonald's. I'll leave that to your imaginations. So what have I done with my life these past couple of hours. Well after I left off yesterday I made bold move into the living room and sat down and watched Rich play Star Wars. We went to Shopper's after a while and bought some crappy food and then returned. When the smoke cleared it was after ten pm and he'd logged more than nine hours at the helm. It was magic, like watching a movie where you choose everything but the overall story arc. It's beautiful. We love it. Brown finally came home last night too. He was MIA for a time yesterday when his work called and asked me where he was and I asked them right back. I made the mistake of asking Laura, his girlfriend, where he was. She got really worried, and we were worried. She called his work and he was there by then, I guess he got caught in traffic or something but there was a lot of worrying going on. So moving on then, today something pretty huge happened. Megan, you know it.....Guelph is number one again. Every year Maclean's magazine puts out this huge survey of all the university's in Canada, my first two years we were number one, then Waterloo, my sister Megan's school, took the title for two years. Now we're back on top. You know it. There is a small rivalry between us that results in some good natured chiding and some clothing purchases for our family. So far she's won that battle as my parents seem to purposely put on the Waterloo clothes when we're home. I guess the Guelph stuff is just too classy to be worn for everyday occurrences. It's more for special occasions I suppose. I hope to see some Guelph stuff come Christmas, that means you parents. I didn't drop $250 in that gift shop for nothing. So my school is the best and as I said yesterday, I'm a champ. Drink milk, love life baby. Mike watch out for your corn-hole good buddy and enjoy Costa Rica. Phillips out.

November 1, 2006

    New month started today, how exciting. Now I can look forward to starting to write October at the top of all my pages and then realize that it is now November. This syndrome generally lasts several days until my idiot brain realizes that the month has changed for real. I guess the months are too short, as soon as I get used to what month we're in it goes and changes on me. Huh, I wonder how the month we deciphered. This has been a question that I've pondered for a long time. Not the months themselves. I used to know how they were established. I do know the names of the days of the week are based off Celtic gods. Thursday = Thor's Day, Friday = Freyja's Day, etc. Sunday is named after the sun I suspect, not much of a stretch on that one though. Moving back to the question at hand though, I know how we chose these things but why is a different question. I'm something of an amateur history reader guy so I know that many early civilizations had their own ways of measuring time. Why have we conformed to just one. I know the Chinese do their own thing to an extent but globally the calendar is pretty much set. I guess it makes things run more smoothly but it also shows that globalization started a long time ago. This type of question always stirs my imagination and curiosity. Why do we measure time the way we do, how different would the world be if we did it some other way. The same can be said for religion. I often wonder what it would be like if Christianity had been destroyed before Jesus was up on the old cross. That would be something, probably a whole different world for better or worse. It's these questions that provoke me to buy books on subjects of this nature. Conspiracy stuff and the like also falls under this realm of my wild imagination. That is why I asked for and received the Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Hidden History (eventually) for my birthday. Brown finally delivered on that one. I look forward to this read, maybe after exams. Well, whatever month it is and why ever we chose to do it this way, I'm still here and I finally got what I wanted. Just goes to show that I'm a champ or something. Phillips out.

October 2006

October 31, 2006

    Midterms round one is finally over officially. I hope I did alright considering this is the last round for me. Probably ever. I came home from midterm to do nothing for the rest of the day. I had planned on studying for something or other but I didn't. Instead I've succumbed to the evils of television. I had a rather sparse dinner which followed a ridiculously large lunch that was prepared and eaten late in the afternoon. I watched some television whilst eating my repast and then decided to forgo the learning for the afternoon by getting involved with watching Rich play Xbox, something we've been doing lately. He plays Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and I excitedly watch. I suppose we're both huge nerds at heart. At least I'm only watching. After he left for school I made my way up to the loftier regions of the domicile.  Once there I partook briefly of the internet. I made some moves on Facebook, indecipherable moves. I did some email and I may have even made a phone call or two although the details of which are sketchy at best. Maybe I didn't, I don't really remember. Whatever. So pretty much I dicked around until eight in the pm. At such time I turned on the idiot box and observed the happenings of the show Friday Night Lights on the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). It was a good program, very entertaining. This was followed by the triumphant return of the House. It was alright I guess, decent twists and turns and House had returned more to form, that being a sadistic sociopath. That was on the FOX broadcasting network. Notice the commonality and similarity of the last two links. Just mouse over them and look at the bottom of your browser. I found that slightly humourous. After the second program I called it a night and departed in the land of nod. Well technically I did this first, I don't know why my tenses are jumping around so much, do you? Either way, good luck, good night and you know it. Phillips out.

October 28, 2006

    Wow, what a day. By that I mean I just finished watching the Leaf game and it had a phenomenal finish. A shoot-out is generally excited but a tied shoot-out that goes for rounds upon rounds is just straight up nerve racking. I'm getting pretty far ahead of myself though. So Friday morning I woke up and headed for work. We left at 8am and I didn't get home from work until after 5pm. We didn't get everything we wanted to get done because of the rain but it couldn't be helped. Nature is not cooperating with agriculture this fall. Actually, its straight up wreaking havoc. Last night I put in some face time with the girls. The other two don't really bother with them at all so I figured I'd reach out. We watched some interesting television. I cashed out early so I could wake up early to do my thing that I do on Saturday mornings. It's not gross so stopping thinking that. I watch the Littlest Hobo on CTV at 7:30am on Saturdays. It was one of my favourite shows when I was a kid. I like it and I don't care what you say. I saw Brown briefly this morning which is getting to be unusual. I did some studying for my midterm coming up next week and I helped a guy find some references for a paper he's writing. In return he gave me a copy of last year's midterm for the class we have one in. It will come in handy. The rest of the day has been spent fooling in my time. I didn't want to go anywhere or do anything due to the dirty weather.  I had to take stuff down from the patio because the wind was tossing it around and making a huge noise. I'm hoping the wind will die down so I can get some sleep. So pretty much this weekend so far I've done nothing. Apparently there was a party tonight that I didn't get invited to in time. I probably wouldn't have gone but I would have appreciated the invite. These things happen I guess. Well, that about does it for this post. Phillips out.

October 25, 2006

    Today is Thursday. It is a lazy and slow day for Chase. He was supposed to go to some jerk lab in the morning but it was cancelled. This angered him. He went back to bed and slept through the better part of his afternoon classes. This action was rationalized by the fact that midterms are nearly over and those classes that have tested knowledge where the ones missed. I spent the remainder of the day lazing about; internetting and the like. Then out of no where the mayor via Phil contacted me and took me out for some dinner. I had already eaten but it was a light meal so off I went. After eating, the Mayor gave Phil the car and a bank card and sent him out to get groceries. We stayed at Phil's house. I got home that night and knew that I was going to have to work the next day. I knew this because earlier in the day I'd gotten the call asking me to work. It promises to be a long day tomorrow. Speaking of long days, Monday was quite long. I did find out that I did well on my midterm from last week and I aced a quiz. I did two midterms this week and I feel good about both of them. I gotta run, adventures to be had. Phillips out.

October 22, 2006

    I coming to you today at a ridiculously early hour. It is Sunday morning and I was awake at 5:30am. Why? I'm getting to that. So yesterday I had planned on spending a grueling day hitting the books. That got side-tracked slightly after lunch when I watched the Break-Up with the girls. They shared my sentiment of a stupid ending. It was a chick-flick gone wrong basically. When girls watch those movies they want to be left with a sense of hope that they too can one day fall in love and live that dramatic life with some Hollywood stud. This movie left them with reality and a sense of failure. It was a cruel twist put forth by the Hollywood "geniuses"; although the movie is selling. Either way that ate a huge part of my afternoon. The rest was spent cleaning my room, the kitchen, the living room, and "organizing my notes". I did clean up some stuff and put other things into binders but the real thing I worked on was when I found a book we wrote in high school. I scanned the whole thing and made a slideshow, its awesome. I had to get ready to go out though so I showered up and got dressed. Joanne got there right on time and we went out for supper. Cagney's was the choice. It was busy and I should have made a reservation but I didn't and we were seated right away but had to wait for the food. We had a good talk, well I did most of the talking I think. Either way, I was home by eight and I watched the game and did some light work. I got a call at 10pm from Brown. He wanted me to drive him to the airport in the morning and then drive the car back so he didn't have to pay to park. I agreed then asked the time, huge mistake, well not a mistake, just an over-sight. So that is the reason that I was up so early. Brown is heading to Jasper for an international conference on tourism. His way is paid as he is representing the University there. I hope the little guy has fun out there. I'll be picking him up later this week. So I'm pretty tired at the moment, I think I'll go back to bed....Phillips out.

October 20, 2006

    This is turning out to be a very good way to divert my attention from my work. I'll probably continue to post my thoughts in a continuous manner here for the duration of my midterm experience. It is my sister's birthday tomorrow and I likely won't be able to call her so I'll get her over the internet...Happy Birthday Lacey!!! She's 17, hard to believe. Seems like only yesterday she was hitting me in the shoulder with a baseball bat she could barely lift. Or maybe the time we were riding the three wheeler and someone accidentally pulled a wheelie and dumped both passengers off the back and almost crushed us to death. I remember tying her skates for her like it was yesterday. Where does the time go? Bob Seger asked this question years ago and it still stands unanswered, much the way I stand...boldly, sweating in the sun....felt like a million, felt like number one. That's something he and I have in common. My walk has purpose too Bob. Anyways, I got a call from my father today. All he could talk about was the car they saw that morning, he did happen to mention the weather conditions and the fact that they had been playing the Pacific. Must be rough. Hope everything is going well down there. And make sure you take lots of pictures.

    So I was supposed to do these two animal science papers. They're both 600 words max papers. They were due today so naturally I was starting them last night. I was really working hard too, I managed to get all of one done, the quality was lacking but it was done. I was working on the second one and I wanted to see if they had to be related in any form so I checked the course outline. Low and behold, I only had to have the proposals done. Much to my chagrin. I guess I'm ahead of the game now anyways. The TA responded to my papers by praising the finished one, saying it was good which was weird because I felt it was a crap pile. He really liked the proposal too. So that is what I did the last couple of days, that and study for my usual Friday quiz. I met with Phil and we played 31, he wanted me to mention how the last time we played I won 13 of 15 games. I don't know why he wanted that out there. Oh, he may have won 15 straight or something this week, before I broke the shutout at the buzzer. Either way, we had fun, that's about it....Phillips out.

October 18, 2006

    I'm coming to you live from the wild ride that is my midterm experience. Truth be told I only have five or six but their timing along with the timing of other assignments couldn't be worse, although I have caught a couple of breaks so far. Life hasn't been very exciting as a result. The only real news I can offer up at this time is that my parents have jet-setted down to California for a while. My youngest sister is with them and gets to celebrate her birthday down there. I hope everything is going well with them. I left a message on my father's phone but I doubt he brought that with him, what with his apparent fear of the new, tougher security regulations at airports. Speaking of airports, it seems that everyone my age that I know who is done or finishing up a last bit of school is just chomping at the bit to get on a plane and leave the country. After this semester I will know very few people in this fair city. Most have already departed in one fashion or another and those that haven't are planning to be gone as soon as they can. This saddens me slightly as I have had plans to stick around from the start. I guess there isn't a whole lot here for non-agricultural folk. For me, Guelph is the provincial hub for agriculture. I'll just have to take the hits as them come. And speaking of hits, back to the books for me, Phillips out.

October 14, 2006

    I'm back and I'm cold. My hand hurts too. Why, do you ask? Well let's just say that harvesting corn in the cold is hard on the hand. The ache is hardcore. So we went to work yesterday as forecasted and it was decent. The wind was really cold in the field and the temperature was also cold. The equipment all worked though and we took down two fairly substantial plots in one day. I was happy with our effort. We had an enjoyable lunch too at our old stomping grounds of Roseville. The food was good but proved to be too plentiful for me. Jeff and I paid the bill for the four of us and it gets worked into our hours or something, I didn't ask questions I just did it and it was good. I got home later than expected and had to hurriedly prepare for the dinner that I was to attend. For you see, the previous night the G-Force, a.k.a The G-Unit, a.k.a Gordo informed me that he and Christine were putting on a dinner for Joanne and I and I had no choice but to attend. He followed that with a statement about how he was not going to take any excuses. Bewildered I accepted, I still don't know what was going on but it was a good meal and interesting conversation. I overdressed for the occasion as I've shown that I'm developing quite a penchant for that type of shenanigan. I also wore slippers to and fro. It was a fun time for all. We left almost right after supper as Joanne had to do some school work and I had to hold down one of the chairs in my living room. I held it down until after nine, at which time I headed upstairs to make sure my bed didn't get away. I had to keep it under wraps until morning. Today thus far was spent getting breakfast with all the roomies, except Brown, at the Portly Penguin, getting groceries, playing pool and getting soaked by the rain. After that adventure I took off my wet clothes and lied down to read my weed science text. This was not a good idea as I spent an hour studying the backs of my eyelids. I found that more exciting than weeds. One final note I wish to share is that I was able to be up in time to watch the Littlest Hobo, which airs on Saturday mornings at 7:30am on CTV. It was the highlight of my day, that, and when the guy in the Brick truck waved back at me, that was funny too. That's all for today, Phillips out.

October 12, 2006

    Well it's here, winter has arrived, so now anyways. I'm personally glad to see it, although that tune could change come tomorrow when I go into work for my inaugural hourly shift. The plan is to hand harvest corn for the day. We'll see how that goes in the snow. I cut out of school earlier than usual today as my field trip was not to be. This after my morning field trip started out in disaster. My group was waiting patiently for the bus as we do every Thursday morning. For once our bus was on time and ready for us so we all boarded and got ready to go. Then the bus driver got a call and kicked us off the bus. Instead of us he took a group of food science students destined for a brewery tour. Turns out they never booked a bus and just wanted to hitch a ride whereas we had booked the bus and were on a strict time structure. So the bus comes back forty minutes later, did I mention that it was winter. We were all frozen and pissed off. So you're asking where was the professor, why didn't he make sense of this and take command. He showed up just after the bus left and then got a call on his cell and had some emergency to take care of. So he just took off and said he would meet us there, "meet us where?" we asked having no idea where we were going. He tossed us a map and told us what the farm was called. We were late, cold, and didn't get much from the tour. I was angry and then later relieved when I found out the other tour wasn't happening for me. When I got home I found that Brian had called and wants me to work tomorrow. We'll see how that goes in these blustery winterish days. I'll be back to report, until then.....Phillips out.

October 9, 2006

    Well, I've returned successfully from the Great White North. It was a topsy, turvy trip that included some chills, thrills, and even some spills. All in all I would say that it all turned out ok though. Let's put some pants on tight and just wade right on into it. The whole adventure began on Friday when Will came to pick up Chris and I. We all rode home in relative comfort and the trip was mainly uneventful. Some laughs were had and some interesting stories were told. It was fun. We got home fairly early, around 7:30pm. I had hoped that my sister Lacey would be available to collect me and bring me home but she was not, despite prior arrangements made by both me and my mother. This was to be the first of several disappointing moments involving transportation. I hung around the Hawken residence until Dave showed up in his snazzy Pontiac Montana that he had somehow rented for the weekend. This afforded me a chance to procure a ride home. The next day had a simple plan for the daylight hours. This included, visiting Grandma, hiking to our old fort, and playing football. We threw in getting water for Grandma because it needed to be done. The plan was executed flawlessly. We, consisting of Dave, Nicole, and myself, had a good nature hike before a splendid lunch that was prepared from scratch for us by Grandma. We then went to town to run some light errands. This involved Dave getting his haircut and us swiping some cones from the new Trow Engineering Building. The cones were put to good use in lining out a field to play some football on. The intended family game quickly became a university flavoured game when a bunch of guys from school showed up to play. It was a fun game and no real winner was decided. It was a real thrill for everyone involved. This was quickly followed by a huge meal and a quick departure on my part due to a transportation issue that arose. I spent the night in battling a headache and some chills. A bunch of water and a solid sleep freed from the hold that the flash sickness had over me. This meant that I was unable to see everyone that I had hoped to see but there is always next time. Sunday was spent copying old movies onto DVD and relaxing around the house. My parents, who had been away all this time, came back and we prepared for supper at the farm. It went well except for a slight spill of the dark meat, brought on by that wild beast Casey. After supper the family sat around and laughed it up for a few hours before we all went our separate ways. My way was to Kenabeek to see the Reid sisters. That was a good time, I stayed later than I should have but it was worth it. The next morning, ie today, we were off in that Montana of Dave's. The kids in the back watched movies I provided for the whole trip. It was slow at times but we made it. I took lots of pictures, ate lots of food and had an enjoyable time in the home land, as it turns out all of the criteria stated earlier were met. Did you find them all? Until next time, Phillips out.

October 3, 2006

    New month, started pretty slow. I have to admit I've settled into a nice little routine involving my schooling. I hope it can stay this relaxed. Speaking of relaxed brings me back to the weekend. It was a very relaxing time. Friday night I skipped out on the kegger that the boys held. I felt that was the best decision.  I did some reading for my courses and retired early to get ready for a big sports Saturday. It was supposed to be huge with people coming in from all over. I got ready and so did Rich, even though he was still drunk and looked like hell. We got the call at 11am that the boys would be on route at 11:15am and would be there around 11:30am. That hour came and went and Rich and I sat in our cleats and waited. We called after noon and found that boys had just decided they didn't want to come. This could be the final death of Sports Saturday. It's a black day. Either way, school has been taking up my time, I felt ill on Sunday and took Monday morning off to get better. I went to school all day today which brings us to our current perspective. I plan on attending a poker night tonight at my buddy's house and I have big plans for going home on Friday. Should be a nice little weekend. I don't know if I'll get the chance to post again before I go home but I'll make some kind of attempt. Until then, Phillips out.

