update

It's been pointed out to me that it's been eight days since the last update. Well, I say bugger to that person. It's been a very busy past week.

Here's the week in review:

1. Work: I've been working. A lot. Because my hours revolve between 4 and midnight, I really have no time to spend with any of my friends or do any of my homework that I've wanted to do and almost need to do before I return to the wonderful place called Kitchener. Work's been ok. I've had good days and bad days. One night I hated everyone that called in and didn't want to be there at all. I did 739 calls that night. The next night, I decided that I didn't want to do that again. So I talked to God and asked for some grace. It came in abundance and I took 814 calls even though I slowed my talking down a bit. Callers seem to be affected by what day it is. Christmas day, there were a lot of nice people who were trying to find people with their last name only. They were very forgiving when it wasn't there because they were just shooting in the dark. Boxing day was the bad day. The calls were horrible and the people were very irritable. Reasoning: Dealing with boxing day sales was probably very hard and annoying for them. They then took their frustrations out on me and the other agents. The next day, the callers were nice and it slowed down a bit near the end of the night: reasoning - travelling home and tiredness in the post-christmas rush. This is by no means a scientific statistic. It's just a possible observation that could be true or could not be at the same time. You never know. Anyways, I have 2 more shifts and then I'm done again til I have no clue. I'm very confident that they'll have me back if I want to go back again. We'll see. I don't know if I can handle being there long term. Possible a short term in between school and my next job.

2. Christmas: It was a good day, I think. I didn't get anything on my list [except for tuition and socks], but that's ok. I didn't expect anything on there anyways. Went to church and then we went to my grandparents place for Brunch and the afternoon. But then I had to go to work. So I did.

3. Toronto: Gord and I went to Toronto for two days because I had Wednesday and Thursday off this week. Nordia offered me work on both days but I declined because I needed a break. And so, we departed Corunna around 8 on Wednesday morning to head to Toronto. In Woodstock, we stopped to get a drink at the rest station, and within a few minutes of leaving, I opened my hot chocolate and Gord hit a bump. All over my moonbeam [whitish] sweater. Ah well. It came off mostly in the Mississagua service station, but there's still a small stain.

We departed Mississagua and stopped by Vaughan Mills for a few minutes just so I could take a look in the Bass Pro Shop. That's a huge store. I didn't get anything there, but it's still very overly themed. Everything in the store gives the feeling of it being outdoorsy. After leaving Vaughan, we went to the Ontario Science Centre. We were expecting it to be a bit busy, but not to the extent that we found it. We were lined up onto the street to get into the parking lot. When we finally got in, we parked along the curb in the driveway of the parking lot at the furthest point away from the centre that you could possibly get. When we got to the doors of the centre, the attendant told us to go to the Group entrance in order to get a lineup shorter than 2 hours. So we did. We were lined up out the doors. It had looked at this point that they stopped allowing cars into the parking lot. It took 55 minutes for us to get our tickets. We were somewhat scared of what we would be seeing on the inside, but there is a LOT of space for people to spread out on the inside of the centre. It'll always be a fun place to go, but not nearly as fun as it was years ago when I was younger [and shorter]. The Truth exhibit was one of the most interesting that I saw there. To get into it, you had to go through a 'sorting' process. It was random, but still very interesting. And out of 83,701 people, there were only 7 with the same traits as me [hair colour, eye colour, fingerprint pattern, smell receptors, gender, tongue rolling, hand holding, and something else...] If it weren't so busy, we would have been able to enjoy the exhibits a bit more, but no matter where you looked, there were 25 people in line ahead of you.

Alos, there's the Body World's exhibit on display at the centre for a few months. It's an exhibit of 2,000 pieces of people who have donated their bodies to science in order to be plastinated and put on display. It was a very unique exhibit. It's hard to realize that they were actual human bodies that had died and were put on display for exhibit after being cut up. I think the most disturbing one was the pregnancy exhibit that had a woman in her 5th month of pregnancy with the fetus still inside... The coolest was the camel... but it was still something that I'd suggest seeing, though there are ethical implications behind it. I didn't really like some of the quotes that were around. They had Psalm 8 on display ["what is man that you are mindful of him; the son of man that you care for him"] which was cool, but some other things too. It's worth discussion and thought, I'd say.

After leaving the science centre around 6:00, we traversed to the hotel [Holiday Inn Markham]. It was a nice hotel. A really nice pool in comparison to some of the other places that I've stayed in. Somewhat expensive, but that's ok. For dinner that night, we went to East Side Marios. We walked in the door and there was no one there to greet us. And so, we waited. Two employees walked right by us, but glared at us and said nothing to us. After about 5 minutes, the bartender finally came out and just glared at us, told us to come and took us to our table. We figured out what we wanted within 3 minutes, waited another 3 minutes, and no one had come by to even get our drink orders, and so we left feeling very ignored, and it wasn't even that busy. Then we went to Montana's across the driveway. It was busy and within 30 seconds of walking in, the person looked up from the people she was talking to, asked us how many people, and told us it would be about 30 minutes. We said ok and that we would go somewhere else. But at least they acknowledged us. We ended up at a Swiss Chalet and had ordered and had our meals within 12 minutes of arrival.

