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.