September 2006

September 29, 2006

    Yesterday was a wild, unbridled blur. I woke up before  the sun again and caught the whirlwind that would become my day. I had two field trips scheduled, a multitude of class between them, a terrible, packed lunch, and a party to attend in the evening. The field trips went well, cold, but well. The class seemed to zip by and everything was in fast forward, everything but my head. My head ached all day and towards the end I started to feel ill in the stomach. By the time I got home I realized that there was no way I was going to a party. I arrived home freezing from the cold of the last field trip and bundled up in my warmest clothes. After a quick and light supper I planted myself on my armchair throne and knew I wouldn't be able to rise again until bed. I called and browned out of the party. The evening was spent laughing it up with Rich while he drank and watching assorted television. Maggie had a flock of friends over to watch Grey's Anatomy. They all huddled around the two kings in the armchairs to get their weekly fix of the program. It was a re-run. We all watched CSI as well. After this I went to bed to try and sleep off my woes. It worked surprisingly well. I truly feel refreshed physically. I'm still emotionally-not-in-a-good-realm today but I feel I'm getting closer to feeling better. There is a huge kegger tonight at an undisclosed location that many people are attending. I likely won't go but I wish them well. As for me, I have a series of meetings today with people I associate with. I have a meeting with Mr. Adam Brown, who lives a short 6 inches from me. That meeting was setup on a half hour phone call between us over the intercom. I don't remember what its for but its in a few minutes. I also have a meeting with Phil and Gordo to get my shirt back. I'm trying to set up a meeting with Joanne to apologize for skipping her party and to wish her well when she goes to England to visit her male friend. Either way, I have to eat before the Brown meeting so I'll close by wishing everyone well and hoping that the Kinch family is doing ok. Seriously, if there is anything at all that you need don't hesitate to ask, there is a group of us just an hour away that will do anything to help you. That is all for today, Phillips out.

September 27, 2006

    Today was both an emotionally and physically draining day for our hero, Chase Phillips. The physical part was definitely linked to the emotional portion but was also tied in with the fact that I had to rise before the sun. Everything started out like a regular Wednesday, I woke up got ready for school and went to my soils seminar. After that though, there were some significant differences. I cut out from school and came home and got in a suit, not just any suit, my funeral suit. For you see, there was a death in the family. On Sunday, Sept 24, 2006 our family lost its newest member. Arianna Louise Sandi Kinch lost her fight against leukemia. She fought most of the fight in silence without anyone knowing. The details of exactly what happened and why are still cloudy and will likely remain so for some time but the results of the events that unfolded that cool September evening will forever affect those directly involved. My heart goes out to the Kinch family, mother Barbara, father Al, sister Paula, brother Peter, and of course the mother and father of the princess turned angel, Lori and Shafi. They only had their child for six weeks before she was taken from them. I can speak for what transpired at the viewing as I was not there but I can say that it was a beautiful service. A loss such as this really sits with a person, it is something that doesn't leave the mind. For me personally, it brings back many memories of what happened in my own life not so many months ago when we lost our good friend and house-mate, Annie. Even now, as I write this transmission I'm still thinking about it and feeling the sense of loss. How can I feel the loss having never met Arianna? From the moment I saw the pictures from her birth and saw that she was real that is when she became a part of my life. It is unfair that we never got to meet. I feel robbed of that opportunity. After the service came the lunch, I was amazed at the strength of the Kinch family. I never thought people who suffered such a loss could be some composed or at least seem that composed. My hat is off to them. After the lunch and fellowship, everything wrapped up and we all went our separate ways. Once I got home to Guelph I settled in and will soon sleep. This Wednesday was unlike any other. Phillips out.

September 22, 2006

    As promised, I'm back, just like I said I would be back. Let's see; what has transpired in the last few revolutions around the moon? I went to London, which was way more of a city that I thought it would be. Homeless people and crack heads everywhere! Well not everywhere, mainly on this street called Dundas that Dave just happens to live near. His street is actually a bit quieter but still I wouldn't want to live there. His actual accommodations aren't bad. He's got a nice little cozy spot. I never found out if it was close to the school but I assume it must be because he mentioned that he could walk if need be. We had a delightful meal and then dropped Dave off to go about his business. The T and I returned back to Guelph. I prepared for the big day ahead as did he in his hotel room. Thursday was a long and trying day. My leg is getting worse and pissing me off more and more now. It's getting me worried that its broken now. I'm holding out of the chance that it's not. I wouldn't be able to walk if it were, right? Anyways, so Thursday was a long day. The T returned from his meeting and we got me some food. I used his wheels to do so. He left after that and was heading out before the sun was up this morning. He does that...wakes up early that is. I went to my one class and did the quiz. I feel that I did alright. After that I came home and started to relax. I'll be relaxing all weekend. There is a chance that Aunt Beth will be in town tomorrow and I might see her and Phil but if I don't then you know where to find me. Phillips out.

September 19, 2006

       Well today is Dave's birthday. As you may have seen, we've already celebrated his birth. I didn't get him a present but I did buy him supper on the weekend. His gift from Phil and I is still in the works. Neither one of us has really stepped up to the plate yet. I've been busy with school and having no car is also a problem. I went 14-2 on the weekend. Dave, Phil and I pick winners. Dave was 0-16 since he never picked and Phil was a consistent 9-7, just like last week. School is going well, I was able to get a huge start on my disease collection this week when my friend Adam Pfeffer and I traveled to Ayr, Ontario. We spent about an hour scouring the site looking for diseased plants and plant material. As we were preparing to depart we came across a Monsanto agronomist who helped us identify some of the diseases that we had discovered. It was very productive. I got back and took a ride with Brown to pay rent and utilities. We also visited Blockbuster while in the neighborhood. Pizza and Lucky Number Slevin ensued which was delightful. I followed that up with some blockbusterish genetics homework. That pretty much finished off the night for me, other than this endeavor of course. I've spoken with the Big T, Dave and Phil and plans are in the works for a quick dinner based road trip to London for tomorrow. Big T is down on business and has some stuff for the boys from home. His meeting is in London but he has to stay in Guelph. It should be a good time and I'm not in school when its slated to go down. I'll be sure to let everyone know how my first time in London goes. Probably not tomorrow or the next day, that being Thursday, the Thursday with 11 hours of class. Ya, I imagine I'll be pretty busy while that is going on. Anyways, until next time.....Phillips out.

September 17, 2006

    The first thing that I am obligated to start with is that there was some server trouble this past week. Our free provider crapped out on us and the all-mighty Wood stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun. He purchased his own web-space and is now an independent operator. I'm still riding his coat-tails though and I put forth many thanks for him letting me do so. I encourage all the readers to thank him as well in some form or another. Now we move along to the tale of two nights.

    Our good friend Chris arrived a day early for the huge party. We had some supper and some laughs and then I headed over to a friend's house to make cookies and watch some Grey's Anatomy. I figured I find out what all the hype was about. It was decent but I'm not hooked. I got home after midnight and found Brown awake. I visited briefly with him before hitting the hay. Saturday was a big day. We tried to have a birthday breakfast for Brown but all the places we tried to go were either closed or too busy. We ended up at Tim Horton's. It was not exciting. Sports Saturday was a huge success once we got back. We played soccer and football. It was the old kids against the younger kids. We won both games. Football saw a slight team alteration as we traded a Hawken for a Hawken. We came back and showered up for supper which was had at Angel's Diner. We drove to the LCBO (six of us in a small car) and then to Phil's before walking to supper. The party kicked off after that. It was a successful party and everyone had a good time as far as I could tell. A huge surprise was in order for all of us as Steve and Samir showed up. They were in Kingston and decided to come over. It was really huge. Dave and Nicole were there also. Big Dong and Will also ventured over from their respective homes. There were many adventures and misadventures. I took many photos as well. It was good clean fun until the overzealous Guelph police showed up for some reason. They gave the guys a hard time just cause they were young. I felt their threats and tactics were unreasonable. We left shortly after with some unscheduled stops of the way home. I didn't get to bed until almost 3am. I woke up this morning and bided my time until football started. Now I'm doing that. Phillips out.

September 15, 2005

    I have survived my first week back at school. It was somewhat grueling but I feel that I will be able to manage. I attended all my classes in the first week for the first time in probably the history of my post-secondary education career. It was good. There were two labs and a seminar that I didn't have to go to this week so that was six hours of fun that I avoided. The rest seems to be pretty straight forward. I've already done an assignment. Wednesday could be my favourite but so far the runaway winner is Friday with its lone morning class. Thursday and Monday battle for the worst days. Monday with its two labs and horrendous two hour break between classes could have won the dubious distinction of being my most hated day of school if it were not for the marathon I endure on Thursdays. I start at 8:30am and attend various classes and labs until 5:20pm. That normally wouldn't be that bad except for the fact that each class is on a different side of campus. I literally spend my day running from one side to the other. For most of the day there is actually a small band of us that do this. The largest it gets is ten people. I have found the faster routes now but I feel I have some room for improvement. I want to streamline my time down further and maximize my efficiency. My classes don't seem overly difficult although they are challenging enough for me. Especially being that there are six of them for the first time ever. I'll keep at them.

    Socially I haven't had the time nor the energy to put forth too much of an effort. Mike Ward was here until Tuesday then departed for his parents house. He will spend a brief time there before returning with Nicole, Dave's girlfriend. They will travel to London to meet Dave and then come here tomorrow, Saturday. There is a large contingent of outsiders coming here as well in order to take advantage of the hospitality of the young lads at 55 Northumberland, which I will furthermore refer to as the 55. They are hosting this year's party to celebrate the birth of one David J. Hawken. We are passing the torch of sorts. It is their time now for party throwing. Attendance is encouraged if you wish. Many have confirmed attendance already. It is looking like a good party. It promises to be a huge mixer as the young crowd of friends of the 55 will be there as will many members of the old guard, whose parts will be played by us and our friends. All in all I think that it will be a good time.

    In other unrelated news, the Shoppers Drug Mart has opened next to our home. A two minute walk provides us access to the bevy of goods and services provided by this corporation. The predictions are that it will be bad to have it here and that it will be a curse on our very existence. We've all got our optimum cards already and Rich is developing a dependence on it. The Subway that is opening is what is going to really get me and my pocketbook, especially in the summer. On a happier note the return of Sports Saturday is scheduled for tomorrow. A full contingency is slated to appear for some soccer and maybe light football as was discussed in this week's meeting of the executive. I'll be sure to let you know how everything goes this weekend. Phillips out.

September 10, 2006

    This will be the last reflection before a couple of things happen. The first being the first Sunday of football, the second being the start of my last semester of undergraduate education. I barely remember the semester I took off to make this last victory lap type semester possible. Nonetheless I have to take six classes to make it to the end. Any frequent readers will be sure to note me whining about this on a semi-regular basis, probably every three days or so. Many of my counterparts have already started classes, especially those who have moved on to post-graduate work around the province. I wish any followers of this web-based posting luck with their studies and encourage them to contact me with their new contact information. That said, I will quickly re-count the events of the last couple of days and reflect upon them before the opening kick-off of a wonderful time of year.....football season. Ok, let me see, Thursday was all fun and games. Friday saw the arrival of the infamous Mike Ward. He was very tired and arrived much earlier than originally anticipated. This lead to a somewhat disjointed outing. We all started off at the pool-hall but Mike and the G-Force wandered off in a futile attempt to find girls. This left Phil, Rich and his chum Tony, and I to play the pool. Before much time passed Rich and Tony headed for a kegger and Phil went home to sleep off the effects of frosh week. I moved on to Joanne's apartment. I hadn't seen the place and she was going to come out for a quiet night. Some folks came over and the lot of us had an enjoyable discussion about what was on the television. I had to catch the last bus and was forced to leave, preceded by the majority of the parties present. Yesterday was a day of adventure. Mike and I got dual haircuts in the morning and then whiled away the afternoon doing nothing special. Brown came home and the five of us (Lara and Rich being the others, in case you're nosy and need every detail) hopped in the car and headed for the movies. We finally saw Ricky Bobby which was random and funny. We enjoyed it. We came home after dropping Mike Ward off at the 55 and called it a night pretty earlier. Well I did anyways. I woke early this morning and got some stuff done. I'm hungry and need to eat before the games start. Phillips out.

September 7, 2006

    So here I am, back once more, with some regularity I'm sure. So I've told of my plans for the week's end but I haven't remarked on how I'll be getting there. I'll lament on what tedious deeds have transpired thus far. Apparently today is Thursday, following Wednesday as it usually does. I mistook yesterday for Tuesday this week. It was not enjoyable. Monday was spent around the house doing this and that. I got some stuff ready for school and cleaned some things. All in all it was a pretty long and boring day. Tuesday was slightly more exciting with the arrival or our new basement dwelling house mate, Lara. She completed setting up her room and settled in slightly I assume. The day ended with us all watching the Princess Diaries. It was pretty funny to see us three dudes settling in to watch that movie. We had a day out on Wednesday. This included picking up Phil and Dan and taking a trip to Canadian Tire, returning them, and then going out for lunch with Dan in tow. A trip to London was discussed but was turned down. It was a decent adventure that we capped off with cigars followed by a movie. Today was primarily spent sleeping and watching Arrested Development season three. I think the show is likely over but I still find it to be amazing. I now have season two and three. Sprinkled in the evenings has been bouts of playing Warcraft III. A video game that mysteriously appeared in our home. I blame Brown. We're both hooked on it but are both at the same stage and poised to beat it. I hope it happens soon. Well, I'm going to do something constructive for a while before I go out for supper with cousins John and Phil. Long story short, John is working nearby and this time he has a car. That is all for today. Phillips out.

September 4, 2006

    Today marks the end of the first rush period. This rush will be forever deemed the move-in rush. The next rush is anticipated to happen next weekend and will be deemed the visitation rush but more on that in some moments. Ever notice that people say "in a moment", but has a moment ever really been defined as a period of time. Is it a minute? Is it three minutes much like three feet is a yard? So when people say that phrase how do you know how long you're really going to have to wait? It could be a few seconds or a few hours depending on what a moment is. Also, what if each person's perception of a moment differs. That really puts the hat in the kettle. As you can see I've done it one better and used "some moments". This is even more ambiguous and aloof. That's what I do, I push the boundaries of certain things in society. Primarily benign things of this nature but those benign boundaries are pushed even further into the realm of the mundane. That's enough aimless pondering for the moment (hi yo!) so I'll get down to re-counting the hi-lites of the past few days.

    The first thing to mention is that I'm now down my full-time job. This marks the beginning of my part-time job. I've been retained by the company to work on an hourly basis when needed for the fall. The same holds true for my co-worker Jeff. That should be exciting since I have most of the weekends off and also Friday off. The extra money will be very beneficial as well. To end our era of work we went golfing on Friday. It was a very enjoyable time. The three of us had lunch on the boss and then went to some swanky country club outside the city. We had never heard of it. It is a 27 hole course. We paid for nine holes but because of the impending darkness we were able to continue playing more for no additional funds. We totaled 16 holes. The game went well for me so I had a good time. Brian also played well and had fun. Jeff on the third hand had a dismal afternoon, which is ironic because he was the one that wanted to golf the most. I only went because I had to but I ended up having a great outing. We got dropped off and dismissed to our own lives. All in all, I'd say it was a great summer working for the "evil" Monsanto.

    The rush didn't really begin until the Saturday. This was the day that Phil and Megan would move into their respective homes. Phil, Aunt Beth, and The Mayor arrived first in a large monstrosity of a van. The were coming from London where they moved Dave into his new digs. This took several days because he had to start from scratch for everything. Either way, I was picked up by the Hawkens and helped where I could which wasn't much at all because my own parents came and stole me away. I had to go to Waterloo to help get my sister settled. They had gone straight there and unloaded the van which was so full that the occupants would have been crushed if someone farted, apparently. So I ended up spending my afternoon shopping and setting up things for her. We went to supper as a family (minus Lacey who had to stay home to work). After dropping Megan off we headed back for Guelph. My parents dropped me off and went to their hotel. The next morning the Mayor left for home and spoiled my father's attempt at a huge family brunch-type event. It worked out for the best though as they were able to shoot back to Waterloo this time sans me and spend some time with my sister before leaving her on her own. They still treat her like she's just leaving home even though she's in third year now. They came back for supper and some films. The left early this morning, so early that they woke me up to say good-bye. Which brings us to the present tense.

    The next rush that was alluded to earlier in the foreshadow that I provided will be helped by the visit of Mike Ward who is arriving on the Friday and by the Reid sisters who are potentially arriving of the Saturday. They are unsure of their trip but are optimistic. Mike is coming for sure. He doesn't fool around. I've lost my taste for typing suddenly and have developed a taste for cinnamon toast waffles which I will now satisfy. They are quite good and the aroma is amazing. That is all for today, hopefully I'll have some adventures to speak of before school starts. Phillips out.

August 2006

August 30, 2006

    A new day dawns, I saw the sun rise today. It burst out of the clouds like a phoenix, fiery red and round to the naked eye. Immediately the old saying came to mind: red sky in the morning, sailor's warning; red sky at night, sailor's delight. I fear a storm on the horizon but nothing major is forecasted. I hope the saying holds true, for history's sake. In other news I dominated at work again today despite a minor error in judgment on my part. It seems that I forgot to bring the picnic tables to the top of the hill for a tour that was to take place that day. I was off-site all day doing other things but was around first thing to complete a task and meet Jeff. The tables were left when we did, but Brian came through in the clutch and moved them with the trailer. Which begs the question: : Why didn't he just do it in the first place?" That is not for me to answer, he is the boss and we were there, thus it was our responsibility, after all, we were asked to do it. Alas, that put a down spin on my morning. I got back and Brian was joking about it so it must be water under the bridge. Jeff on the other hand had no such luck. He showed up at quitting time with little done today. I suppose he is getting the run around from the dealers that he is to deal with but he is taking a long time to get those IRM walks done. I was done mine in 3 days, he is up to twice that now. Then again, I am a champion. Only two days left of work is what all that was leading up to. I have quite a list of tasks to complete before I can hang up my hat for a while. I am on the payroll still for the fall as an hourly worker, just in case my assistance is required. It should be good times. I'm hearing yelps that the food is ready so I will part ways for now, Phillips out.

August 27, 2006

    Hello again, I'm back much sooner than the last two times. Just thought I would give a quick update as to my latest deeds done. On Friday I came home to the contents of my garage spewed out onto my front lawn. It was quite a scene actually. I used a stolen city sign that says Caution to warn the neighbours that we were outside. I felt the warning was warranted considering who was involved. We did manage to sort through the garage stuff and make room for what was to stay. We also moved Maggie's stuff in and the Hawken stuff out. During the transition of this maneuver we had  room enough to attempt putting the cars in the garage. Both fit, it was exciting. The next day we loaded the garbage into my truck for disposal and re-packed the garage. Soon it will house our weight bench. That should be nice to work out in there. Maggie and Lara moved their stuff in and set it up. They departed soon after. Today was spent primarily lounging around the house. Oh yes, we also removed our air conditioners yesterday after receiving a stern warning from the housing authority. I would like to give those jerks a piece of my mind or fist but that has to be done through proper channels that they set up to keep jerks like me from ever getting to them due to our intense and extreme laziness and lack of motivation. They win this round but the duct tape of the mail-box will defiantly remain, a lasting symbol not to mess with the little guy. I've run out of intelligent material it seems so I will stop here, Phillips out.