The sleep was ok... but I was up and down about 5 times during the night because of the ice machine across the hall and being too hot or too cold. Ah well. We left the hotel around 8:30, stopped by a Timmy's for breakfast and then went to the TigerDirect store in Markham. I was glad I didn't have money... I would have bought quite a bit. They didn't have the memory Gord wanted, so he went to the parking lot, pulled out his laptop and cell wireless card and ordered it online. Funny.

Anyways, we went to Yorkdale to park for the day and then hopped on the subway to go to the ROM. Another place that didn't really interest me as much as it would have when I was a wee lad. The Dinosaur exhibit was under construction, which made me a bit upset. But they had just opened up a few new galleries a few days before we got there. It was ok, but not quite there. After the ROM, we hopped onto the subway to go to the Eaton Centre to have lunch. I also got a few books by CS Lewis at Indigo. We then went by Subway to St. Andrew station and walked through the PATH closer to MEC. I didn't get anything at MEC, but it was still good to try on a backpack and see the hammock that I'm going to get when I graduate. I'll be outfitting myself for hiking this summer sometime. It'll also be nice to have a backpack that I can use when travlelling rather than having to carry around multiple bags like we did in Europe.

Then we left and came home.

It was a good two days, but very expensive. Not something I'll do again for a while, but still enjoyable.

There's your update. I'm back to School on Sunday. Whether or not I get any work done between now and then is another matter, but we shall see. I work 4-12 tonight and tomorrow night. The joys, really... I think I'll try and get one paper out of the way this afternoon so I can focus on another one when I return to KW.

Out.

T.

the great sock debate

They were both the same colour and approximately the same length, so why wouldn't they be in a pair? Then one day I looked a bit closer... they weren't the same pattern, therefore they were a mismatched pair. Or maybe one had gotten ruined in the wash and made it out to be different than the other. Either way, something was fishy.

Then comes Saturday. We're enjoying our day and my mom looks at my dad's socks and says that they're not the same. The same colour and approximately the same length, but the pattern's different. I ask if they're navy blue and the one has stripes running the entire length of the sock and the other doesn't. The answer - YES. I say "I have a pair exactly the same as that"

Quelle embarassement.

The mystery was solved.

Or was it?

super tim

Last night, I took 650 calls in 5.25 hours online... That's a freaking lot of calls. Go figure. I didn't really forget much. I still can't remember how to credit, but I guess that's ok. I'll get it figured out eventually. The great retraining I had the other night consisted of reading over a pile of FAQ's and customer complaints and then listening to another agent for 1.5 hours.

Before the end of the night, I was at 32 seconds/call. Sometimes I wish things didn't come back to me so easily. But then I remember that it's ok because my memory for procedures is a gift from God and it'll be of great use in the future.

Shopping today. Just a few small things left.. Nothing major. I can probably hit Zeller's and be done with it. Or maybe I'll just leave everything til next week sometime... who says you need to give things on the 25th anyways? [I'll still get it this week. I'm not a grinch.. really]

That's all.

Out.

T.

no compromise

I've been reading "No Compromise" by Melody Green recently. It's the story of her and her late husband, Kieth's, journies from childhood through marriage, ministry, and beyond. I think the biggest thing that strikes me through reading this book is the fact that there aren't many in your face prophets left in today's society. Really, where are the people who will confront us when we're doing wrong and not realizing it? And what happens when those people do come out from their caves and do what God is calling them to do? Is there revival? Not that I've seen. From my perspective, the prophets that God has called are back in hiding questionning whether or not they were truly called of God to do His work.

For those who may be in hiding right now: Be encouraged. Your faithfulness has not gone unnoticed. Continue to strive for and follow after God. He will direct your paths. You will be instruments of his grace, peace, reconciliation, and revival.

For those who have condemned the ones who take a stand (myself included): Think before you speak (or type). Do we really have an ear to what the spirit is saying to us? Do we honestly know that we are right and living a lifestyle that is pleasing to God? Are we ourselves willing to take a stand for our convictions?

In the one spiritual gift analysis that I have done, I came out very high in administration and helps and very low in everything else. I do not believe I have been called to be a prophet, for the moment anyways. But there are those out there who have been called. If you have, ask God for the message that he would have you give to a sick and dying world. Take a stand, be strong, be courageous. The Lord your God is with you and is going ahead of you to prepare the way.

In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

death by reindeer

I had a dream last night that Santa was coming to kill a bunch of people in my house, so we went into hiding in the bathroom. I don't remember the context behind it, but that was still pretty unique. Wierd is all I can say.

Only a few more hours until I start working at the call factory yet again. I'm somewhat nervous, but I have a feeling I'll be back in the groove pretty quickly. I'm aiming for 35 seconds/call by Friday, but we'll see how much I actually remember and if I can still type after the semester left my brain fried...