August 24, 2005

    And yet again another long break between posts. This time I once again have a delightful excuse. Two of them actually. The first being that I lost my access some how. My webmaster Wood relays to me that the server crashed at some point in the last 12 days and destroyed all my work. Luckily for me there was not much work and the work that was done was safe as a local copy. This means that all the archives were not lost. The public history of my life over the last two years has been saved. The second excuse, which I will not do justice, is that I have been out of town for a good week or so. Let's begin at the last point I remember....

    The Wednesday and Thursday of last week was spent running plot tours at my home site of Ayr. The following Monday and Tuesday were spent running plot tours at my home in New Liskeard. The time in between was spent half-way between those two vantage points; in Huntsville. Specifically at the provincial park known simply as Arrowhead. This was the setting of what was to be my twenty third anniversary of my birth. The actual time was not celebrated but the entire day was. The time was five something in the morning and no one wanted to be up that early. I received a few gifts from the friends and family that were present. The real haul would come later that weekend. I'll tell the tale of Caumping 2006 first.

    Some of the lads left the home town at 3:30 am on the Friday morning. A brief stop at the Toronto airport preceded them arriving in Guelph before ten.  They collected me and we were off. I drove Car A because they were understandably fatigued. We arrived about two hours ahead of Car B. Their arrival caused much excitement and tent erecting, the kind on the ground, not in the pants. This was followed by two days of people drinking and carrying on. It was a good time. But like all good times it had to come to an end. Before it did though we enjoyed some lake throwing, beach football, euchre, lying to drunk twenty five year old girls, an educational talk from a conservation officer, hot dogs and hamburgers, oat squares in a beer cup, and a rain storm. But our time did end. I drove home.

    While at home I met the young lady, Nat, who has been residing with my parents. I also took in some of the local agriculture, by guiding my boss and co-workers on a string of tours to begin the week. I played cards with my grandmother and had a solid visit with her. I saw some old friendly faces and worked it hard in the barn. I also blew out my candles on a truck shaped cakes, three cakes actually. That was when the real gift haul began, and by gift haul I mean cash haul, most people just gave dough. I like that, it works. I rode home to Guelph with the other Monsanto employees and got back just in time to sleep up for work the next day. Everyone had a good time discovering my home in the North. This week has been spent meeting up with dealers and growers organizing IRM walks for the government. I have the most done in the shortest time. It's like I was meant for this kind of work or something.

    Sorry for the inconvenience of not having something available to quench the addictive thirst for insight into my life; for those of you out there that are strangely mired in my daily affairs to the point that you have been checking this page more than your email or at the very least daily. You know who you are, and as for the rest of you, you could learn something from these dashing role models for a better society, a Chase society. I don't even know what that means or where I was going with that but just take it as an egomaniacal glimpse into the oblivion that is my current mind state or possibly state of mind. Either way. Phillips out.

August 12, 2006

    Hello. It has been a long time since my last entry to this web based unit. This has not been entirely my fault. We lost internet access nine days ago under suspicious circumstances. We were able to connect one of the computers in the house, not mine obviously. This provided trying times for everyone on board. Yesterday we finally managed to corral a nerd who came through and fixed our internet. He didn't do much in that regard but he did tune up a system or two and did some solid work for us. As you have guessed not much has happened in the past few days. Thankfully the heat has subsided and left us with great temperatures. Work has been going swimmingly and we have been very busy of late and are getting many tasks done ahead of schedule. This past weekend I didn't do too much. I watched a lot of Futurama and did hit golf balls and dine with Brown and his family. That was enjoyable. This week was going to be uneventful until I got a call from cousin John. He was in Kitchener for the week on work related business and was stuck in his hotel. I met him for dinner and we drove around for a bit and shot some pool. It was good times, if not rampantly exciting times. He did manage to put one over on me though. For some reason I paid him $20 for a bill he was going to expense. We'll have to rectify that in the future. Last night was also out of the ordinary as Will stopped in for awhile. We had a good visit and plans were made for next week. He is unable to join our camping trip in celebration of my birth but will be there in spirit. Pasan "Big Dong" Dangalle also called me last night and we talked for close to an hour. Another good visit, over the phone. He is considering coming camping, but is unsure due to work. And the previous night I went with Rich to force him to buy a new guitar. I had to do this or he would have backed out and he didn't want that to happen, hence my presence. He got a nice one and we came back and "jammed". He taught me to play a riff I've been wanting to learn and then I requested songs that he played. It was good times. He really does like that guitar, plugging it into the amp was just a bonus. Anyways, I can't really think of anything else that happened in the last 12 days that I should mention. There is likely something and someone out there will be left out and get offended but I apologize, it's 6:30am and I'm half asleep. I blame that fact for all the incoherent portions of this entry and for any and all mistakes made. Now I have to get to some cold pizza that is calling my name, Phillips out.

August 1, 2006

     Well, it appears as if we're in the middle of a heat wave here in Canada, at least in Ontario. It is sweaty to say the least. Yesterday was very hot, at work we have this device called the Kestrel 3000. We use it  to measure humidity, wind speed, temperature, dew point and any combination of those things. We used it yesterday to see what the temperature was when the humidity was factored in. The highest it got to was 44.5 degrees. Today we did it also just for fun. The result was not funny. The temperature affected by humidity was 51.4 degrees. I've never even heard of heat like that. It is enough to broil you alive. Yesterday was worked until 5pm, doing odd jobs and trying to stay cool. I think we may have had a safety meeting or something later in the day so that we could be out of the sun. Today we started off hard and I mowed all morning. Jeff did all the auxiliary mowing and cleaning up. Our site still looks exceptional and I invite everyone to see it. It is really and truly primed for tours. The afternoon was spent in the office working on the computer as I imagine tomorrow afternoon will be spent. We updated a bunch of programs but it takes so long because the computer is so terrible. Anyways, enough about work. I happened to miss out some of my life's content from Sunday. I pretty much listened to my audiobook and farted around the house all day. Rich made his return in the afternoon and we smoked a cigar to mark the occasion. He had been gone for two weeks. He regaled us with tales of the north and of many adventures and mis-adventures. Sounds like he had a good time. The three of us chatted on the patio for an hour or so and all was right in the universe. I don't remember what happened into the evening but I do know that the TV was involved. Likely watching some program or another. I did some emailing and what not recently and got prompt responses. That was unusual. That is about the size of it. Phillips out.

July 2006

July 30, 2006

    It is Sunday morning and I just had the most ridiculous sleep of my life. Yesterday, I spent most of my time cleaning both myself and the house. I showered, shaved, brushed my teeth hard and long, I clipped my toenails and trimmed my fingernails. I combed my hair several times as one would do if one had nothing better to do. The middle of the day seemed to fly by. Brown came home and caught me playing baseball on the Xbox and settled in to watch. I lost my first game ever. I lost 3-2 in a tight battle. The pitcher who started was dealt immediately afterwards for a much better player. Brown was amazed at my lack of patience with the man on his way out of the digital town. The next game I won 34-0. Anyways, I could talk day and night about my digital teams and their performances, it's a deep seeded sickness that I've had since 1993. So that wrapped up before supper and I made a quaint and quiet supper of soup and a hammer for the first time in months. Actually, there was no ham so I guess technically it was soup and a cheeser. Anyways, I ate that while listening to my audiobook of Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. I started to fade out after eating due to the rhythmic drone of the narrator. Mid-sleep the phone rang and it was someone that knew me. I'm not entirely sure who it was but I assume it was Wood. I think he wanted to eat another dinner with laughs as we did earlier in the week. I was so out of it from the dozing that I don't even know what I said, from what I remember, it was an awkward conversation. I tried to wake up after that but to no avail. The droning voice had a hold on me. I was asleep before 7pm. Similar to Thursday I awoke later, this time just before Saturday Night Live came on. I think it was previously aired, maybe even last year, but I watched part of it. I was awake for nearly an hour doing so. I passed back out afterwards until Brown woke me up with his rummaging around  in the next room and other rooms, including but not exclusively, the bathroom. I woke up again at 8am this morning but my sleep upwards of twelve hours. That is a fantastic sleep. I feel pretty rested as one would expect. I don't know what I'm doing today, I have no plans of dressing and certainly no plans of leaving this hovel. Hopefully everyone else's weekend was more exciting than mine, if not then you have a real problem and should seek some help. Kidding. Phillips out.

July 28, 2006

    Howdy all, I'm back, just like I said I would be back. Anyways, I've had an interesting week, much more activity in the past 5 days than pretty much all summer in terms of my social calendar. As mentioned previously, Wood and I had dinner and laughs earlier in the week. Last night was a surprise BBQ for the return of Joanne and Alex who were squatting in their old house for a while. I'll get to that in a moment. Work this week has been fairly light. The workload didn't really pick up, in fact, it may have lightened. We were done around 2pm on Thursday and that was for the week. It was glorious to have a spontaneous long weekend. So Brown and I went to the BBQ, we stopped on the way and picked up a huge watermelon, one of two left at the grocer's, a cheese cake, and a deep'n delicious cake. It may have been overkill but it was party and we don't disappoint.  We looked through the condensed version of the Euro pictures before supper. It was a good time and many stories of past adventures were told. A few pop-in guests appeared including Franco who ran there from his place of employment while on a 15 minute break. It was pretty funny. Also funny was when the watermelon was being eaten. They had little dishes since they were squatting so the melon was cut into 8th's and distributed. That left a second half. It came down after we'd all had our fill that one quarter was left. Brown ate it. That ran his total watermelon eating up to half of the huge melon. There are pictures and video out there that are pretty gross of him eating it. Everyone had a good hard laugh including him. We all broke off at 8pm with plans for me to meet up with them at an apartment on campus within an hour. I talked to my parents briefly on the phone and was just going to rest my eyes for minute and then call Phil to inquire about the situation with his tenants. When I opened my eyes it was almost midnight and I had missed everything. Evidently, Brown had done the same as he was asleep earlier than usual as well. I just went back to sleep disappointed that I missed out on that adventure. I spent most of today watching movies and trying to stay cool. When Brown got home from work we went and got some KFC. It had no affect on either of us, I don't know if that is good or bad considering the quantity. I went to bed pretty early after we hit a bucket of balls at the driving range. I don't know if I can fix Brown's swing in time for his first game of golf next week, he's too baseball. Alas, I will try. Farewell, Phillips out.

July 25, 2006

     Alrighty, let's get started here. Ok, the weekend; the plan was for Dave and company to land here late in the evening and then stay over. Turns out Dave was continuing his trek to London that night leaving Phil, Gordo, and Megan. Megan, my sister, went to Waterloo in the morning to see friends for the day. I arranged a ride to the bus for her by buying a breakfast for Brown at McDonalds. I arranged a ride for the GCP Express (Gordo, Chase, Phil) to go to their house to confront their subletters who haven't paid rent all summer. Jeff was that ride. We got to the bus station by the same means and made a move to Toronto. This move included lunch and a trip to the Jays game. The Jays were facing the hated Yankees and the crowd was a record for the season at 50014 people. It was quite full. The Jays lost 5-4. The GCP Express had a mishap when the DC Experience (Dan Clark) was unable to attend. There were complications that made this reality. Phil was upset by it and also about the house situation. The day wore on and after another frustrating round of missing out on DC we headed home on the bus. We were early and supped at Subway, an excellent choice except for the lack of lavatories. We made due by using those at the bus station. We got back and watched a film before getting some rest. The morning was slightly chaotic. Breakfast was produced and consumed and then golf was watched for hours. Dave appeared with Nicole after noon and we made a sub-standard lunch. It seemed to do the job though. Phil and Gordo headed down to their house to bust some skulls and lay down the law before everyone left. The rest of the day was spent quietly enjoying the cooler weather.

    My boss is away again for the entire week so I made up a rough schedule for the week. It has been a light week so far with no sign of picking up. Tonight my good friend and web host Wood made an appearance. He dates a girl from Guelph so is here more often than usual. We made dinner plans tonight and had an enjoyable meal at the Double P. Pool followed. We both started the first game as a couple of professionals would. Missing only one shot each until the bitter end. Our true colors showed in the second game. I lost both by way of sewering on the eight ball. It was fun nonetheless. We had some good laughs and good food. We returned to my villa and watched the famous dance and enjoyed a few more laughs. Wood left but forgot his phone. He returned minutes later for it, I was waiting on the stoop. All in all it was a good time. What magic will the rest of the week hold? Only time will tell. Phillips out.

July 20, 2006

    The last couple of days have been a blur. We've been dominating at work these past few days. Jeff was on holidays on Monday and thus Brian and I nailed it shut. Jeff came back and then Brian went on the road and has been touring ever since. It's nice that he trusts us enough to run the operation while he goes on various academic tours. We enjoy the freedom. We planned around the rain today and it came as expected. There has been a couple of good summer thunder storms in the area this week. The heat wave can be blamed for that. We've battled the heat wave pretty well with our wisely placed fans and air conditioners. We finally got a hydro bill and compared it last year's costs and we're right on pace with last year so the extra power drawn by the conditioners has not affected us as was prophesized. We're starting into the dog days of summer here and it shows. I think its called the dog days because by this time everyone is settling into a routine of sorts which makes the days go by fast and also makes memories blur together. If that makes any sense. I'm running on three hours of sleep so you can't blame me if I seem a bit more non-sensical than usual. I just could not, for the life of me, get to sleep last night. I mean I started asleep for 2 hours and then hit some kind of sleep wall. I watched TV to pass the time. I further noticed that late night TV is the best TV available, much better than daytime programming. We started early today to spray just to add to the hurt, and speaking of hurt, I hurt my shoulder at work also. I strained something hard in my back while shooting hoops at lunch. I was able to work through the pain and spanked the various tasks I had left. I also worked hard today and did more than what was asked of me. Much more in fact. I still haven't slept and I'm not all that tired. I imagine it will be an early night tonight. I'm trying to wait out the rain before I go get groceries but my patience is running out. It's going to be a good one. We've been milk free in this house for over a month now. We've also been without many, many other things that are considered necessary. We do have cheese, and margarine. Both of which were left out and partially melted. So I'm wasting my afternoon off work here by ranting about every solitary thought that goes through my mind. I guess that is enough for today. I don't have any news of anything other than the fact I bought a wad of Blue Jays tickets last night for the weekend when the Yankees are in town. Should be a good adventure in the Big Smoke. Phil is coming down here with Dave who is carrying on to London to find a place to live for next year. My sister and some of Phil's friends are coming also. My sister is going to see friend's in Waterloo where she gets her education. Well I think I've given enough and thoroughly wasted your time so I bid adieu with the now traditional and increasingly popular, Phillips out.

July 16, 2006

    Is it really true? Have I not been around here in a week. It seems that I have been absent for some time. The reasoning why tonight at 11:00pm. Kidding. Here it is. So after last Sunday I had to really put a push on to get ready for our tour at work. It made us feel like we were on the Apprentice TV program. We had many tasks to complete to have a successful tour and we did manage to get everything done and we were rewarded with many kudos from big wigs in the company. We got a huge rain the next day and worked mainly indoors. I used the evening to re-cooperate. The next night was scheduled for me to drive to Toronto and pick up my cousins and then whisk them up to their parents house in North Bay. It all went down. The weekend was spent with family and beyond on the lake. I took many photos, the most I had every taken at one venue. This evening was spent organizing electronic files and finding some food to eat. My roomie Rich got laid off for two weeks during the summer shut down at his job. This was unexpected as he was told earlier that he would be working. The union got involved and screwed him over so he went home for a while. He'll be working around town up there.  As for me. I work all week, quel surprise. I'm losing interest in this post at the moment so I'll be hitting the hay, watch for more soon. Phillips out.

July 9, 2006

    Yesterday was an interesting day. The plan I spoke of previous was to take Liz and Franco to my site to show them what I do and how I do it. Liz is in plant biology at the school and works in a lab there so she had an interest in seeing and her boyfriend Francis is interested in trying to get my job so it was looking to be a fun afternoon. Unfortunately, only Liz could make it. We still set off for the open fields of Ayr. We toured the bottom, top, town and various close off-site locations. I think she enjoyed the tour although I'm sure it was pretty boring. Rich was supposed to make the trek also but a hot girl had instructed him to go to the beach with her and understandably he crapped out. I'm happy that he did and saved himself the torture of the tour. I realize now that a love of field crops is necessary to get "into" the tour. It is only mildly interesting for others at best. Either way, after I dropped Liz off I headed to the bank and got out next month's rent and also the money to pay bills. Brown is doing an exceptional job of organizing the finances and my hat is off to him. I rolled the money up into a tight roll and tossed it to him gangster style when I saw him which is a rarity in itself. I also tried to rent some movies but the one I wanted, the Matador, was all gone so I left it at that out of spite and disgust. I got home, chatted with Brown briefly before he left for Laura's. Rich then returned, chatted briefly with him before he headed to Toronto to randomly see a concert. I then watched some television and read my novel, the Iliad. This was followed by sleep. I awoke at 6am which brings us to the present time. Hope I have a fun day. Yesterday was also the day of the surprise anniversary party for the Mayor and his wife which was put on by the kids, Dave, Phil, and Karli. I gather that it was a success and that they didn't know about it. Hopefully, I'll get the details about this party that I was unable to attend. That is all for now. Phillips out.

July 7, 2006

    Today was a really good day. We had a load of fun at work today. But let's start with the previous day. At some point over the weekend or early in the week, I'm not sure when due to my lack of sleep, some company who shall remain nameless thought it wise to leave a flyer on our stoop. The reason it was not put in the "junk mailbox" is because I duct taped that shut a few weeks ago to try and slow the amount of junk mail that was coming in. That and to avoid any charges applied to us in form of a fine for not cleaning out our "junk mailbox" by a certain time each week. That rule being put forth by our Nazi property management firm, but I don't want to get into that at this juncture. Anyways, the flyer; I consider it to be littering when they just leave a flyer on the steps. (Littering being the reason for the clean out rules.) I took the flyer in and found a phone number on it. The next day I took it with me to work and called the people up. I got a general desk and then asked to speak to someone in marketing. They instead patched me through to customer service and I told them that it was littering to leave papers on people's doorsteps. The guy apologized and claims it will never happen again. I told him I hoped it wouldn't as I would not want to involve the police in such a trivial matter. This was a widely ridiculous threat that I have absolutely no intention of upholding but he didn't know that and was very apologetic. Anyways, that was the excitement from Thursday. Today, was a different ball game. We were at work early again, as we have been every day this week except the first day (same scenario as last week) to spray various plots. Hopefully we run out of things to spray by next week. We did our work and then did some extra tasks and finished with some pong. Around 11am we changed our clothes and headed to Ingersoll, land of the restaurant. The unofficial stats are that it has 30 restaurants for 9000 people. There are an inproportionate number of eateries to say the least. We selected Crabby Joe's and all the students and their bosses were there for a solid meal. This was followed by nine holes of golf just down the road in Mount Elgin. I played with the three students who had never played before while Jeff played with the three bosses. It was a good time followed by a sit around in the clubhouse, before we all went our separate ways. My weekend plans fell through so I have a long, lonely one coming up. Actually I might have a back-up plan for Saturday which ironically was my plan to do all along. That don't make no sense to me. Anyways, I'll be back soon with this long, lonely weekend. Phillips out.

July 5, 2006

    So today was a weird one. We actually took a huge step today at work, well a huge responsibility or something. Initiative maybe? Anyways, we knew we had to spray a plot in Delhi which is an hour from our site which is an half hour from home. Because of this and a mitigating threat of wind we had to leave early, like 5am early. I woke up well before 5am. This was a huge move. A McDonald's breakfast fuelled us through this early morning endeavour. Our next move was to work ahead of schedule and pre-mix a lot of herbicide spray trials that are to be sprayed tomorrow. We stayed at work for 10 hours doing site prep work for the grand tours of next week. We called the boss who was at a media day event elsewhere to give him a status report and he was enthralled with our efforts. We do totally dominate at our jobs. So I reported on the weekend already. Just to add, Brown came home from work and was all up in arms about something and wanted to go to the show to settle his nerves. He wanted us to go with him. Rich was beat from a wild Northern Weekend and I had to be up early. He was all mad about that was just being generally cranky which he does now. So we called in the meal that Jeff owed him and Jeff came through in the clutch as he is prone to do. The meal was delivered and that settled Brown down. Jeff stayed and the four of us all watched the House. It was a good time. Tonight my plan is to make some calls and then hit the hay early as we have to spray yet again. Excluding the first days of the week I have sprayed every day for two weeks. This is getting ridiculous. I don't even know what we're spraying anymore. Anyways, that is all I have to say about that for the time being. I hope all is well elsewhere and Steve I'll be talking to you soon about those drunken voicemails. Phillips out.

July 3, 2006

    Let me begin by apologizing about the lack of posting material over the last week or so. I was very busy with work as my boss was on holidays and I took it upon myself to do most of the planning for the week. Also, I was enjoying some off time or down time if you would. Speaking of down time I was away for the Canada Day weekend. I went the cottage of a friend of my parents if that makes sense. There were some logistical problems in the beginning but I managed to solve them. The friend, Wray, was to be working in Guelph on the Friday of last week and so would acquire me and bring be to the destination but that fell threw and he was in Barrie on Thursday and Huntsville on Friday. This did not work for me and was going to present a challenge. I had to dig deep into my logistical magic sack and pull out a whooper. So I work with a guy from Meaford (near Collingwood). He had plans to go home for the first part of the long weekend leaving Thursday. Barrie is near Collingwood in a sort of not at all type of way but we could legitimately include Barrie in the trip as we have a plot there. So we did just that. I met up with Wray courtesy of Jeff's ride and we traveled from there. I arrived at the cottage, which is on Pine Lake, just west of Bracebridge, on Thursday evening. Wray went to work the next morning which left me with the better part of the day to myself. I did some sleeping, some reading and some eating. My folks arrived that night and we had a good meal and some laughs. The next day was pretty much the same as it's forefather, as was the next. Today I drove Wray's wife's PT Cruiser from the cottage to the bus station in Toronto. The bus brought me home. I took some pictures but nothing of interest. I got a video of a chipmunk gathering peanuts which is nice. I'm enjoying my air conditioner now and I'm going to hit the sack soon. Hopefully I'll have a post with more substance and girth. Until then, Phillips out.

June 2006

June 24, 2006

    Today was an awesome Saturday. I did things that I would do if I were rich. I started the day with the idealistic plans of getting my hair cut and getting groceries. I talked to my old chum Will and learned that he had already been invited to the Caumping 2006 adventure before I could make a move. Dave, my co-conspirator beat me to it. The caumping will take place on the weekend of my birthday and should be a real hoot. What Dave doesn't know is that I secretly invited the Big Dong, that's right. I haven't received word back from him yet. Anyways, back to my day. After talking to Will and getting ready to go I figured I should eat first so I had some soup and hammers at 10:20am. This caused a lull due to the fullness so I sat down to watch TV. They were showing the entire third season of the Ultimate Fighter. So when I got out of my chair twelve hours later I was pretty tired. I'm exaggerating of course. I got up many times to go to the bathroom and I actually ended up in my bed for the live finale. It was huge, a battle. I fell asleep after the middleweight championship but I was pretty sure how the light heavyweight fight would turn out. It was really good times. Rich was gone to Oshawa before I woke up and I haven't seen nor heard from Brown since Wednesday. I was actually invited to the Oshawa thing but didn't find out about it until Friday evening. Apparently my email account has been deleting all but a few incoming emails so I adjusted the filters. Long day though. It was a pretty sad day and pretty pathetic, I enjoyed the rest though. Today though my plate is full because I have to do everything that I was supposed to do yesterday. My boss is on holidays this week so I expect to be working very hard in the first few days so we can be done the majority of the tasks by the end of the week and possibly have some time off. The next three weekends have a high potential to be very busy and fun. Either way, I'm off to get it done. Phillips out.

June 22, 2006

    Some big things happened in the past few days. Big T came and went after a solid two night visit. I say night because he was at meetings during the days and I was at work. We had some good restaurant food and watched the Blue Jays win a couple of games on the tube. It was a good time but I was still tired like a banshee, assuming they tire easily and excessively. I sprayed on Tuesday for two hours. This involved me carrying a fifty pound pack on my back and carrying a three metre boom at chest height. Thusly, my back and shoulder are in agony. I am also mentally tired and have not gotten over the weekend and early mornings. I have two more spray mornings this week so things will likely only get worse. Hopefully the weekend will come quickly and provide me with some much needed recharge time. I hope I don't contract anything more than my pseudo-SARS.

    Another big thing that happened this week was that I got word that my friend Wade is to be wed to his long time girlfriend Erryn. The word came through email. It was sent to a large swath of people so I'm sure most people have heard by now but I'm putting it out there for anybody that didn't hear. No date has been set but the happy couple is having a good time out there in British Columbia.  I'm happy for them and wish them the best for the rest of the summer.

    As for me, I'm sorry the Oilers lost but I'm too tired to worry about it. I have to be up before the summer tomorrow so I'm going to hit the hay. I had more to say and it was good stuff too but the NHL awards have stolen my words and attention. I hope everyone is well and having a good summer thus far. Phillips out.

June 19, 2005

    Monday night Football is something I wish was happening right now. Instead of that I'm sitting home alone watching pointless drivel on the television unit. I'm tired and probably a bit cranky today. I was up late last night. I went out for the first time all summer, not counting Tony's of course, to see off my friend Joanne. She's back-packing around Europe for a month or so. You can read about her adventures here. The send-off was a good time. I had to miss the opening round of a BBQ because I had to do some work-related vehicle switching and what-not. I finally met up with them downtown at the Albion for a brief chat and they had a pitcher on the go by the time I got there. We upped the ante with a move to Doogie's, We were 5 of 8 people in the place. It was interesting on a Sunday at the bar and I enjoyed it more than when the place is full and noisy. I broke off just after Franco and Liz leaving the two remaining girls to misadventure. I'm sure they had a good time. My Monday spray date got pushed back a day due to possible precipitation concerns. This happened at 5:45am. This caused much anger and frustration. Today was pretty frustrating all around. I was not happy with myself and the crankiness persisted. The hockey game tonight thus far has also been frustrating. I'm not impressed by the Oilers and I fear they will fail in their quest. I did however destroy everyone at pool that I faced today over lunch. Anyways, I should probably make some bed based moves involving sleeping and hopefully some solid snoring. Phillips out.

June 17, 2006

    Well, here I am again. I had some good nights this week but the sleeps were less satisfying. That old hoot Fate does indeed have a humorous way of operating. One night he made it unbearable hot in the middle of the night so I woke in a sweat and had to wait for my air conditioner to cool the room down sufficiently. Another night the riot had someone call the house at 5:59am. It was a wrong number, I let the guy know how I felt about that and then I spent about half an hour tossing and turning in a rage. The night before last I had to be up at 5:30am to be at work early to spray. I woke up coughing this morning. You're sitting there asking yourself two questions. One, why do I care? Two, why didn't you just go to bed early? I'll tackle the second first. I went to bed between 9:30pm and 10:30pm every night, any earlier and I can't sleep because the sun is out. And as for the first question, if you're here reading about my so-called life then you must care or why would you bother. Anyone that clicks the red "X" now is a fool. Well, now that I've amused my self and did my typical whine I'll get into it here.

    This weekend is shaping up to be a slow one. So far I've watched a couple of movies that I've been wanting to see and that trend has a high probability of continuing. Brown and I went to get a cool drink last night at the little convenience store up the road. There were two thuggish looking teens outside in full "street garb. As I approached the door of the establishment the larger of the two began to approach me. I got my "I'll destroy you punk" look one and apparently Brown started flexing in the background. The kid asked me, "Can you buy me some smokes man?" I replied, "Yeahhh, Rrright." and began to laugh at the kid. It was golden, the full extent of my comment is better received in person but obviously that is not entirely possible at this juncture unless you're here with me...or if I recorded it as a .wav file and then uploaded it as an embedded file but I don't have that kind of time. I mean, I've got spare time but not for that kind of nerdish activity. If you think I'm a nerd for knowing how to do that then you have to ask yourself if you think I knew it or if I just looked it up. Hmmm? Exactly.

    The outlook for the weekend is as forecasted with a slight probability of going to a BBQ tonight at the famous Francis Prescott's and a high probability of going out for dinner and drinks tomorrow with some friends from school. The prognosis of the weekend would have been different as there were incipient plans for a certain set of sisters to come and get away from it all at my ranch. These plans fell threw and will be re-scheduled for later in the summer. This leaves with my original plan of doing nothing. Probably my favourite thing to do. Anyways, I feel I've given enough to excuse my small four day absence. Hopefully this inspires the others to start posting on their respective web pages, you know who you are. Phillips out.

June 13, 2006

    For some reason my last post didn't go up. I was having trouble accessing what I need to access to make the magic happen. Ah well, here it is belatedly. Well what did I do lately, let me see. I cleaned the house top to bottom on Sunday morning for the guests. I made up the guest room for Dave. I received them and we watched TV for a few moments and then Aunt Beth, Grandma and I headed to the Aberfoyle antique fair. We went looking for a handle for an old time flat iron but we came back with four expensive collector plates. I bought nothing but I enjoyed the experience. We came back and after some drama about going to Toronto to meet other family we decided to eat in Guelph and headed for the King's buffet. Good feed was followed by some relaxing and conversation. Everyone but Dave went to their hotel. The next day I dropped Dave off at the hotel before work. I worked the morning hoeing soybeans. Not a really fun job but a good work out. I got home around noon and changed and went to lunch. We sat down at the thing at 1:30pm and it ended at 4:55pm. I hurt in ways I never knew possibly. Afterwards we waited around until after six for the graduates to wrap everything up. Supper followed at Casey's with Nicole and her mother. It was good, I got my usual, the clubhouse which was sub-par but the company made up for that. A quick shoe buying stop lead us to home again.  Dave and I watched the game until I had to go to bed. I left before he woke so I assume that he left for home sometime before I got home. I've spent the evening on the internet catching up with emails and stuff. It has been mildly productive. Laundry to follow and then a trimming of the beard before bed. Maybe, I'll put that off until tomorrow night, it's looking that way. Well, I'm thirsty and tired so I'll finish here. Phillips out.  (There are you're long awaited updates Steve.)

June 10, 2006

    This fun packed weekend was kicked off right by an appearance of Mike Ward. The king of Nature happened to stop by last night so that he could spend the night in preparation for acquiring his friend Fredrik from the airport. He was sporting a huge beard and was far more tired than I remembered. Apparently he was at some huge conference for canoes or something in Barrie for the previous four days. That tuckered him right out. I put on a movie film for our perusal and both of us nearly nodded off. This was followed by a good round of sleeping. I had spent some time in the morning setting up the guest room for him and later for Dave but let's not get ahead of ourselves. I used the last of the milk in the morning so we had to go out to Squirrel's for Mike to get some grub. This was followed by a trip to the mall. Mike was pretty disappointed that I wanted to wait in the car. He obviously forgot how much I hate that mall. We returned to the homestead where Mike spent 90 minutes or so making a huge sign to welcome his friend. We went to the mall for supplies to construct said sign as it turns out and only for that reason. Ah well, all went well. I spent the afternoon napping on the couch and intermittedly watching soccer and baseball.  Brown's girlfriend Laura came over for a while in the afternoon and evening. This caused Adam to make a big stir-fry which I helped eat and clean-up after. I spent the rest of the night until now playing my NHL game. It's been good times so far. Well I have to get up early and clean the house for the coming of the Mayor and company tomorrow. They're coming for Dave's convocation on Monday. It should be a big deal. Annie's parents are coming to get her stuff and accept her degree. They declined a visit and are still pretty emotionally distraught about everything as would be expected. I think they're doing a bit better now and I hope things get better for them. For now though I'm going to hit the hay and get ready for everything. Phillips out.

June 4, 2006

    It has been an interesting weekend thus far. My parents came down just for a visit. I'm not sure why but they did, probably missed me even though they wouldn't admit it. We did some shopping, very light shopping, and ran some errands. We made a huge meal and ate it and then went to see the movie Break Up. It didn't turn out like my mom had hoped and we all agreed that it was not good. I left them in a hotel for the night and then came back the next day for breakfast and a final hooray. I'm a smidge tired though due to relatively late nights (11:30pm is late for me) and the early mornings (pre 7am is early for me). I might hit the hay early tonight. It was a good little visit and I feel that they had a good time. I didn't plan anything though as prophesized and apparently neither did they. Most of the down time was spent just lounging in my house. I guess that is what you should do when on vacation but my Dad was having a hard time with that. Meh. After they left I made up some lunch, ok, some pizza pockets. To counter their unhealthiness I worked out and had some fruit. The working out hurt more than the eating fruit. I may have done too much too soon. I'll learn though, maybe it will become a regular thing, maybe not, only time will tell. As for the fruit, I bought a whole damn bag of it. I also bought salad in a bag with high hopes of eating it all. We now have apples, oranges, and bananas in the house also. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it Hawken, former nutritional advisor. You know it buddy. Ok, future plans......none right now. Phillips out.

June 1, 2006

    Today was a good day. A damn fine day if you don't mind me saying, and even if you do I don't really care. We didn't have to go into work until nine and we were done around four in the afternoon. You don't get much better than that. And the work we did was light even for our standards. We did ratings and population measurements for some of our northern corn plots. The whole thing went very smoothly. I came home and did some laundry and played some NHL '06. I've got to clean the house soon in anticipation of my parents coming down this weekend. I should get some groceries soon also. We're pretty much out of everything at the moment. I don't know what we're going to do over the weekend. My parents are coming for their alleged summer vacation. I gathered from my Mom that my Dad misses me and wants to get away for awhile. I'm working on some ideas for their visit. I assume on Friday that they will get here later in the evening and be fed already. Saturday we'll have to eat somewhere nice and do something enjoyable. My plans will be kept secret. So we're into June. We're so far ahead at work it hurts my head slightly to think about it. Ok, so the heat hurts my head not thinking. I have a wicked sunburn on my neck. You might call me a "redneck". The term pretty much applies all the way around the block. I'm losing it here or something. Maybe I'll take the advice of Uncle Kracker and just Drift Away for awhile and then get my cleaning and whatnot done. Ya, that sounds like fun. Hope everyone is doing well and Steve, glad you're back on board, don't stray too far this time from my ship. Phillips out.

May 2006

May 31, 2006

    The beans are finally done. It took some convincing of my co-workers but it is finally in the bag. We dodged lightning to get the final plot into the ground and thankfully the rain held off long enough. It was a long day. Well there has been a good many long days recently, hence the lack of posting action. We worked 50 hours last week in the four days and we'll be over that probably this week the way things are going. I don't know what we're going to do at work though, we have the bulk of our work done. On the social scene, nothing much to report. I've been working until nine or later most nights so bed is the only activity I engage in. Rich bought an air conditioner, the same as mine. That was exciting and I helped him install it. That was probably the non-work hi-lite of the week so far, that is pretty sad I know but that is the way the cookie crumbles. I'm just taking things one day at a time and I hope it all works out in the end. About what I'm talking about is beyond me but don't we all just want things to work out in our favour. I can't think of anyone at anytime that could be classified as an exception to that rule. Meh, I'm running out of material for today. Phillips out.

May 27, 2006

    I missed a post this week due to my extreme busyness(?). I apologize to my faithful readers, not really to those who drop in once in awhile. You know who you are. Anyways, the reason for my absence is work of course. The weather turned for the positive and we had to bury soybeans. We got the majority done but next week also threatens to be busy. We're going at a great pace and should have everything wrapped up by the end of the week I hope. That would be nice. The next tasks include spraying and also planting the precious walkways. Once that is done staking touch-ups and then general maintenance. How I crave thee, general maintenance. So I worked all week and did nothing exciting in the evenings, as short as they were, sometimes less than an hour. Today has also been a bust. I managed to get a good sleep and a meal in. I brought our towing truck to Jiffy Lube and got it maintained at the same time that Rich brought his sister's car in. I showed him where it was, as well as where the Royal Bank is located. To clarify, Rich has lived on campus for the last 3 years so he doesn't know how to find somethings by driving, whereas I have lived off-campus for 3 years and I know my stuff. I don't really have much else to add. I guess I'll have to cut it off there. Phillips out.