Tomorrow is the day that I descend on the Corunna Library in order to do my distance ed. We'll see how much of that I get done. Hopefuly a lot. It'll be fun trying to figure out sourcing. Yay. So excited. Or something like that.

I'm reading No Compromise by Melody Green (the story of her husband, Kieth Green). It's actually pretty good. I'm also in the middle of "Searching for the Invisible God" by Philip Yancy. Not a bad one either.

Out now.

T.

here i am...

I've been having a pretty ok week considering the exams that have me stressed beyond all measure. On Saturday, I hung out with someone that's pretty cool and we had a good chat and saw Narnia. That was a good evening. I think it was a welcome change from the past few weeks. Then Sunday I just hung around my room and did some studying and a bunch of procrastinating. I skipped church because I needed to sleep in... it was nice. Though I've been missing the corporate worship recently with the demise of chapel for the year 2005.

Then Monday came and I hung out with the Saturday evening person yet again and we walked around and went to Timmy's for beverages to warm up. It was fun yet again; it got me to start thinking that I need to get a bit more meat into my theological beliefs. I know the basics, but at the moment I don't seem to have time for the reasoning beneath it. Then came some studying and Gord stopped by for dinner and we went to Wimpy's. Then came more studying.

Tuesday was the day of the Romans exam. It wasn't that bad, but it's over now and makes me happy.

Wednesday was today. I finished typing up my notes from Scriptural Foundations of Worship which turns out to be a whole lot of material to study for Friday morning's exam. I studied some of that today and then went for dinner with the Student Council to the place across the street and enjoyed some home cooked turkey dinner, which was very good. Thankyou to the cooks. Very good job.

Then I got a present from my RA.. Coolest guy ever. Princess Bride in Novel Form. Nice.

Book readings to come in the new year.

And now I'm here. Exam on Friday and then I'm out of res til the 1st at 4:00. Yay. Or something to that extent.

narnia

So I finally went to the real Narnia that can only be accessed through imagination rather than the 401-402... or 40 from the south. It was a good movie. I really appreciated the hard work that went into holding the accuracy to the text while making it a Disney movie. There was lots of laughs, a few dramatic moments that had me sqeezing my bear closer, but it was good. There was a little girl sitting in front of us who said she was scared in the previews... we gave her 20 minutes before she ran out crying. It didn't happen, but still.

Good movie. Go see it.

Must re-read books now. Haven't read them since high school sometime. That was a long time ago.

The end.

update on gah

• study for Romans
• study for Worship
• Distance Ed
• Field Ed Supervisor's evaluation (x2)

Also, does anyone from the KW area know if SilverCity's still open? I'm hoping to go see Narnia there on Saturday night and it's definately not showing up on famousplayers.ca. I could just call, but that would be the easy way out.

T.

gah

So, I'm stressed huge right now. My week of death has been extended into this week. Nothing's due til Thursday, but I'm high pressured at the moment for probably no reason.

• Publish the Voice [6th / 7th]
• Field Ed Final Paper - Done [9th]
• Final Reflection - Done [9th]
• Supervisor's Evaluation for Assitant Editor [7th]
• Critical Issues Book Report - started (2 sentences) [8th]
• Study for Critical issues test [8th]
• Worship Services [started] [9th]
• Study for Romans exam and write [13th]
• Study for Scriptural Foundations Exam and write [16th]
• Distance Ed
• Poems for Christmas Banquet [8th and 9th]
• Slideshow for Christmas Banquet [9th]

All that and the fact that I have 6 days of true break [17th, 18th, 24th, 28th, 29th, 1st] between the end of exams and J-Term. And I know I'll be spending a lot of that doing work for school. Arg.

April can't come too soon.

christmas brake

So I'm home from the 18th PM until the 1st PM.. and in that time, I work at Nordia:

19th - 23rd: 1800-000
25th: 1800-000
26th -27th:1600-000
30th - 31st: 1600-000

Days off: 24th, 28th, 29th.

Days off = sleep / distance ed days.

free

I've been doing some thinking [I can still think even haver 12 weeks of school... ] over the past little while and then I went and had a good chat with someone last night and I've been coming to realize a lot of things about myself that I'd never figured out before. It's good to get them out. It's good to talk with people. They always offer a perspective about yourself that you'd never see [because you always look at yourself with a more critical eye than others].

While talking with this person, they asked quite a few questions that just happened to release the floodgates and everything came out. Go figure. Darn counselling people. But it's good. I need to work through all this junk so that I can move into life with a healthier perspective on myself and life in general.

---

Release me from your captive hold
Release me from your stubborn eyes
Release me to the grace that only God can give...

I want to be free.

wired

Just trying something...

T.

festive special

So comes the time of year where the malls begin their Christmas music, homeowners dawn their lights, Swiss Chalet offers a quarter chicken dinner with stuffing instead of fries... The air is filled with wonder... Except there's this annoying buzz in the background. Vote for Harper because the Liberal's suck? Harper would disallow free speech? Jack Layton is never going to get voted in? Who would vote for the Bloq anyways?