May 22, 2006

    I have slipped into a domestic coma here. I've just been on a tear the last few days in my room and beyond. My room has been the focus though. I'm shedding possessions. Things that I feel I don't need or want are getting axed fast. If I haven't used it in the last two years it is out. Clothes that are nice but I don't like are getting cut out of the rotation. Just yesterday Brown and I made a super-secret drop off at some thrift shop downtown. We laid out 4 bags for them and a pile of other stuff. We're really trying to cut back on stuff. We realized that when Dave moved he had a buttload of extra stuff. We're trying to avoid that. I've gone over my desk and night stand today to really toss the extra, trim the fat if you would. My closet was the victim yesterday. Speaking of yesterday, I made a list of things I felt I should do. The list is nearly complete already, only one task remains. Besides the list I also found time, during our drop-off, to go to Tony's. Brown joined me of course. It was just us and the rat pack for most of the night. We played for two hours which cost us a whooping $ 7.45. I paid. Other than that outing and a previous outing to Staples for ink I have pretty much just stayed around the house as the domestic coma reference implies. Hopefully, I'll have something more exciting to talk about in the future. Phillips out.

May 20, 2006

    The long weekend has rolled around. I have stayed in Guelph to bask in the glory of my solitude. Most of the people that I know who were left are gone home for the weekend and my house is empty for the time being as Brown is gone to work. This time has provided me with a chance to truly relax and take stock of the past few weeks. Mainly this consists of me staring up at my ceiling from my usual position on my back laying in my bed. The alone time also afforded me the chance to get some long put-off chores done. I was finally able to go through some of the junk in my closet. I pared down my possessions considerably and organized things better some that less space is taken up. I also worked on the internet for a time. It's amazing what you can get done if you have the time and the will to work. I was also able to finish off my season of MLB 2K5. I made the playoffs. Not totally unexpected with my 40-0 record. I am pretty much the best I know of. I take it that most of my peers are going out tonight at home to a big party. I can take some comfort in knowing that I'm not the only one that won't be in attendance as Brown will be joining me here in due time. I was able to watch a few films these past few days and I hope to catch up in my collection. I haven't seen a good number of the movies I have. I spoke to the alleged architect of this web-based emporium. He is well for those of you who also follow his exploits, though I'm sure there are few. He is in hiding it seems from the internet posting. Ah well, he explained his situation to me and it seems somewhat complicated and I don't envy him much, maybe a bit. Either way, I think I'll watch a film and then putter around for a while until I retire for the evening. Last night I retired around 9:30pm. I don't know why, guess I was tired for work. Phillips out.

May 17, 2006

    The days are dragging by lately. We continue to get things done though. The tasks are getting more and more menial but they are getting done now rather than later which I like. We are still kept off the fields by the intermittent rains and wet grounds. He had high hopes of recovering our fast pace but we were thwarted by the threat of rain. We weighed all of our equipment used in towing today. Sounds like a quick easy job but it was not. It took all morning and half the afternoon. The rest of the day was spent in the plots changing flags. It does look better but I questioned the importance of the task at the time. I realize now that it had to be done eventually and getting it done sooner rather than later must have some type of benefit. I don't really have any news to report. Monday was a long slow day that was spent mainly indoors as far as I can remember. Tuesday was spent indoors too but there was some excitement as others were present doing a mixing experiment. We made plot maps on our computer. Jeff was really fooling around so most of the work got done when I got home and did them fast and efficiently. Today was really boring but we did get it done. Oh, I forgot to report of the weekend. It went well, that is all. I'm kidding of course, I would never leave out any detail as those of you who are avid readers would know. We had supper at the Mongolian Grill in Waterloo, it was the first time I had graced that franchise with my presence. It didn't compare to my visits to the franchise in Cambridge. After dining we went to shoot some pool. I wrecked Villnerd and then toppled Will before yielding the table to them to battle. Pool was played for some time until we returned to Will's home. We dabbled on the computer for a time and then watched some car racing. This preceded us watching some old home movies that I had brought with me. Good times. I dropped Villnerd off and headed for Guelph. I spent the better part of Sunday installing my ceiling fan and finishing laundry. I made some sweet food and cleaned up. My room was stunning and I was ready to start the week with fresh clothes. The room is still clean and I also found out that Rich is a demon guitar player...self taught too. Gives me something to shoot for. Anyways, I'm going to hit Facebook and then pass out. Phillips out.

May 13, 2006

    The rain hasn't stopped here for a couple of days to my delight. I'm glad to have the break. I didn't get as much of a break as I had wanted to due to a nasty vehicle accident. First off, I'm alright, and no damage was done to either me or my vehicle. Weird eh? Let me explain. I was trailering a planter and tractor down to Niagara to plant a plot. We decided to eat before planting so I pulled into a restaurant. I was driving past a parked truck and I felt I had cleared it by enough. Turns out a section of the planter was hanging over the edge of the trailer and clipped a the truck. This caused a small hole in the tail light cover. The impact also forced the tail light housing into the rear quarter panel causing a slight dent. The owner of the truck saw the whole thing in window and came out. We exchanged information and what not and went our separate ways. Normally that would be it, my insurance would pay and maybe increase and life would go on. Since it was done on company time and with their vehicle I had to fill out incident reports to various levels of management. Now it happens that my boss was sitting next to me in the truck and his boss was following in his car to help us plant. This probably works in my favour somehow. Some pictures were taken of the damage in case the owner of the truck tries to pull a fast one. He's getting his truck looked at next Tuesday which gives some indication that the damage was not what you would call severely pressing. I really just want him to get it fixed so the whole thing can be put behind me. I do drive cautiously and have for a while now but I guess as the big boss put it, "Shit happens, everybody has to take a turn." I just wish my turn would have come at a much later date. At least it wasn't something serious.

    Yesterday was short day at work. After office work with those incident reports I picked up Brown and we went to get our passports done. (p.s. Mom and Dad, I'm having my passport mailed to your address for some reason so watch for it in a couple of weeks.) Afterwards we came back to eat at Subway. This was followed by gathering Rich and heading to knockdown some triples (Dave, that means basketball). We only stayed for a while because we had to go get Jeff, that I work with and bring him down to the bus station. He had mentioned that a friend of his was coming so we made room in Brown's car by all sitting in the front. It was humorous and awkward. Jeff and his friend Sarah sat in the back. Fro-yos followed for Brown and I and Rich partook of a burrito. Note: Rich got a job with a general contractor on Thursday. He followed his up by getting a better job at a concrete company the next day. Three jobs in one week, a new high. We've all been doing this Facebook thing lately, although the novelty has worn off and it is not used as much now. Just to keep people updated.

    Moving on to today. Today's plan's include: cleaning my room, installing a ceiling fan in said room, going to Waterloo. While in Waterloo I plan to meet up with old time friends Will and Villnerd. He's in Waterloo for the weekend, the weekend I plan to go there, talk about random chance. Brown and Rich are gone and going to the Big Smoke. Brown to see his family and Rich to see his long lost roomie, Kevo. So far today I woke up at 6:30am to move my truck into the guest parking then played Xbox for a while before watching a film. The film turned out better than I thought. Now I'm here, doing this. So I'll leave it at that for now.

May 11, 2006

    The first of the rush has almost completely winded down. We're now totally done with corn and we've put in one quarter of our soybean plots. This is huge because noting the date, we're way ahead of schedule, so far in fact, that Brian wouldn't let us plant more last night because he thought it would be mature too soon. No worries about planting for a while. It rained and the forecast predicts it will keep on raining for the next 10 to 14 days. This will mean a lightened work load. Today for example we're not starting until 10 officially and maybe not until noon unofficially. I managed to clean myself, shave, and have a breakfast today. These things were almost forgotten to me, actually I shower everyday but the other two, I mean, it has been a while.

    Yesterday the landlord arranged for our house to be cleaned. Not that it needed it but every spring he likes to get it professionally done. Apparently the girl that did the cleaning was a perfect 10 of 10. I didn't get to witness this phenomenon but I have seen the house and it is cleaner. Well the areas cleaned, such as the bathrooms and kitchen. I was amazed that they got the bathtub clean. Some old man wore boots in there in the fall whilst painting and it was wrecked ever since, we even used industrial bleach and it was helpless.

    I managed to resolve the bulk of the parking issue yesterday as well. It just took one call to the right person and the right pressure and we're almost in the clear. I have some paperwork to do before work so I'll leave it at that and move on to other things. Oh, and we Facebook now. Hope all is well elsewhere in the great white beyond. Phillips out.

May 6, 2006

    The chronicles of the corn planting continue, well actually they came to an abrupt halt today. We surprisingly planted the last of our corn today, we just have to plant some other people's now. The soybean planting season is set to follow. I'm actually home while the sun is up today, its very strange. I have time to get all my personal missions done but I just don't have the get up and go to do it. I was at work just before 7am this morning. We sprayed, just after the rain stopped. And Monday we're starting at 6:30am. The early morning stuff is not so fun. We totaled up our hours for the week and the total exceeds seventy hours. Ya, that's a lot. Ah well, I'm making good money, uh wait, I'm salaried so I see no benefit. That's the breaks baby.

    Last night when I got home from my free supper (perk of the job) Brown wanted to go get blizzards. I couldn't do it. Out of spite he made a massive meal of fake potatoes and steak to spite me. He couldn't eat it all though so he gave me a small plate. His potatoes weren't cooked properly though. I still forced myself to eat it though. I might have to take Phil's bike out for a spin tonight just to see how she rides. I haven't had time nor energy to do anything other than work this past week. I've got a big list of things to occupy my time and I managed to score a truck for the weekend (what's left of it) and a parking pass for the night. Things may be looking up. I'm trying to haggle a parking pass or two from this scam company in the mean time. The adventures that I'm known for (mostly known by myself to myself) haven't been occurring as frequently but good times have been had nonetheless. I'm going to sit outside and enjoy the day or something. Phillips out.

May 3, 2006

    I'm coming at you here on the brink of exhaustion. We just worked a tough 14 hour shift. It was bad because I was forced to exert the majority of my energy in the early going. I did a long plot that I had to walk back and forth on. I probably walked and jogged three or four miles on that one. That tuckered me out in the morning. The afternoon today was easier with some tractor work, more a mental tired came into play with that. I handled it though. I went 9.5 hours between lunch and supper which was not so fun and my lips are chapped and burned beyond repair now. The other exposed parts of my body are also a bright red from the sun. I ache all over at the moment. There, the complaining is out of the way for today. What have I been up to, work and sleep, with side bouts of eating. Work is moving fast, we're lighting it up. Sleep is getting better, it did suck for a few days. Eating is also improving, I've been eating this green substance called salad(?). It doesn't taste like much but they say its good for you. I'm also avoiding fast food. It is tough at times. Anyways, I've been busy at work. I still try and be online for a few hours a day when I get home usually around 8 or 9 pm or in the morning before I leave at around 7 am. I encourage people to try and talk to me since nobody is really around here for the summer. Sometimes I'm just too tired to get out of bed so don't be offended if you don't get answered. Gotta get some sleep now. Good night to all and to all a good night.

April 2006

April 30, 2006

    Today truly has been moving day. I'm starting to get over this blasted sickness which I attribute to food poisoning, a cold and lack of sleep. I managed to go into work yesterday for a half day. We didn't really do anything though and I slightly regretted going. The house was an absolute madhouse yesterday. People coming and going all night. I'll give a brief run-down of the major happenings. Rich went to Ottawa for the weekend. Dave and Nicole left town forever. Katie and her family moved her massive amount of stuff out. Brown worked. Brian came and borrowed the truck, which once again was ticketed. This has become a severe annoyance. A campaign to remedy the situation will begin on Monday, ie tomorrow. Most of today was spent reclaiming the house. We moved Katie's stuff out of the living room. I moved all of Maggie's stuff upstairs. Brown and I went through the kitchen and got rid of all of Annie's stuff. We also did some spring cleaning of other stuff. We cleaned the main floor as well. It went pretty well. I'm currently on a break before we tackle the garage. It's really full of stuff and garbage. It will be a major under-taking to clean up, not looking forward to it. I'm going to get horizontal before it goes down, excuse me.

April 27, 2006

    Today was the final day of training. We did driving training in the morning, which included skid pad training. It was not as enjoyable as last year. The previous day was spent doing safety training that is often seen as pointless. It wasn't what you would call incredibly enjoyable. I'm glad it's all wrapped up now. The next task will be to delivery all the seed. I was slated to make a huge delivery to Barrie and then on to Port Hope but I'm home sick today. I was up all night and now I can't get to sleep. It really is agony for me. I have a head splitter and my stomach is doing loops. I can't move from my bed, on the bright side I've been able to watch a couple of movies that I hadn't seen yet. I can't take much more of this verticalness. I'm going to get more horizontal. Hope everyone is doing better that I am.

April 25, 2006

    Well, two thirds of my job training is now over, thankfully. I was part of a two hour conference call training meeting yesterday and today was a full day of Monsanto covering their bums. I was able to visit our new office which is very nice, smaller but nicer. I've got my new truck and phone but the phone is giving me a hard time for some reason. I'm not having an easy time activating it. That's Bell though, nothing is easy with them. I've got to compile a major list of tasks that need to be completed. This includes financial setup for our bills under the new housing regime. I'm not looking forward to it but I imagine that it will fall into my lap at some point. Dave is in the process of moving out and Mike is already gone. Phil and Gordo are also gone already. Guelph is emptying out pretty fast these days. I don't think there will be many people here that I know. Ah well, I'll be busy with work for the most part. My house is currently a huge mess with people moving to and fro so that is high on the list of things to remedy. Only Brown, Rich and I should be left for the summer once the smoke settles. Katie and Dave should be out by Monday, as far as I know. We can then move the stuff from the living room into a bedroom and organize the kitchen. I still don't know what all is going on and I'm just trying to survive at this point. It's a real whirlwind. Well, I'm going to clean my room and at least try and keep my space well organized. So I'm out.

April 23, 2006

    Finals are over! Woooooooo! Anyways, where did I leave off in my life's narrative? Ah yes, after studying on Friday I coerced my chums Dave, Brown, and Mike to go to King's Buffet for supper. This, in case you're not aware, is a cheaper, geographically closer alternative to the manner. A cheap imitation if you would. Either way, both Brown and I were feeling crummy for whatever reason and could only muster a couple of plates. Dave took his first title, which is under-protest due to two salad plates. Mike, a vegetarian, didn't even have one full salad plate. It was a good feed for all. We went back to our learning holes after that. Studying was not very fun that night, as if it ever is. Saturday morning was an early one for again, 6:30am for the second day in a row. I'm trying to get into the work routine. It also gave me all day to study which I pretty much squandered. At 10:30am Brown and I went to get Dave from the school and then went to the grocer's and on to the bank. Our account was in pretty bad shape but our money bolstered it back above over-draft. It's all good. The account will be be closed next week at some point. After that I hit the books, and by that I mean I played the Godfather for a couple of hours, turns out my will-power is weaker than expected. I did manage to get through the notes twice and reviewed the summary notes 4 times. There was a series of calculations with practice problems that I didn't bother with. This was all after I discovered that I had a 56% in the course before writing the final exam. This meant that with a 60% on the final I would still get a 70% in the course. I did the math. I was burnt out from studying at this point and I was also feeling sickly which I'm not completely over yet. I blame the lack of sleep or something. Either way I nailed the final shut anyways so I expect a good mark. I came back, ate some crappy soup and laid down. I didn't get up until this morning. I watched sports and GameKillers. Look it up, funny concept for a show. Anyways, we're going to try and have some kind of final sports event this morning and then a hockey team based BBQ in the afternoon even though its raining like a bastard and has been for a couple of days now. Well, hope everyone else is doing alright. Phillips out.

April 21, 2006

    I'm still having some difficulty posting on a regular basis. I doubt this post will be up for a couple of days. I have just returned from my second to last exam of the year. I aced it. This was an easy course and a second year course at that. I feel that it will provide a much needed boost to my GPA. I haven't done anything really exciting in the past couple of days until this morning. I have mainly been holed up in my room studying and watching television. I really do excel at wasting time when it comes to studying things I don't overly enjoy. The exam was pretty easy so I didn't worry too much about it. I've been having a sore neck lately, just thought I would throw that in there. I think it has something to do with the way I've been reading my notes on my bed. We'll see if it clears up after finals. Anyways, back on topic, after the exam I caught the bus to the mall and had to wait for awhile for the mall to actually open. Who knew that the mall didn't open until 10, well the building is open but all the stores are closed, what happened to opening at 9? Either way, this gave me a chance to par-take of the new bathrooms which are in good shape for public washrooms. I found a bench and sat it out. Just before 10 am the blast shields on Sears opened and a throng of old people that were waiting patiently outside hurriedly shuffled into Sears. It was both sad and funny to watch. I followed suit and was actually the third person to reach the watch repair counter. I got two new batteries in my watch that had stopped in the night. The light is operational again, hurray! I then stopped in a video game shop where I bought The Godfather game for Xbox. I also got Call of Duty for cheap because it was pre-played (former property of Roger's Video apparently). It is going to be hard not to play these games in the next couple of days because a brief trial run confirmed what I had expected. My progress was saved on the Godfather. Oh well, I've got shreds of will-power. I'll keep everyone posted.

April 19, 2006

    This is me returning for my longest absence of the month thus far. The dry spells could get longer once I begin work just to give y'all a warning. I'm coming to you here late into the night, after eleven. It's late for me. I can't help waking up before seven each morning. I blame the sun. Anyways. I ventured home to the promised land for Easter. The whole Jesus is back celebration. I can be mildly sacrilegious because I've done some light research on the subject. Back on track though. We left early on the Good Friday and got home early as well. That night I was bored out of my skull so I went to a friend's house where we watched the worst movie ever made involving Christmas, entitled Surviving Christmas. I've seen Affleck suck before but this really takes the cake. No wonder he doesn't make movies anymore. I didn't sleep well that night because our basement and thus my room was flooded. This meant that I had to sleep on the couch, the short couch. I got to know my knees a little better but other than that I just tossed and turned. I transferred to my parents bed after they had vacated. Upon re-awakening I was called into action. I had to load a transport with my father. It was a double truck ordeal with much awkward bag throwing, not ergonomically sound as Dave put it. This was followed by a trip to town with my parents to acquire a new BBQ among other things. The BBQ was then setup. Supper followed, not BBQ though. The evening was spent wishing that our internet was not down and that I had something to do. Luckily it didn't last long as I passed out at seven in the pm with a case of the crummy tummy. I woke up at nine pm and transferred to my sister's bed for the night. She is shorter and did better on the couch. This would be the sleeping arrangement for the rest of the trip. Sunday morning was spent in the yard playing various sports. I then drove my sister to get her bike repaired. I don't recall what went down in the afternoon. Monday was spent doing house based chores and watching TV. It was another early night. We left early Tuesday and headed back to the south. That night, after moving my sister out of her house, we enjoyed the company of the Wade and the T-horse. We had four guests that night.

    Today was spent studying and wasting time. Phil, G-Force, and Joanne came over for awhile in the evening and we once again watched the high school films that we made. It was good times. Tomorrow will likely be the same, if all goes as planned. That is all, enjoy. Also, note the April 13th entry. You haven't seen it yet because I've been having some trouble posting and accessing the site. Anyways, Phillips out.

April 13, 2006

    Yesterday was an interesting day. I managed to write my exam without a hitch, I'm confident that I passed the exam and also the course. I got a nice little boost when he handed back assignments that we didn't know the marks for going in and I did very well on them. But let us start at the beginning of this tale, well pretty much from the last time I gave you a word. I have re-captured the ability to study. Late on the 11th I re-learned my fine art and studied like a dog to get ready for my exam, well maybe not that hard but anyways, I studied a lot. So pretty much that is what I did until the exam with the exception of the hour that Brown and I went to the driving range for some reason. I actually went in my pajamas and slippers, the slippers were taken off when I donned my golf shoes. I didn't have a glove in my bag though and I got a wicked blister. Turns out a suck at that driving range, I don't know what it is, I'm fine on a course most of the time but that particular range, on the elevated level I'm terrible. Anyways back to the story. After the exam I was stumbling to my car in a post-exam haze when I remembered I was supposed to meet Todd in the library. I did and we went to Johnston Hall where his room-mate helped us to make free copies of notes. After the exchange I returned home to polish off season 3 of Trailer Park Boys. I've now watched 3.5 seasons in the last week. In my defense they are only eight twenty minute episodes per season. I had to watch the part of season 4 from my new room. Yes, that's right, last night on a whim we moved all my stuff across the house into the now empty room. We had all my stuff moved in under 40 minutes. Pretty good considering we only moved 3 things intact, the rest had to be dismantled. Either way, I'm all set up here now. It really reminds me of last summer when we lived in the other house and my room was this format. Good times, but I ramble. I'll be going home tomorrow so I might post or I might not post on the 15th, only time will tell, you'll have to check to find out, assuming that you're not reading this on the 17th or something and the answer is as plain as day. If you are then you should have checked sooner to capture the suspense. If you like suspense, if you don't then don't worry about it. Now, I'm rambling. Time to eat or study, you know it. Phillips out.

April 11, 2006

    The last day before my exams start to erupt. I have two eruptions slated for the next two days after today and then the lengthy journey home to the promised land to visit the family at Easter. I have secured a ride with the Big T to return on the Tuesday. This will be followed by the studying and completion of exams on the 21st and 22nd. A brief BBQ will persist on the 23rd at our buddy Pinder's house and then the work begins. There is speculation of a party happening after the first day of work but I can't be held responsible for that. Things are moving along nicely and I imagine that yesterday will mark the beginning of the busy period for Chase. It should be non-stop insanity. Tomorrow also marks the end of an era. Wade, who we all know and love, will be shutting the book on his time in the east. I'm sure New Brunswick was a hoot but it's good to be getting Wade back, for a few days anyways before he ventures into the great beyond of Western Canada. I plan to see him either at home or down here before said departure. I myself cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. This first exam is likely to be my hardest and most crucial. I have studied fairly hard for it so far and I am almost through the notes once but I don't feel prepared for it yet. I would like a seventy in the class that can be offset by other higher marks but I just don't know if I can pull that off. I missed some integral parts of the course when I was away for my personal reasons. Also studying has been a real effort these days. I have to return my movies, thanks for reminding me, wait, I reminded myself. Either way, I'm going to get back to my recurrent selection in segregating populations now. Enjoy the day, do it for me as mine will be terrible.

April 9, 2006

    Well Dude's Day Out was a success. Phil got to celebrate his birthday at the big ball game and we all got to have a fun day. We saw the infamous Matt Wood and the always hoot Johno. We had a good meal to kick things off at Hooters. The game followed, the Jays were down early but came back to win a huge one. Solid work by the bullpen was the main factor. Phil and I stayed in our seats the whole time and took in the game. Mike and Dave wandered off in hopes of getting a happy birthday wish on the Jumbo-tron for Phil. Turns out that kind of things has to be done four business days in advance and costs around $100. So we expected them to be gone for a short time to find this stuff out but they were gone for about 5 innings or two hours, roughly. We were starting to get a little worried by the time they returned. They had gone on a tour of sorts and visited the 500 level and the 100 level. They watched two plus innings on in the standing room of the 100 level right behind home plate. This produced some good photos. We left after the eighth inning as we felt the game was in hand for the Jays. We went hard to Casey's downtown to take advantage of the free meal for birthdays policy. Johno meet at us at this juncture. We had a decent meal and the others enjoyed some beers. We got the subway after that and headed uptown. Phil and Johno went to his place and the rest of us continued to Wood's. After a brief snag in terms of directions we managed to locate his building and gain entry without a hassle. Ah, the art of tail-gating. Wood finally got to use his roof-top pool and we went into his apartment to look at his amazing viewing device. It's a monitor and tv in one and it is like 42". It costs $1000 from Costco. I was blown away. We got back on the subway after a while and headed back to the bus station. I slept on the way back so I can't say much about that. I got home and got ready for bed. I talked to my good friend Joanne for awhile about some troubling things before retiring. Work up this morning and started work on the Dude's Day Out slideshow. It is done and it is huge in both stature and content. I'm now going to begin my studying for my exam on Wednesday. It should be a real hoot. That is all for today. Phillips out.

April 7, 2006

    The last day of classes is complete and yes I finished the paper. Dave is reading it right now. It was meant to be ten pages but has spilt over into thirteen pages. I would say that it is a modest effort and I'm glad it is now behind me. I will be sending it off later today. I have discovered a new addiction in my life. It is The Godfather video game on xBox. I rented it yesterday and played it longer than any human should on the first day. It is a cross between the Grand Theft Auto game series and the Godfather movies. This has made for an amazing spectacle of plot and violence. Two things that are seemingly integral in video games in today's culture. I will submit my paper for grading and retire to the living room to feed my addiction. I will have to eat in that time also. I'm looking forward to the big weekend coming up. Sunday will be a study day as exams now encroach as is their way when classes have run out. I'm pretty scatter brained at the instant and can't come up with anything else to write about. I just want to get that paper sent out as soon as possible so I can play that game guilt free. It really is a sickness. I played into the night last night after my brain had ceased to be of any use to me. It was fabulous and scary that something so trivial could control my actions so easily and completely. Good thing people are researching these things. I know because I was invited to join the study but had to decline due to school work pressures. Well that seems to be enough text for the time being. I'm going to light it up photo...ly at the game but don't expect to see any of them, unless you come to my house and look at my slideshow that I will surely make. I prepared two slideshows last weekend of pictures I had taken in the week. It's weird but I enjoy it and I enjoy presenting them to my friends. Either way, I'm going to fade into the ether here. Phillips out.

April 5, 2006

    Hump day is here. Hump referring to the middle of the week and not to anything else. I should be working on my final paper but I can't bring myself to do it. I've returned from an adventure that saw us get stuff from McDonalds and from Tim Horton's. We consumed the stuff. Good story eh? It was much more of an adventure than that, as it usually is. I had a fairly enjoyable day today until snow started to fly, that brought on some pissed off sessions followed by some swearing. We also got groceries today; this was carried out in a very organized fashion. I met the new house people at 1:30pm and signed off the lease again. I ran into Dave and we rendez-voused with Phil and the G-Force at 2:23pm. We then proceeded to Staples where we met Mike Ward. The quintet of us headed to the grocer's and filled the car with food-stuffs. After dropping everyone off at their locations we headed home and unpacked the food. It was a really fun adventure and makes me look forward to Dudes Day Out. This is what we've dubbed our trip to Toronto. It is going to happen, we're going to the Jays game and eating at both Hooters and Casey's on either end of the game. It should be a fun time. Until then I'm going to try and will myself to do this paper.

April 3, 2006

    So here we are in a new month. I've been working pretty hard these past few day. I did a pretty big lab and prepared a presentation today and went to two hours of class. It was a pretty tough assignment, it's only worth a marginal amount though so I don't mind if it's not 100% correct. Now I just have to present the assignment tomorrow in lab or class and I'm good. I also have one paper to write. I finished the research for it over the weekend so I just have to write it out now. Hopefully it won't be too bad. There is some talk about a trip to Toronto on the upcoming weekend. It will likely be a day trip. I have a couple days to relax before my first two exams. Then the hardcore studying begins. I'm losing interest in this post today so I'm going to go ahead and wrap it up. I'll read my book about conspiracy theories and then retire for the night. I have the rare chance to sleep in tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. Too everyone out there...good night.

March 2006

March 31, 2006

    Today is an off day for me and mine. Mine being my feet. Last night was the much anticipated year end shaker. It lived up to the hype. It ran a course eerily similar to last year's gala. Around 11 most of the people including all inhabitants of the house went downtown and left the remaining guests to their devices. This year we got the captain, Aarden, right hammered. It was awesome. People were leading him with revealing questions and it was good. We smoked some Cuban cigars and laughed the night away. We got home around 1 in the morning. Tonight is a similarly themed event in that it is a Farewell party. This time it isn't for the hockey team it is for the memories of parties past at 80 Cole road. This famed party venue has brought many people a lot of good times. It is the end of a era tonight and hopefully it goes out with a bang. I've taken the day off school to get ready. Well I didn't really have any academics to do  today so I felt I deserved the break. I worked really hard all this week to get a lot of stuff done. I have to hand it to me yesterday, it was a very productive morning. But enough of this revelry. I must get back to my cold pizza dinner and my bed lazing. Is there anything better? I think not.

March 28, 2006

    Well, well, well, we meet again. How ironic, that it is here in the internet that our paths should cross. The very place were meeting was intended. I really don't know what I'm saying here. My mind is whirling like a flag in a midsummer's wind. I have a tri-fecta of presentations coming up this week. The kick-off is tomorrow. After this week I only have one presentation/lab report left and its all over but the crying. In this case the crying coincides with final exams. Many of my friends will have completed their undergraduate degree. That is a four year process. I think back and it seems like high school was only yesterday. I still remember it clearly. University has just been a massive blur. All the years, classes, and experiences have melded into one big free for all. And that is not due to any kind of drug use or drinking. That's because I gave up drinking and never did get into the whole drug thing. I'm a clean cut, straight laced dude. Well my laces probably aren't straight. I will go in for a closer inspection. The weather has been great here. The local sports team is successful. I like cheese. Not always real cheese either, I enjoy the cheese slices. They are quick, convenient, and healthy. If you eat them too often or buy the cheap brands you will find them gross after a short time. They are good for the odd sandwich though. That is the main use I have for them. So ya, cheese slices are good. Upon further inspection these are loafers. That line never made all that much sense to me because my loafers always had laces. Even when I was a kid my loafers had laces. Oh well, its just a cartoon, it doesn't have to be accurate all the time. I'm rambling, and I'm tired. Far too tired to be sitting here rambling about nothing. But here I am nonetheless. Shouldn't I be preparing for my big presentation tomorrow. Probably. I have all morning to do that. It's the last paper that I should be working on. I've put it off for a week now. Guess I better get to it. Good night baby. Don't ever call me baby. Phillips out.

March 27, 2006

    The game has come and the game has gone. We lost in a heartbreaking fashion. Well not that heartbreaking. Our opponents started the second period off with three quick goals. They managed to victimize young Phil for all of them. He even put one in his own net. It was a rough game for him. It was a rougher game for Vince of our team. He lead the way in hitting with a buttload of big hits and then got in a fight at the end of the game. I give the fight win to him but the idiot that he was fighting was wearing a big fat ring and managed to land only one punch that cut the skin. Phil, Dave and I all had a front row seat for the event as we were all on the ice. He skated off on his own power so don't worry. Even though the actual game ended on a down note we were all in high spirits. We're having a team "year end shaker" on Thursday. Until then I have a bunch of presentations and a few labs, papers and the like to complete and hand in. Either way, I'm happy to report that Wade has started his own blog and has got his first entry up and running. He's just using his MSN MySpace but it is a start for him and I like that. This post is very dis-jointed because my butt-hole room-mates are harassing me. Excuse that. They have become too much and I'm going to retire for the day. That is all.

March 25, 2006

    The internet is back baby, and with a vengeance. I've been working it hard to try and make up for lost time. I'm researching my last paper and putting together a presentation, well two presentations. I've been a real tear to say the least. No word on what happened to our internet but Bell fixed it, I think it was a problem on their end. I found out yesterday that I get more OSAP than originally thought, which is good because things might have gotten tight. I also get a one time bursary of $500 for some reason. I like that. Ok, I'm sure you've all been dying to know how we did in the hockey. We won that quarter final game by a tally of 4-1. I got a couple of assists for sure, maybe three. I was on fire for a bit. We played the next night at eleven in the pm. We won our semi-final by a score of 3-2 against the number 2 seed. We are scheduled to play in the finals tomorrow at 6:30 pm. If you're in the area come on out and support the team. We're looking to repeat as champions. I still hope we lose though, for some reason. Or do I? I don't even know. Last night everyone went their separate ways. Dave went to his class formal thing, Mike went to a ski-team party, Adam went to his girlfriends for their 2 year, and I went to Joanne's to watch a movie. Everyone did alright. Anyways, I've got to keep on trucking with this work so I'll update y'all on the outcome of the game.

March 22, 2006

    Well our internet is down. I'm posting offline here. Lots has been going on around here in the past few days. Paper Watch 2006 continues but only one paper remains to be watched an the prof has graciously removed the deadline considering my situation. I am really appreciative of that. I have a plethora of presentations coming up though. Three by my count and one more that I'm a part of but I don't have to contribute anything to. So anyways, the events of recent times. The Big T is here. He messed up and came down a day too soon for his final Dekalb meeting. We used the extra time to prepare a delicious shepard's pie. We consumed part of it that day, it was quite good. The big T spent most of the next day (Tuesday) laying around and having a rare day off. He's going to leave after his meeting today. I did my big consulting paper and got it all put together. I went to the class that it is for and who was the present, none other than Kent Schubert, my old neighbour. I approached him after class and he wanted to come out for drinks with the Big T and I (again on Tuesday). We went to the Holiday Inn (swanky) where the Big T was staying. We laughed it up until around midnight, when I returned home. I attended class today for the first time in awhile and I'll be doing work for the rest of the day, well until our hockey game tonight at midnight. We're in the play-offs now. We're the number 8 seed in our division. On Sunday we won by default and advanced to round 2 of 4. We are slated to play the number 3 seed tonight, we might lose. I'm kind of hoping that we lose so I can focus on school. Anyways, I better get after it here.

March 18, 2006

    Paper Watch 2006 continues. The soil paper was done but has re-surfaced. The tobacco paper is getting researched, writing will commence shortly. The other one is on the back-burner. With that out of the way let's get to the details of the week's end. Saturday was spent at the University's College Royal. This is an annual event, it's drawing attention. Rick Mercer of the Mercer report is slated to do his show on College Royal, details on the university website. I took in the livestock show with Dave and my sister Megan, apparently a vigilant reader. She came over for Social Mixer C. The activities of the 2-1-3rd will be addressed later. The livestock show was enjoyable. The three people we were cheering for didn't win but I think they all enjoyed themselves. Afterwards we toured the barns on campus and then had cheap milkshakes, which were well worth the price of admission. We killed a few hours until Megan had to catch her bus and upon her doing that I ran some errands. For some reason I enjoy running errands, the instant gratification of getting something done really is satisfying for me. I returned all of the empty beer bottles we had, I picked up some notes from my friend Joanne's, and I dropped off my latest rentals. I managed to make it back in time for my 4 o'clock meeting. The Mayor followed the meeting and filled our fridge and our stomachs. I went home and to bed shortly afterwards. I was out by 10 last night. Early for some, right on time for me. Phil couldn't make our supper with the Mayor because he was in the midst of his three day drinking marathon known simply as Social Mixer C. His room, the lounge and the bathroom are disaster areas. He hasn't slept in his room in a few days because of the stink and mess. I'm slightly embarrassed about the whole thing. Ah well, boys will be boys. Well, I have to dig into that paper now. We have a hockey game slated for 11:30pm this eve so I would like to have the most of it finished before then. It's the playoffs, if we lose we're out, that would probably be a good thing for my academics. Either way, off to the wonderful world of internet research. Enjoy the day, y'all.

March 17, 2006

    The week has slipped by and the work is piling up. I have three papers due next week. One of the papers is complete and the other two aren't started yet. One of the incomplete papers is only five pages and is part of a larger group-based effort. The other is of an unknown length, it's not due until later in the week though. The past three days have been a blur. I barely went to school on Wednesday, Thursday was pretty schooly, and I took today off from class to write that paper. This, of course, is the night of Social Mixer C, Phil's famed party. I stopped by briefly to see what was what and it was not raging out of control. There were several people there but nothing to call home about. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed, but the night was still in its infant stages. My night will consist of researching tobacco. Yes, as interesting as that sounds, I'm not hating it. I guess I truly enjoy agronomy.

    Ok, let's just touch on this a bit before I sign off. I probably put down some words last year (check it out for me) about this "holiday" but I'm going to do it again anyways. St. Patrick's Day, a so-called Irish celebration. Funny how most of the people I see aren't even Irish. They just use it as an excuse to get drunk. It peeves me somehow. I have Irish decent to my credit but I don't flaunt it (other than just now). By all rights I should be one of the proud few who get hammered in celebration of some long ago forgotten event(s). Just for fun I asked some people today about the meaning of St. Patrick's Day. Wouldn't you know I didn't get one meaningful answer. They ranged from: "shutup Phillips" to "It means you're supposed to get drunk". This troubles me. I have done my research, I know what its all about, I'm part Irish (or at least I'd like to think so), and yet I don't abuse the holiday. So to all you out there that use this day of days to pound booze until you can't think straight I say, "Shame on you, shame on you all!" That is all I have to say about that.

March 14, 2006

    The memorial last night ran smoothly and efficiently. Annie's parents came, we didn't find out until almost last minute. The short speeches were well written and effective. Our slideshow was a big hit as always. The school provided refreshments for afterwards and we spent some time co-mingling with other students. It was pretty awkward afterwards as most of the students were unknown to the others. There was also some faces that we hadn't seen in years come out of the wood work to lend support. All in all I think the service was appreciated by everyone who attended, and attendance was very good, extra chairs had to be brought in and everything. After the service a few people came back to the house just to hang out. Annie's parents will be coming by tomorrow morning to pick up her stuff. I expect that will be a difficult time for all of us. I don't know if they are taking everything, but we're helping to prepare everything in the case they do.