That's right. As of tonight, it's election season. The joys. We've known it was coming for months, but it's nice to finally know that they've stopped playing games in parliament... that is until the next minority government is formed in the new year.

Are we excited to see the annoying faces of the people who work in Ottawa or want to work there over the next few months on your streets, while watching the television, and hearing their scratchy voices on the radio that sound more like a dentist drill than anything understandable?

Thrilling, isn't it?

ouch

It still hurts, but at least I know it's a problem with the muscles rather than an issue with other things. The doctor referred me to a phsyio place in nearby, so I'm just waiting on hearing about insurance before I set up an appointment.

Anyways, I'm out now.

T.

something christmassy

So, here's my christmas list as of now categorized in terms of reasonability.

Very Reasonable
Socks
Mr. Holland's Opus - DVD
Remember the Titans - DVD
Forest Gump - DVD
The Princess Bride - The Novel
What's So Amazing About Grace? - Philip Yancey
Slippers
Dress Shirt and Tie (colour up to buyer's discretion)


Somewhat Reasonable
Executive desk chair (Click Here for idea)
Hennessy Expedition Hammock (Click Here)

Not Very Reasonable
Laptop (Clicky)

for those from EBC past or present

I know there's a few of you out there who read this thing... so, it's not the Voice, but at least it's online:

Percolated Wisdom

For those who have no clue what I'm referring to and think I'm on crack or something... don't worry. It has made many people laugh this week and will probably continue to do so for many weeks.

T.

ouch, the pain, glaven

So, here's a story.

About one week ago, I woke up and my back was in a small bit of discomfort. I figured it would be ok by walking it off and I'd be as good as new after a day or so.

I was wrong.

I went into the weekend, and the pain got more centralized. But it didn't last long, so I figured I'd be ok.

Came to today, and the pain is the worst it's been.. But it's wierd. The following image shows where it hurts.



Yes, that's right around the shoulder blade at the point where I can't reach with my own arms. And it's a random pain that comes every now and again. It may be from my desk chair and the ergonimics that it causes, but I don't know.

I'm using one of the chairs that came with the room right now, but the pain still happens.

Ever since my cousin's husband played some Larry Norman in church the other morning, I've been thinking about the lyrics "Why don't you look into Jesus, he's got the answer..." I think that's possibly the only answer right now.

If it still hurts in a few weeks, I'll see a doctor when I get home. But until then, I'll just pop some tylenol when it hurts a lot and keep using the heat pad that I have, though it doesn't stay in place unless I lie down on it.

T.

zits

I've found a place that actually publishes the comic strip Zits on a daily basis after the parent company KingFeatures shut down their update service.

This one reminded me too much of living on Res in a Bible College setting...

gradumacation

I got my grad photos taken a few weeks back... but I don't really like the results.

What thinks you?

Clicky

the weather outside is november

It's the middle of November. This means that the week of death to papers is next week. This afternoon, I sat down and wrote my part of my youth min paper that's due on Thursdsay. It was the first time I've actually typed work related to my own education in about 2 weeks. Thus begins the week of death to papers. I have two more papers to do for next Friday:

1. 7-8 page theology of worship
2. 10-12 page romans: use and abuse of grace (not me, the gift from God)

Following the week comes a 2 week break, and then on December 8/9th, I have:

3. 7-10 page book report on "Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry"
4. 3 Worship Services planned with reasoning behind why everything is where it is. That means I have to figure out liturgy by then. Yarg. All you Lutherans out there, be prepared to help... it'll be needed.

Plus, on top of this, I need to get working on my Distance Ed, which I haven't done any work on since Reading Week (5 weeks ago). I hope to have the second unit handed in by Christmas or shortly thereafter. It's the hardest of all of the units I believe. Approx 25 pages worth of typing... 3 parts.

1. 4 examples of instrumental music and 4 examples of vocal music in the Old Testament. 2-3 sentences per describing the context.
2. Classical, Romantic, Baroque music periods: Choose 1 composer and write a page of research on them.
3. Choose 8/10 hymn writers from a list, pick one of their hymns, and describe the story behind the song.

It's not hard to do all of that. It's just not priority. Soon it will be though. I have to have the exam written by March 1st or else I'm in a high stress environment...


I'm over the sickness for the most part. It zapped a lot from me and I'm having trouble getting the energy to do stuff back that I had earlier in the semester. There's only 3 weeks of class left. That means I'll be home in 4 weeks from tomorrow. I haven't been since Reading Week - 5 weeks ago. That's a long time to be sleeping in the same bed night after night. I guess I did that all the time at home, but my life was then spread around a house, not just a 15X11 room. Ah well. I'll make it through.

Time for bed or something like that. I have class in the morning. (Yay... sarcasm may have just happened.)

Out.

T.

badlanded

So, today, Gord and I went to the Cheltenham Badlands. It's this area north-west of Toronto (just east of Mississagua Rd on Old Base Line Road about 20 minutes past Georgetown) where the topsoil and most life forms have eroded away and left just the clay showing. It's a reddish clay with grey streaks through it. It is very remindersome of the badlands out west.