    The weekend was spent lounging as none of us really wanted to do any work being our first weekend back in the house. I have to adjust quickly as I have two papers due next week and both are large. I have been offered some days of grace for one and I think I'm going to swallow my pride and take those days, I'll more than likely need them. I've gotten caught up in 3 classes and after a brief meeting with a TA in another I'll be caught up in that one too. That pretty much does it.

March 11, 2006

    Our lives are starting to get back in order and some degree of normalcy is beginning to return. We've started attending class again and we're starting to untangle the devious web of academics. In our spare time we have begun to assemble a slide show commemorating Annie with pictures that we've gathered over the last while. We met with the campus chaplain yesterday and hammered out all the details for the memorial. It should be a good one. It will be more traditional for us than the learning experience of the traditional Greek ceremony that was held at home. In other, more cheery news, we've moved back into our home and we're doing well with that. Adam is back at work and the rest of us are doing our regular stuff.

    Tonight we went out for supper at Cagney's. I had the chicken parm. It was good. Going out was good as I laid in my bed until four in the afternoon today. It was a lazy day and that theme continues as I cut this short. Toodles.

March 9, 2006

    Well as you may have noticed I haven't been around lately. There is a reason for that. Where to start. On March first of this year the world lost a great person. That person was my room-mate, Annie Belandis. She was one of the most important people in my life and the life of many other people. Everyone was shocked and heartbroken at the news of her passing. It has not been easy for any of us. We have gone through a wake, a funeral and a personal visit with her parents. There is a memorial planned for March 13th at 7 pm in PCH for those who wish to attend. This is being held primarily for the students who were unable to make the official proceedings. There was a speech written by our room-mate Katie which was meant for the funeral but the opportunity never came up. It will be read at the memorial service. This has been a stressful and trying time for many people and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the University of Guelph for all of their support in everything that they've done for us. I would also like to extend my gratitude to all the people who assisted us in the past 9 days and to those that will help us in the coming weeks. I hope things are well elsewhere and that Annie is well wherever she is now. That is all.

February 2006

February 28, 2006

    Well the spring break "hangover" is wearing off and my nose is getting back to the grindstone. I have a midterm tomorrow somehow. It's in a first time course so no one has any idea what it's going to be like, not even the professors, who hadn't even written it as of today. It's a strange world we live in. I've read the notes four times and I'll do it one more time tonight but the whole works is only worth 15% of the final mark so my dander is far from up. I've amassed all the pictures from the trip onto my computer and I'm going to try and put them on DVD for distribution. This is going to be a real project for me. It should take up some of my time. I've been rather bored lately. I think my ability to waste time doing nothing is beginning to dwindle. In my prime I could waste a whole day with such things as rolling on the floor and throwing a football around. Now I've been only able to stare off into space for a few minutes. I keep getting this feeling that I should be doing work or some sort. I guess I take school more seriously now, which is good because it is getting more serious for me. I've begun preparations for my masters. Just imagine, some day at the top of this page it might say Chase Phillips, Msc. Wouldn't that be something. Either way, Scrubs is beckoning and so is my bowl of noodles. Good luck and good night.

Spring Break 2006 (Feb 17-26)

The following post is brought to you by Dirty Dick's Crabhouse. It is in order from the time we left Canada to the time we returned. The Friday that we left was the seventeenth, the rest of the dates are for you to figure out. This is just a basic run down of some of the events that we partook of, the rest will be leaked out in stories over the years.

Friday, Saturday

    We started our journey at around 6pm eastern time and ended it around 1 pm central time the next day. That adds up to around 19 hours with stops. We crossed the border at Windsor and headed through Michigan. We tried to get some sleep but it was hard to come by. The next state on the docket was Ohio. We made our first gas stop and got a taste of the locals. The next state was Kentucky then Tennessee. We were on I75 that whole time. It was a few hours per state, more like three hours per state, with Ohio hogging most of the spotlight. Georgia followed Tennessee, apparently, I say this because I slept through most of Tennessee and Georgia. We stopped in Atlanta for breakfast around 7am Saturday morning at an IHOP. It was loaded with police, fire fighters, and paramedics so we figured it would be safe. Alabama was next. It can best be described as a desolate rural swamp. Most of the towns were extremely run down. It seemed to drag on forever. Then we entered Florida with a rousing cheer and cracked the windows for the first time in many hours. We were greeted by wafts of warm moist air, the likes of we'd never sniffed in February. The rest of the day was surreal, partially due to exhaustion and partially due to amazement. The awesome scenery and the architecture and everything was awesome. (Nice sentence dude.) Everything was just like you would picture on TV and more. We got settled in and then toured the town and acquired some groceries. We all were asleep very early that night, exhausted from our marathon driving adventure.

Sunday

    The morning was spent playing mindless games such as shuffleboard, outdoor billiards, ping pong, and basketball. Roy and I tied at shuffleboard. I destroyed Phil at our modified version of 9-ball. The 8-ball, the 6, and the 7 were all missing so we adapted. We used all the higher numbered balls and the four ball took on the traditional role of the nine. It worked well for us only having one cue and no tip. The shuffleboard was good fun, we'll probably play that throughout the week. We've had several huge barn-burner series' of ping pong so far. Phil has a tendency of barely beating me on his last chance. We only played basketball once so far. We played a four man game of HORSE. Phil took me to the wire but prevailed. He was talking trash so I challenged him to a game of one-on-one, to three. I beat him. The game was fairly close and we were both winded at the conclusion of the match.

    After a morning of good times we decided that we should get out and see the sights. We drove along the beach and also drove the strip of the city. Upon completion of this adventure we parked and walked along the beach. Soon after we found a spot to toss the football around. Some other guys approached us to ask for a game. As it turned out they were also went to Guelph. As we were organizing the match more and more small groups of guys came running out of nowhere to play. When the dust finally settled, we ended up with a eight on eight match-up. There was a skirmish involving a drunk and the white suited Brown. It ended well. In the game, we lost terribly which wasn't all bad since almost all of their team are members of our varsity team. After the game, which was quite enjoyable, we went to the beach side Hooters for supper. Delicious food. After a nap and a change of clothes we headed off to the largest night club in the USA, Club La Vela. It was pretty tame because it was the first night. We ran into the football guys again and spent most of the night listening to a live band. They were pretty good. We headed home around one and hit the hay to get ready for the next day's adventure.

Monday

    We slept in pretty long on Monday. After killing some time with TV, we had our breakfast and showers then went outside. While on the outside we played the many parlour games that the resort has to offer. We played a huge match of doubles shuffleboard. Brown and Phil made a trip to the Winn Dixie Marketplace and got some delicious foodstuffs. After they returned, Will and Roy took another crack at the beach. We lounged around all day and had some of the pizza that was purchased. The evening entertainment included watching the Punisher with Tom Jane. Good action film, good mindless action. After the completion of the film we laughed it up for a period and put a few pictures on Brown's laptop. Soon after that we went our separate ways and watched TV, or read books, or what have you. Sleep followed.

Tuesday

    Tuesday started early with a sweet breakfast. We had a feast of bacon, eggs, and toast. It was very, very, delicious. After breakfast and showers we played some more spa games and had a hot tub and swim. After a quick lunch of soup and hammers we headed for the beach. We setup our base camp and started a game of catch with the Frisbee and football. Some people wanted to get a game of volleyball going so we joined in. It was good times. Roy and Brown stayed at the base camp and took in the sights and sounds of the ocean and crowds. When we re-convened we decided to bury Phil in the sand. We used the Frisbee as a digging too to dung out a good hole and the game was a foot. We started with just breasts and testicles, that drew the attention of a passer-by, a girl who thought her breasts were larger than those we constructed, it was admittedly close. She posed for some pictures. After that we made arms, legs, and another thing. The videos of Phil escaping his sand prison is quite humourous. When Phil escaped everyone but me decided to take a walk down the beach. I laid down and tried to accomplish my life long dream of falling asleep on the beach. I did it, but it was short-lived as I was awoken by a John Deere 7820 tractor carrying a hut. The driver dropped the hut mere feet from my own feet. I was scared that he was going to drop it on me. I didn't flinch though.

    When the gang returned, we headed back to Club La Vela for the festivities. These were to include four hours of free food, free drinks and three contests. This all came free once the $25 cover charge was paid. It turned out to be well worth it. The first contest was the male hard body thing for the ladies. This time was spent scouting out the free food and drinks. With our bellies full we got into position for the rest of the show. The next contest was the bikini contest. It was awesome. There were eighteen girls entered and pairs dancing was commonplace. Flash photography was encouraged and we had three cameras at work. The next part of the show got the cameras working overtime. The world famous wet 'n wild international wet t-shirt contest. Wow. That's all  I'll say about that. When that was done we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Those who needed to shower did so while the others put pictures on the laptop. We had a big viewing and then headed to Dirty Dick's Crabhouse. Good food, good service. I got a t-shirt and a hat from the gift shop. Upon returning "home" we had a hot tub and then hit the hay. It was a long tiring day and the sun drained most of our energy.

Wednesday

    This was to be our last good weather day as forecasted by the news and echoed by Roy. We decided that we should get all of our outdoor activities done and then do other things like shopping when it was raining. Brown and I got a package of hot dogs and headed for the communal BBQ while the others applied ointments to their sun burnt skin. After lunch we decided to hit up the beach and then some outdoor activity. The sun was clouded and the air warm and misty when we arrived. We tossed the football and Frisbee around and played in the ocean before striking off. Most of the other spring breakers were at their respective hotels for the guest only pool parties. The beach crowd was admittedly sparse. We headed for the strip with a few things in mind. We were going to go on a pirate cruise but we were a week too soon as it didn't open until March first. Only a couple of us wanted to try para-sailing so we decided to play mini-golf and or go-carts. The place we ended up at only had golf so that's what we did. Will pulled off a huge come-from-behind win. Next we went and got some Dippin' Dots, the ice-crean of the future. This lead us "home". We killed a couple of hours in our room before supper. Supper, as it turns out, was an unforgettable experience. We went to Casa de Fogo, a Brazilian joint. It's like a buffet but not. All the salads and sides are setup like a buffet but the main course is unique. Workers come around with huge skewers of meats and things (12 meats in all) and offer you some if your card is flipped to green. If it is red then they skip over you. Towards the end of the meal after turkey, pork tenderloin, bacon-wrapped chicken, shrimp, garlic steak, sirloin, prime rib, sausage, and grilled pineapple I hit up the bathroom to make more room, as classy as that sounds. No, I didn't puke. It was a bit expensive at $19.99, but it was a steal of a deal for us. Brown and Will ate the most meat, both with pants undone by the end. We all sluggishly headed back for a lengthy lie down. Later in the evening four of us (not Will and Dave) headed for the spa. It was wickedly hot and devastingly painful on sun burns. The pain subsided after a short time. We got the football out and tossed it around the pool before calling it a night.

Thursday

    There were some consequences to the big feast that we had. Some members of the group had a hard time getting moving. In fact, Will didn't manage to stir until after 4pm. He just laid in bed watching movies. Brown spent the day going between his bed and the toilet. In his defense he was reading the whole time, in both locations. He has read two rather large novels in the past few days, usually in the hot tub. The rest of us went about our now seemingly daily routine of pool football, hot tub, and sporadic meals. Pool was also played along with ping pong. It rained all morning which made the hot tub all the more relaxing. We got soaked but loved it. Around mid-afternoon we headed  to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter. They aren't kidding about the name. It's probably the biggest Wal-Mart or even department store that I've ever imagined. There was a full grocery store, including produce, and a liquor store inside. This along with the regular Wal-Mart departments including a tire and lube express. I add these details only because I worked at a Canadian Wal-Mart and the differences are massive. It was a very interesting experience to say the least. We all bought some tourist stuff and some food to finish out the week. We'll likely be leaving very early on Saturday so we can get home in decent time which is an advantage for me to finish my paper that I've been working on. I'm about half done at this point. Back to the story though. After  Wal-Mart we came back to the hotel and made pasta, two pounds of it for four dudes. This is a lot in case you're wondering. After yet another post meal recovery period we headed down  tot he exercise room. Dave, Phil and I shot some hoops and then Dave bogged off for a jog. After we put the balls back we hit the spa again. Some laughing it up ensued. When we got back to our room a poker game erupted. I, of course, won the whole thing. And Dave, of course, was the first one out. Hi yo. Phil, Will, and Roy partook in some booze during this time. Sleep followed around midnightish. One full day of "paradise" left.

Friday

    Friday was a very low-key day. Most of the morning was spent either watching TV or doing various homework based tasks. Dave and Brown read their respective books. Phil did math, Will and Roy did their finance mumbo jumbo and I worked on my paper. These tasks whiled away the morning. We made a modest lunch of corn dogs and $1 pizzas and then took a stroll. We got to the store just after it closed so cigars were out of the question. Will had previously gone to the gas station to vacuum the van but I forgot to give him the funds to purchase any. As we were far from our room, maybe 7 minutes, we decided to check out the boats at the pier. Pretty impressive, it made me wish that I had a huge boat. After that excursion we headed back to the room. Supper was huge. We had to eat all of the food that we had left to minimize our luggage. This resulted in the mixture of 3 different kinds of soup (4 cans in total). It was surprisingly edible. That and corndogs made up the last meal, it was a fitting meal. The rest of the day was spent in the pool area. I was out there for a few hours while the others packed their bags. Phil and I tried to stay up all night so we could sleep all day but Dave would have none of it and claimed that the TV was burning his eyes out. We eventually went to sleep around 11:30pm.

Saturday, Sunday

    Saturday morning was a quick affair. We awoke, showered and throughout our masses of trash. We loaded up and headed out before 8am Central time. I tried to sleep as much as possible. I woke up mid-way through Alabama, I don't know what it was but something about that state just rubbed me the wrong way. It caused me to hate Alabama. I cursed it out pretty good for a while, much to the delight of everyone. We stopped in Georgia for lunch around 2 pm. We went to a Cracker Barrel. The concept was nice and the atmosphere was appropriate but the service and the food were sub-par. This caused me to have some minor bad feelings towards Georgia. I once again attempted to sleep through Tennessee and Kentucky with limited success. We ate supper in Ohio, Arby's. Great food. After that we were all awake and listened to some music, Phil and I sung what we knew from the back seat. It was good times. I dozed off and awoke at the border. After another effortless cross where no identification was required we sailed silently home, through a snowstorm, welcome back, eh!  We got home at 5 am eastern time. After some limited sleep I'm coming to you live from Canada. Hope everyone else had as fun a break as we did. Talk at ya later. Phillips out.

February 12, 2006

    The day after a successful Sports Saturday is always a good day. We had probably the second best Sports Saturday ever. We played pond hockey, conveniently enough, on a pond in the bush. Mike Ward spent his morning shoveling it off. Probably took him three hours. It was his month long dream to skate on a pond. Dave and I choose boots for the match, he because of a mysteriously ailing back, and I to avoid further damage to my skate blades. The two skated youngens (apparently not a word) took on the three fourth year lads (only one skated). It was a grueling five game series. They won it in game five in overtime. The only reason I prattle on about it is because a) it was a highlight of my otherwise dismal week, and b) it was awesome.

    In house related news I finally had another group contact me regarding a visit. It just so happened to be the group of familiars. Accordingly I sent an email to the other two groups of stragglers demanding an answer either way. I, predictably, have heard nothing back, much to my chagrin. My patience is wearing thinner than a model with an eating disorder. Wait, wait, let me try that again. My patience is wearing thinner than an actress on heroin, you know who you are Lindsay Lohan....too soon. But all my underground Hollywood secrets aside, I'm getting annoyed by their lack of follow up. Sure it hasn't even been a week yet, but I've been checking for a response every hour for the last 4 days. That can make it seem like a year. I give a fist shake of warning to them. They are going to have to knock my socks off with a sweet offer or something to get in here now.

    In other news, to add to the Sports report, at one point in the game Mike went after the ball into an area that was noticeably softer ice than the rest of the pond. He ventured into a patch of reeds and after a brief moment his one leg slowly sunk down through the ice. A second later his other leg followed suit. Knowing that the pond was only a foot or so deep, no of us really worried. He confirmed before stepping out of the hole that he was not hurt. This lead to much laughing on all our parts. Some rolling around on the ice was also involved. His pants froze/dried so that was not a major issue for the remainder of the series. The skate laces froze and were troublesome to remove. It was a really funny event and a good story that I felt warranted inclusion in this web-based post, which by the looks of it has grown to a larger than anticipated size. There was a photo of Mike upon exiting the water but it was not available to me at the time of this post. Which by the sounds of it is coming to a close. And is now over. You know it.

February 11, 2006

    Yesterday was an expensive day for me. I'm still partly asleep while I'm typing this. In face, my eyes are closed. Let's see how I really did in Grade nine typing class. I'd say pretty good with spell checker clearing the way. Ok, I've give a play by play again. I promise this one is better. So I got a ride to school with Annie. I went to my meeting, it ran long and I missed my class. We did get the outline done though, which is important. After that I had to kill time before I met a girl interested in the house and Brown. We all managed to come together and then walk to Brown's car at No Frills. He had started it remotely from the UC. Good range. Anyways, so we got to the car and I found an old toque and put it under his wiper for kicks. It became awesome later that day. Meanwhile, we brought the girl to the house and gave her a tour. She was assumedly impressed. So we embarked to drop her off and commence our afternoon of shopping. Dudes shop too. Just in much different way. We make a list and it's like a mission. We have to get everything on the list in the minimum amount of time. First stop, lunch. Since I was paying I was also choosing. I had not been to Burger King in too long. Brown claimed I owed him $15 for food. Later confirmed by Annie as truth. So we set out to eat enough Burger King food to cover that debt. Our combined affection for the Original Chicken Sandwich warranted it being the showcase item. In total there were 5 ordered. That is a buttload. The cook thought we were kidding. As he soon learned we don't joke about our Original Chicken Sandwiches. The bill total came out to $25 and change. It was worth it, we had a tremendous feed and some left over for later. Next stop, Staples Business Depot. We, got our DVD-Rs and printer ink. I for some reason bought another 50 DVD-Rs. I don't know why, I had over 60 at home. Either way, the price must have been right. I wanted to check on their digital camera selection. They not only had the one I wanted, the Kodak Z700, but it was on clearance. I had to buy it. In case you wondering, it is the same as Dave's which means I can use his dock until I get my own. I also got goaded into buying a battery set and charger for an extra fiddy bones. It was expensive overall. After a brief stop to pick up some stamps we made our way to Blockbuster. We returned three movies and came out with eleven. That is a net gain for eight films for those of you keeping score at home. The last stop on our tour was the No Frills. We got a few things and then headed home. The rest of the day was spent working in my room and playing with my new toy (the camera). Pictures may start to re-appear on this site. It just might happen. So I spent some money and had a fun afternoon is what I was trying to get at. I guess I could have said that right from the start but where's the fun in that. Hi yo. I'm done for now.

February 9, 2006

    I got stood up today. It was not funny. I was to meet my partner in a project in the library at 12:30 today. I ended up getting a ride unexpectedly from Brown so I was there at noon. I waited for an hour and half. No sign of him. Luckily there were some notes on me that I could read so read them I did. I kept a vigilant eye out for him but to no avail. I stormed off in a huff and had to wait another half hour in the blistering cold for the bus. Pretty much I'm getting sick of waiting on other people. Which is a good segue into my next topic. Our house is losing 3 of 5 members to graduation this year. Alas the remaining two of us have to fill those spots for next year. I've placed several ads in the popular media recently and I've gotten a good initial response. I've had three groups of three respond to my advertisement. One group has already come and seen the house. I invited the other two groups to do the same and I have not received a response as of yet. Mind you its only been 24 and 12 hours since I responded but I would expect if they were truly interested as they claim that they would get on that. I had a single girl also inquire. She is in the same year as me, in fact, she is in my class. She responded immediately and I haven't had to wait more than a few hours to get replies. I guess that just goes to show that older, more mature students are more professional and courteous when it comes to quasi-important correspondence. These kids today, I don't know what's wrong with them. Most of the interest has come from girls so it will be interesting to see what they're all about. The group that was in last night seemed ok for the most part. The one member of their group was pretty immature and loud, don't know if I would want to live with her but the other two seemed to be made of the stuff that good room-mates are all about. Either way I'll keep the world informed about this trivial news. It's a big deal to me, I have to live with these people. Meh, Phillips out.

February 7, 2006

    Today has been a very busy day for me today. I had to go to all my classes and labs. This caused me to miss my hockey game that I was supposed to have. We lost 5-2. I got to the arena just in time to see the end. I was told after that I was needed in that one. My defensive prowess would have been a real asset. Nonetheless, I went to my all important Problem Solving class. I need that credit to graduate so it was a must for me to attend. Also it is mainly a group oriented class and I had to meet with the group. Either way I missed the game and I didn't like that. I did some reading in the library on my long breaks and then I went to Phil's after that. I don't know why I'm giving a play by play, I'll cut that out now.

    The Steelers won the title. The bus is parked now. It was all good. I triumphantly watched the game. It was golden. I got to gloat the next day in class. It was all good. Well the hour is getting larger here and soon it will start to get smaller so I'd better hit the hay or class in the morning will be mighty unpleasant. I plan on attending all the classes tomorrow, that will make for a long day as well. I retire now.

February 5, 2006

    Super Sunday. The Sunday of the Superbowl. Football's greatest prize. The past six months of cheering for my beloved Steelers has paid off and they are in the big dance. Will they win it all? I'm not one to gamble or guess but I hope they do. That would be awesome, something that I could rub in Dave's face for the rest of the year, nay, the rest of our natural lives. His precious Eagles ousted only one year ago. That is poetic justice somehow. If I knew what that meant then I would be cooking with gas. As it turns out I cook with electricity that heats up elements on the stove and warms my food until it has reached an agreeable temperature that I can handle to swallow. That is how I cook. But all cooking aside I'm tearing it up in anticipation. It, in this case, is an unmeasureable quantity of boredom. All the idiot box is showing is needless hyping of the big game, which gets tiresome after 30 seconds. If I wanted to listen to four has-beens argue about pointless hypothetical situations I would go down to the local legion and spend some time with the veterans. At least that way I might learn a thing or two.

    I stayed in last night and watched hockey. I also watched some girls get hammered and make their pilgrimage to the downtown bars. This is a phenomenon that I still don't fully comprehend. They sit around and argue about minute details and moot subjects whilst get intoxicated then they go downtown for a couple of hours, maybe even one. Then return and go to bed. I never understood what was so special about going to a bar for a short time like that. They go, have one drink, return home. Alas, I don't even want to know. All I know is that I don't do it, nor did I overly enjoy it when I did. I had to be dragged and coerced  into going, usually deals were made where by my laundry got taken care of if I went. Nonetheless, I stayed in last night. I went to the show the night previous with a couple of fine ladies. That was enjoyable, their film selection was not up to my par standards but the film was interesting and provocative, although I don't think I would watch it again. Anyways, I leave you to figure out what it was. My time is up. Feeding must happen now. Toodles.

February 2, 2006

    Well, its Groundhog Day. I almost had the day off from school, if only I didn't have that cursed lab to deal with. Anyways, Wood managed to right the ship of the stolen name. It was touch and go for a while there but he pulled it out of the fire. We're still feeling the stress of trying to fill our home for next year. We had three young lads lined up to move in, but they pulled out at the last minute, much to our great disappointment and partial anger. We were days away from signing a lease and they pulled out. Now we're back to starting from scratch. If anyone knows somebody in Guelph that needs a home for the next year then please let us know. We need this. Our campaign is under way to get some roomies. We've sent out mass emails, and our next step is to advertise at the university. We exhausted our friend resources as they all have found homes just ahead of us asking them, some even as we were asking were just getting ready to sign off on a lease deal. Either way, we're semi-confident that we can get a deal done in the coming weeks. I don't really have much to update with, it's only been a couple of days. I guess I'll close with a few comments about my academic life. I'm succeeding academically at this point in time. I'm prepared for everything and I'm done most assignments well in advance of the due date. I like that. I really do. That is all.

January 2006

January 31, 2006

    I'm flying in here today by the grace of all that is holy. Somehow the registration for antimattr.com was deemed expired and a company that sucks up expired domains sucked us up. They didn't seem to put up much of a fight when challenged and relinquished  the site back the rightful owners. I'm not privy to all the details but I do know that I'm back. So for those of you that thought maybe I was gone or had stopped the dream....I did neither. I was cut off but internet pirates so to speak. To give some update as to what I've been doing since say the 23rd. The Sports Saturday page has been put on hold for the time being as there wasn't even a Sports Saturday this week. This was due to the fact that I was ill, the weather was poor, and Phil was out of town. We're looking forward to striking it back up. After all, what is a community outreach program if you don't reach out to the community. Moving on. Last Thursday Dave and I ventured to our friend's home for a potluck celebration. It doubled as a birthday party for one of the girl's that lives there. Joanne and Alex put on a good show and we had a good time. The following evening we returned the favour by hosting a potluck gala of our own. We like to entertain, probably. Annie gets the kudos and the hardest worker award for that one. I was sick in my bed for the most of the day and Dave and Annie really bailed me out. I did manage to roast a chicken for dinner. That was accompanied by a huge pot of mashed potatoes and Annie's pasta casserole creation. That was what we brought to the table. Everyone else brought a multitude of dishes, which were delicious. There was plenty of food. We cleaned up and retired to the sitting room for a good round of laughing it up. After which many guests departed. The choice few that remained were treated to a special presentation. We aired the tape of our dance. It went over very well. The next day was all about leftovers and recovery. The evening featured our second game of the semester. Phil was tried out on defense. He did well and so did the team in a 3-1 victory. We're still undefeated. Dave kept his scoring streak alive by scoring the insurance goal. This week is going to be busy with school. Plans are in progress for Super Sunday. My mind wanders. Enjoy the day.

January 23, 2006

    Well I'm coming to you now with some good news. Firstly, and not first in chronological sense, we just came back from a delicious meal provided by the Mayor. His worship brought us to Cagney's which is a restaurant that he drove by as a youth day after day and always wanted to go to. We helped him live that dream tonight. We brought Dave's girlfriend Nicole so the Mayor could meet her also and meet her he did. He also took some photos for those not in attendance. The second piece of news is that we had a hockey game yesterday. That may be trivial to most but it was Phil's debut performance as a non-goalie. He did ok for his first time and didn't mess up. He made the comment that he was at the bottom of the ladder and he had no where to go but up. It was a crappy game though. Our opponents goaltender didn't show so they played the whole time with six attackers. Well 5 attackers and one guy at their own blue line. It was tough to get into their zone and we felt bad for shooting at an empty net at first but as the game went on we started scoring. It ended 7-4. The third item of interest is that I've been planning to make a Sports Saturday page with weekly updates. Due to time constraints I haven't been able to get that done just yet. I'll close with a quick story. I tricked my roomie Brown into driving me to Cambridge today to go look at digital cameras. I picked one out (the Kodak Z700) but they didn't have any in stock. He then offered to give me the demo at a discounted price. I would have gotten it for cheap with all the same warranties. So he ventured off  to find the box and accessories. I got my VISA primed and ready to go. He came back claiming that he couldn't find anything. So I was thwarted. I had to go to Boston Pizza for lunch to settle down. That's all I've got for today. Hope everyone is doing well.

January 20, 2006

    It is now Friday and I'm sitting here home alone. Three of my house mates have gone to Bodyworld. An exhibition in Toronto that showcases corpses that have been made into plastic like material. My neighbour Mike is gone to a ski meet with the university cross country ski team. My other friends are out of town too. All the Aggies I know are all gone to the Good Times Banquet which has been sold out for some time now. So I'm left here alone until late tonight when people begin to flow back. I guess I could call my cousin Phil if I really get bored. He should be off galavantering with his first year chums. There hasn't been any word about Sports Saturday yet. I assume we'll throw it together later tonight. I have a pile of work to do this weekend. A lab, start a paper, some other random emailing, and a bid on a contract. I have to get my resume up to speed too so that I can confirm my job. It's going to be pretty busy. Someday soon I would also like to head over to Cambridge and see if I can't get a deal on a digital camera. I'm in the market for one and I don't want to spend too much for quality. I think that I can get a good one for around $400. Here's hoping anyways. So I'm home alone on a Friday night with no plans, sad times, sad times. I'll make the most of it by getting some work done. I'm not too worried. You never know what's going to happen. Well to pass the first couple of hours I'll clean the garage, now that the garbage is finally out of there, for the most part anyways. Hope everyone has a good weekend all ready to go. I'll check back in soon. Phillips out.

January 18, 2006

    Well it is the mid-way point of the week. I have to admit that I've been having a decent week so far. I just got back from supper with my father and some colleagues of ours. I say ours because I still consider myself an employee of Monsanto, as I plan to work there again this summer. Either way it was a good meal. I missed the chance to go hang out with some other people because I was gone and that sucks but it was one or the other. Getting back in the game here. I'm realizing that my classes are going to involve small amounts of work but they all seem to be coordinated to make everything due at the same times. It has taken a high degree of organization so far to keep the ship running smooth. I foresee much more use of the palm pilot and multiple day planners. I found out last time that it's a good idea to stick to one day-planner. If you have more than one then there is a chance that you could copy something important into one and not the others and then miss out on that thing altogether. I've trimmed myself down to one but I have probably three. Someday soon I'll have to put all my important times and dates onto all my organization material. This week is just flying by, I can barely keep up. I finished all my burning that I was behind in and now I have to get after some case preparation. It might be a while before I can do that though the way school is going. Just thought I would give a mid-week update on my life and times. That was it.

January 15, 2006

    So it's Sunday now and I see why it has that name. The sky is a lighter blue than usual and the sun is piercing. It's the fall or spring day that we all dream about and it's only January. The only snow remaining is the once big piles on the corners of the streets. I can see the steam around my wide open window where the warm air of my room is meeting the cold air of the fresh morning sky. The looks of this morning are only the beginning; the real thing that is telling me it's spring time is the smell. That fresh smell that emanates from the ground when the snow disappears. That fragrance that was trapped by the snow oozes out and tantalizes the nostrils. I find it to be exhilarating. I think it's so exciting because it could be the smell of promise. The smell of upcoming opportunity. It is probably hard wired into us humans from years of evolution. It has been my experience that many species in nature choose the spring time to find a mate or to simply mate. (Although, that is not always easy as Animal Planet has taught me over the years.) Either way something stirs inside me in the spring time and the smell that emanates from the newly uncovered turf is something that cannot be accurately described. The smell is not always found, in some places only stagnant garbage festered beneath the white reprieve and only its foul odour can be smelled. That is why I'm glad I don't live in a major centre. Either way, I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that it is only January. This type of weather, or climate if you need to, is usually reserved for two or three months down the line. I guess the world is just shaking things up, throwing in some changes and twists, like a reality television show, just to watch the contestants squirm or improve viewership, however that may apply. Maybe our existence is just a form of entertainment for some higher more perverse race or power that watches our lives with amusement. Maybe the suffering in our world is to create more of a dramatic dynamic to the program. If that were the case then wouldn't it be ironic for us with our obsession with celebrities and with entertainment in general. How ironic it would be indeed. A race of beings created to entertain another a higher race. Maybe Hollywood is a microcosm of the universe. That's just my ramblings for today. Maybe some other time I'll elaborate on my opinion of "entertainment stars". That could fill a lot of posts. Ta ta for now.

January 13, 2006

    It's Friday the 13th. Oh no. I pay no mind to this "horrid, unlucky" day these days. I used to put more stock into it but I have yet to be bitten by the unlucky bug (touch wood [not the actual person Wood, but if that's your game and he's willing then go for it]). Today could be my day. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it's not. As mentioned in an earlier post the Big T landed last night and he, Dave and I went out for a nice supper and then he took me out for breakfast this morning. We got good meals both times and acceptable if not great service. We played poker last night and I once again squandered the big stack and lost to the Big T, for the third straight time. He claims that his new habit of watching poker on TV helps his game and that is why he is always beating me. I think it's dumb luck personally but what do I know. Maybe if I played him tonight we would have a different story but alas he is off to Scarborough to a hockey tournament. My sister is involved and he is the trainer for her team. I plan on going to my 12:30 pm class (plant breeding) and then on to Staples business depot to shop for a digital camera. Note that I didn't say buy just yet, I like to shop around and get a knowledge of the product then make an informed decision. It really adds to the whole shopping experience because you can be proud of what you bought because you chose it and you also have a base of knowledge on the product. It's like an adventure. I just have to buy one and learn how to use it before we take the big trip that was mentioned in the previous post. Once I have a camera maybe I could further slip into the mold created by the "web" creator...Wood by posting interesting pictures. Although I doubt if I do that I would ever use photoshop or anything to modify the pictures. Well with that carrot in front of my possible readers I will take my leave for now. I will be back, mark my words, I will be back. (If you want to see Wood's page just take off the ~meathook and have a good one.)

January 10, 2006

    The first day of school is in the books and the second is winding down. I have three fourth year courses and two second year courses. Good times. My workload is not going to be that heavy for the semester if all goes as planned. I have some essays to write and some group projects to do and some midterms but nothing too crazy. I confirmed all the dates for the big trip. The big trip is our final year spring break trip to Florida. Our friend William somehow managed to get access to a timeshare in Panama City. We'll be staying at the 5 star Marriott hotel and resort for a week. That's for free too by the way. Jealous yet? We'll be driving there, should take 24 hours if all goes well. Our expenses are food and gas. Many activities are being discussed. It's going to be Will, Dave, Phil, a pair of Adams and I. Things are looking promising. On the girl front Dave and Mike are making things happen, Dave more than Mike at this point but things could pick up for either. I'm still in a rut, it's a deep rut and I'm getting comfortable in it. So what have we gone over, school, social, and girls. What else is there to report on at this juncture. Uh.....well the Big T is supposed to make an appearance here in the near future. He'll be in southern Ontario for nearly two weeks. His longest foray away from home since he was my age. I guess marriage and farming can really tie a man down. Either way, I have to get ready for my last class of the day so I'll take my leave.

January 8, 2006

    The sun isn't up yet and here I am stark raving awake. I blame my internal clock. I was up early yesterday to have a farewell breakfast with my father and today my idiot body wants to rise early again. Ah well, it gives me time to report that I have returned to the schooling land. A far off mystical place where young adults are sheltered and shackled by the post-secondary education system. We got back yesterday and then went to the mall and grocery store. Afterwards we went straight to the supper. Upon returning home we engulfed ourselves in unpacking and readying our rooms for the assault of a new semester. Mine was pretty ready to begin with so I spent most of my time laughing it up with Mike Ward and watching the game. I admit, I am still a hoot. I had lost faith when my hootery was lost on my dogs at home. I guess they don't appreciate my riotry or don't speak English, either way. The sun is trying to creep up over the horizon now with an explosion of pink and blue. It could be a red sky this morning, which serves as a sailor's warning as the old adage goes. You know the one, red sky at night, sailor's delight and the aforementioned red sky in the morning, sailor's warning. I have found these to be true most of the time, well whenever I notice them they seem to hold true to their word or sign as it were. Another one that is more controversial and that I have faced some opposition on is that when you see cows laying down in the summer time in the pasture it is a sign that rain is coming. Sometimes if only several are down then that means there is only a chance that rain is coming. It is mostly unproven but I think there could be something to it. My theory is that the cows are trying to keep a patch of grass dry to eat upon completion of the rain. That is an amateur theory I came up with a few years ago but it's all I've got at this point. I'm down for today, sleep in coming back, over and out. 

January 4, 2006

    Coming to you for the first time in the new year. I've been stewing in my juices here for that last couple of days. I had considered going back to the promised land on the 2nd day of the new year but offers flew until I agreed to go on the seventh day of the year. I have a long boring week ahead of me. The high school kids have gone back to school. All of my peers have returned to their education centers so that leaves only me and my fellow schoolmates to hold down the fort here. My biggest duties are to move some grain and clean snow. The grain moving was slated for today but the weather turned sour. These past few days I have spent doing menial household chores, watching television and reading. I have a slew of books to read now and I expect my summer will be well spent poring over them. I'm started to branch down a road of literature and I'm waiting to see where it takes me. It should be fairly interesting nonetheless. I found out today that we haven't been paying our gas bill. A bill came every month for our landlord and we just sat around and hoped we would never be bothered about the gas usage but it came to a head today when the landlord inquired about it. We'll be switching into a gas bill very soon. The bill has accumulated over the last months and isn't even that high. I was surprised by this as I heard all this whining and moaning about gas being overpriced for in-home use. We even have had several people drop by the house to try and lock us in for a certain price for the next five years or something. I don't trust people so I never signed up for any of that at our current locale. I may or may not have signed someone in our old house up for that but not our unit. I'm only going to be here for a little while so signing up for a huge deal would be foolish. Anyways. I'm out of time here so I'm going to call it a session and move on to bigger and better things. Namely the couch.