This area is just off of the Bruce Trail, so we hiked a few hundred metres of the trail in order to find an access point to the badlands, which didn't take long in coming. It was a beautiful day to be outside.

Unfortunately, Gord realized about 15 minutes into our walk that he locked his keys in the car, so we went back to the car to confirm and call a tow truck. It took about 40 minutes for the first tow truck to arrive. I say first because this particular tow truck was without the tools to unlock a car. So, we had to wait for a second tow truck to arrive, 30 minutes later. The second tow truck driver said three words to us. "How's it going?" and then went to work and then left. Very wonderful.

So we then went through Belfountain towards the Forks of the Credit to find a cool spot on the trail, however it was very dark and we just gave up and headed home. But, on the way, we saw the coolest curve I've ever seen in Ontario. I took a picture.

We went to Shoeless Joe's in Georgetown for supper, then I started driving, and went through Acton then across the back roads to highway 6 and then back to the school.

Even though the key situation came in the middle of the day, I think it was still a good day. I got away from campus for a while, and also got the chance to be outside in something that wasn't city. It was wonderful.

lost

so, in lost the other night. Did anyone else notice the doctor walking by Shannon and her mom in the hospital just before the bad news was broken?

That's right. It was Jack.

...

http://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/

yep

Published the Voice this morning. Had some meetings. Did some research. Now I'm here.

Feeling much better than last week. It's great. Hopefully it stays away from now on. Papers galore are due between now and the end.

• Confrontation Paper: Nov 10 - 2 pages
• Leadership Paper: Nov 24 - 8-10 pages
• Theology of Worship: Nov 25 - 7-8 pages
• Romans: Nov 25 - 10-12 pages
• Youth Book Report: Dec 1 - 5-7 pages

That's only 5 papers.. but I also have a test on the 8th, an exam on the 13th and the 16th. And my distance ed stuff has to get done somewhere in there as well. Hoping for December 8th to mail in unit 2. I'm going to stick to that one too, hopefully.

Out now.

T.

there's a witch in my lion's wardrobe

This movie (trailer 2) looks like it's going to be awesome. I'm very interested to see it.

haiku

I don't know exactly how many people from EBC read this, but I'm just giving you a bit of time to build some excitement... there may be another edition of Tim's Poetry Corner coming in a future issue of the Voice.

For previous haiku by Tim, see
Belches: Never before published
The Mailbox
Heartburn

blachq

I've been sick for the past two days. It sucks. I had the headache yesterday, and am down to the stuffed/runny nose and not feeling so wellness today. It's ok. I'll survive. I bought 4 L of gingerale today. I'm almost done the first 2 L. Sigh.

In other news, I have no assignments due until the 24th.. then I have 3 8+ pagers due within 48 hours. Makes me happy.

Now that I have 3 weeks to do them, maybe I'll actually get down to work and get them done before they're due. I hope to get the first one done by the 15th, but we'll see how well that actually goes.

I want to go somewhere that's not Kitchener. Preferably not Canada. No money. Sucks. Ah well... the lack of money could mean a problem for next semester. The school's saying I owe them some at the moment, but I know that I don't... have to fix that one tomorrow.

Out.

T.

sigh

I'm tired. I don't really know why... though I was up til late last night.

But in other news, I went to a Catholic mass last night. Twas interesting. I make a lousy Catholic. I probably offended some devouts along the way, but ah well. it was a learning experience.

In other news, for those from outside of the KW area, gas is at 75.2/l today approximately. It's cheap. It's been a while since I've seen prices this low. Go figure.

Out for now.

T.

vocalization

I've spent most of the day in the chapel at the Extraordinary Women's Conference held live via simulcast over satellite through CCN. They mentioned EBC by name earlier in the afternoon, so that was pretty cool. The speakers have been ok... though I've missed most of them due to being in the Student Council office doing homework.

I'm not here because I'm a women. I'm just doing sound. It's a really easy task - having to control 1 channel for the entire conference. It's great...

Have to switch over to satellite sound now...21 seconds til the last segment starts. w00t.

And here it goes.

Oooh.. main point of the post -
The Voice since Wednesday at Midnight, has received almost 100 distinct hits and almost 300 individual hits to the main page. I'm very impressed.

... Natalie Grant is singing Trading My Sorrows... No, Lord, No, make the song stop, Amen. Yuck.

Anyways, I'm out.

wrong number

So I got a message for the wrong number again yesterday, and I checked what number it came from. It was area code 401. Where is 401? It's in Rhode Island.

Something's messed here.

the life of tim

It's been a while.

What's happened over the past week has been this:

Lost a sound technician for chapel
Picked pumpkins
Went to a reception for a friend's wedding
Skipped church on Sunday for homework
Gotten the Voice ready to go online in about an hour
Receieved and installed more memory onto my computer (it goes faster now!)
Had lots of Coke.
Finished the first season of Arrested Development and started the Second... Gobias Industries...

That's about it... I've been playing Earthbound a lot lately. It's taking up much time... though not as much today as in previous days. Tomorrow is the earthboundless day for myself. Too much other stuff to do.

Once november hits, it's death time for papers.

Out.

T.

memory

I ordered some memory for my computer from Tigerdirect.ca today. It's time for an upgrade to 512 from my old 256... This computer's been doing funny things on me recently. Perhaps this will give it a needed boost.

Also, I've spent a gazillion hours over the past few days working on the Voice and all that pertains to it... the newish look is ready for public viewing... with new pages added, nifty "top" feature added to the main page and a cool logo for the global perspectives page.

Not much homework has happened, but it's ok. I don't have anything due for 2 weeks... though I shouldn't be saying that. I'll get down to it tomorrow afternoon and evening.

For now, I'm out to do something... who knows what.

T.

icq

Warning: This post has happened before and no one listened... Maybe you'll smarten up this time. One can only hope.

There's been a continuing trend by MSN to continually get worse and worse with each release. Some people think that this is the coolest thing ever, but others, like myself, think that MSN has sucked forever and will continue to suck no matter what it does, until it dies a horrible, horrible death.

But the only IM client that hasn't sucked is ICQ. I like it. It's compact and doesn't take up much desktop space unlike MSN, AIM, Y!M, etc...

As of now, there are 3 people online on ICQ... Let's build this up people! Learn what's right for you.

7265454

T.

All you nay-sayers, please stay away from commenting... we'll see who's laughing when ICQ makes the huge comeback...

yep

I'm 23, single, and haven't gone on what I would consider a "date" in over four years. Not that I'm looking for pity dates or anything. I've had a lot of time to consider what I would like in life, and many times I've pleaded with God to send a girl my way. It hasn't happened as of yet. But it could be that I've been sending mixed messages. One month I'm ok being single, but the next I'm as lonely as ever and need someone to help fill the void.

This brings about an interesting point. What is it that we truly need in life? Some say that they need a good job that pays $X.yz per hour. Others say they need a car that can get them around in the world. Others are content with the clothes on their back and a guitar. Then we take a look at those who don't have what they need. Most of us automatically think of the homeless in the streets of Toronto or other major urban centres. They don't have what we have. But do they have a need? Some statistics show they bring in an average of over $100.00 daily, of which a large percentage goes towards feeding their drug addictions. [This is not to say that we shouldn't lose our generousity towards the homeless. Coffee and donuts; conversations over a sandwich; blankets; jackets; just saying hi... any of these can be a help. We overlook those in a lower social status than us way too often]

But when we look at those who are in need, do we ever look outside the four borders that line our country? What about the slums in Delhi, or the refugee camps in Africa? Mexico City is the largest city in the world, but do you think all the 30+ million people living there all have homes? What about those who have been displaced from what they had due to disaster? Think about the tsunami affected regions. Think about those who lost everything in the many earthquakes that have ravaged south-east Asia.

Do we really need that new computer anyways? Do we need to go to Hawaii on vacation this fall? Think about it...

wrong number continued

So this morning I got a courtesy call from Bell Mobility (B_Mob) informing Casey that they have a certain number of minutes until their time expires. I got a call recently for some girl. And a few calls for various guys. And they all have the exact same number as me, supposedly.

Figure that one out.

Stupid Bell.

So, my message has now been changed to include my name and number. I stopped short of saying I was the only person that lived at this number, but if it comes to it, I will go that far.

You'd better watch it people who have my number thinking it's someone else's number. This is getting annoying.

T.

liturgically speaking

Today I spent a few hours working on the distance ed unit that's due on Friday. I have roughly about 60% done. I need to edit and format 4 of the assignments, and start, finish, and edit the fifth, which is to analyize 4 songs of the worship genre either hymns or choruses in four ways: lyrically, poetically, musically, and theologically... that should be a fun one. We'll see how well it goes.

I've already had to write a letter to convince my church board to have a seminar on corporate worship, design three different worship services in three different styles, write a paragraph of information about each of the indexes in the hymnal (about 10-15 of them), and write an objective analysis of the corporate worship of my church.

This, like many assignments, is more annoying than difficult. I'm enjoying it somewhat... but we'll see how the rest of the unit goes. Arg.

Anyways, I got to sleep in my own bed last night for the first time in over a month. It was nice. Tonight, tomorrow, thursday night back to KW.

Ah well... life continues.

To bed now.

T.

photoed

Hi.

Just wanted to say this:

Look mom, a nice picture this year.

http://gord.is-a-geek.net/albums/Tim/hillsmall.jpg

beginnings of clown school

I was home last weekend and so was my sister/brother-in-law/nephew combination.... I think Garrett may want to be a clown when he grows up, but that's up for you to decide.

I think he's also hoarding diet coke in some sort of coke ring conspiracy. Or maybe it's the penguin in the background on the deacon bench... who knows.

wrong number

For some reason, of which I cannot explain, someone's grandmother keeps calling my phone and leaving a message, or hanging up after the machine, even though they have the wrong number, and my machine says "Hi, you've reached Tim". Today I even changed it to "Hi, you've reached Tim Grace..." in order to quell it. Hopefully it did, but I wont know until tomorrow if she tries to call again. If I were in my room, it would be done already, but I'm rarely in here for some reason...

I talked to an actual person tonight, not sure if it was the same number or not, but they figured out they had the wrong number.

Ah well. Tomorrow's SC Meeting, eBulletin mailout and then homework all day. Yay.

Check out the Voice if you haven't yet. New format as of yesterday. Easy on the eyes. Unlike this.

T.

gah!

I just watched the season premiere of Lost. All I can say is Gah! I noticed a few of the same things my brother saw (quarantine on the inside of the hatch), etc. Also, if they're 50 feet below ground, what's on the outside of the glass dome and where is it natural light at the beginning when he's working out?

Figure that one out...

T.

paper

So I'm Editor of the newspaper at school this year, and there's no capability to put it on paper this year, so it's online.

You can see it at it's temporary home at:

http://voiceofebc.blogspot.com

Updated every other Wednesday, with the first issue being published in 3 days.

T.

face and stuff

Here's the latest image I have of myself...

If you look at my cheek area, you can see the wonderful thing called discolouration that occurred after the wisdom teeth were pulled. Keep in mind that this picture was taken 2 weeks after the surgery. It's not as bad anymore, but it's still there a bit.

T

back in the groove

So I'm back at school now and have the internet and phone both hooked up in my room now. The phone was a bit iffy because they gave it to me Friday morning and then took it away on Friday night, but was back after much griping yesterday (and I'm getting a credit from Bell too!). The Internet came today and is now set up and running just swell. We're going to see how many access points it takes to get the connection to the other end of the hall... should be a fun game.

I have to go and do stuff for school now... Student Council and Publications are taking much time this week and next as I sort to get everything figured out.

T.

cnat sepak crelay

Well, the bleeding has stopped as of this morning when I spat out the last tidbit of blood from my mouth. The final stitch fell out this afternoon. A huge yellow and green bruise appeared on the left side of my face for the day that I didn't even realize was there until I was out in public. And my jaw is still swollen partially shut, meaning that I'll be pulling the knife and fork trick for most meals to come in the next few days in order to get the portions into a small enough size that it will fit between my teeth. As of now, the distance between two teeth is just over two fingers stacked on top of each other... but steadily growing towards the point where I can get two vertical fingers in there... not yet, but hopefully soon.

As a result of this jaw swollenness, I can't speak clearly. I have to intentionally speak slowly in order for my words to be audible for the most part. That's a hard thing to do because I'm a fast talker for the most part. It's kinda funny... I got the "I think you're handicapped, so I'm going to smile and lean in to understand what you're saying" look today while out shopping with my mom... go figure. So I'm hoping this swelling subsides soon, because I'm going to need to do a whole lot of talking starting on Friday when I return to the school... Arg! And I'd like to be able to eat without getting it all over my face too. That'd be nice.

T

blood don't taste so good...

The bleeding has been stopped for the most part since Friday night, but there's still a bit of oozing occasionally. My rear teeth are really starting to feel disgusting, but I can't brush back that far yet. Maybe tomorrow, but we'll see how I'm doing by then. I've just stayed inside and watched a bunch of tv over the past few days and eaten a lot of soft foods, including ice cream, beans, kraft dinner, yogurt and bananas. Hopefully I'll be able to eat something a bit harder tomorrow.

I haven't taken any percucet for about 8 hours now. The pill bottle says 1-2 pills every 3-4 hours, but I'm pretty good with pain. It's not that bad anymore. I may take another one before bed tonight in case it gets any worse, but I'm not too too worried.

This week involves a lot of packing and cleaning and organizing...

I was hoping to call Bell to get my phone hooked up for this Friday, but I think I'll wait until I'm moved into my room so I can see which jack is better of the two and know for sure what's happening. I can't really speak all to clearly at the moment anyways, due to my jaw being swollen etc... I look like a puffball on my left side. no pictures to come. Sorry.

T.

congrats dawn and boyd

Just wanted to say congrats to you if you read this. Hope your day went well and was very special.

T.

lost some teeth, kept the wisdom

The surgury went well and I'm recovering just peachy. I feel like junk a bit and there's still some bleeding, but not nearly as much as there was last night. I didn't get a chance to show off my nice boxers, but that's ok... The nurses were nice and good to talk to.

Ah well... life continues.

I'll be home all day today and maybe tomorrow as well, depending on how I'm feeling. I may just skip church and go to the barbeque at my grandparents and stock up on jello and any other foods that may look attractive by that time... Speaking of which, I think it's time for some ice cream.

T.

yoink

That's the sound that the surgeon's going to be making today as he takes out the remaining 3 wisdom teeth from my mouth in the hospital. I have to be there in about an hour, and I'm hungry already, but I shouldn't complain. There's people elsewhere in the world who have gone days, if not weeks without eating, so that why I do not complain about a measly 14 hours without food intake. But I figured I might as well go through the hospital in style. I'll be sporting some bright red silk boxers with hearts on them. If you're going to walk around in your underwear, you might as well do it with dignity. That's my theory anyways.

My last night at work was on Wednesday. I'm done, but I know that I have a high percentage chance of being hired back next summer if I need somplace to go. That's nice to know. Hopefully I'll have a job elsewhere, but we'll see how things go when I get there.

Ah well, that's it for now.

T.

what was I thinking?

Last night I had one of those what on earth was I thinking moments... like the time I answered "maybe" to the question "do you hate americans?" Yep... Tim still is stupid sometimes without even realizing it.

Someone called, very upset about something, but I was looking for a number for him, then he said "Don't you screw me around" then proceeded to ask my name...

The answer should have been a simple Tim... but no, I wasn't thinking and said the first thing that popped in my head.

"George"

What?

"I'm sorry, I meant Tim."

What's your badge number?

"Thankyou, here's your number...." DAVR... away from me caller.

Oops. Yet another thing I'll never live down.

I talked it over with my TM afterwards and she said that it was ok, we all slip up sometimes. You'd almost thinkI was trying to sabotage myself without even realizing it with only 4 shifts left.

G. I mean T.

books

I just placed my second order on Amazon this month. I figured I could save $32 on books by switching to Geiko.... Amazon instead of Mitchells. A new book online cost 17 whereas Mitchell's and amazon were charging 46... go figure.

And the lost has been found. the blind can see... my cheque was found... finally.

T.

dignity

I know it's hard to draw dignity, but I can tell you what isn't dignity. Calling someone stupid and expecting instant results. I was ready to scream at a person last night when they were calling me stupid and saying that any smart person could figure that one out... I had a huge rant coming up after that... thankfully, I was pulled offline within 10 minutes for a little cool down. But why people don't treat others with the same dignity and respect that they would like to be treated, I have no clue... Please. Even though you cannot see whoever you're talking to on the phone, treat them with the utmost respect. They have feelings too.

T.

sigh

I get stressed kind of easily over things that some people say are meritless. One friend tells me that I need to do something stupid and without any thought in order to destress myself. I don't think I agree with her on that subject.

Currently, I'm stressed over something that I cannot control, which seems to be the reason why I stress a lot of the time. I sent a cheque to the school a month ago and it has yet to be found/cashed... So even if it did make it to Fergus Ave, it has yet to be cashed and no one has told me that they have found it yet. I'm very much ready to stop payment for the $7.75 fee and send another one of the same amount... I'm not letting myself get screwed out of an extra 75 bucks from something that is not my fault in no way, shape, or form.

There's a lot of worry involved in this idea... now I just need to learn to breathe and let God take control. It's something that's been happening occasionally this summer, but not nearly as much as I would like.

Ah well... 2.5 weeks til I'm back at school. It's not coming fast enough.

books!

I got my first purchase from Amazon.ca today in the mail. It includes:
"Reaching for the Invisible God" by Philip Yancey
"Unfettered Hope: A Call to Faithful Living in An Affluent Society" by Marva J Dawn
"Ed Emberly's Great Thumbprint Drawing Book" (for a friend, not me.)

I'm excited to start reading. I've read one book of Marva's and it was well written and has been in almost every academic paper that I have had to write since. The joys. And Philip Yancey is a great author as well.

Time to start reading.

T.

touristy

this afternoon, Gord, Amy, and myself went down to the bridge for one of the fun things to do around this area in the summer - that being Fries under the bridge. And lo and behold, while we were in line someone approached us and asked us to appear in a video for Tourism Sarnia Lambton. They'd picked one of the best things to do in Sarnia for the summer as having fries under the bridge. I wouldn't disagree. I'm sure the chip trucks pull in a huge profit.

So if anyone sees a video on tourism in Sarnia lambton in the next few years, I may be in it. Go figure.

why is the sky dark?

It's early. I'm still awake for some reason. Oh wait, I know why. I slept in until 10. Silly me. But I didn't work today and shredded a lot of paper as I was cleaning up my room making it more organized so I can start with the organization of stuff for school. It's getting to the point where I need to take inventory of what I have and make a list of everything that I need or would like to have in order to make it through school alright.

Budget woes are still keeping me somewhat occupied. Scotland's looking less and less likely, even though I know an end cost now excluding personal stuff. It's a really, really good deal for what we're doing. It's actually the same cost as what I spent on my 12 days in Europe for 14 days with staying in better accommodations. I don't know if I can afford high speed Internet or even a phone line for my room. I was costing those out today. I think the only way I can do it is by sharing with 5-8 people. It worked last year, but I was annoyed by the collection of monies. But there's a better way of doing it. I think I'll start figuring out total costs pending on how many people are involved. I have a spreadsheet that can be altered to make it work.

I had Tuesday off. I have Wednesday off. What does this mean? For the first time since Early July do I have more than one day off in a row. This is exciting news. I'm getting better at my job every day. On Sunday I took 820 calls and avereaged about 27 seconds/call. Considering my first day of taking real calls was around 45 seconds a call, I'd say I've improved quite a bit. The only downfall is that I'm ready to say "Operator disconnecting" for the telemarketers that don't answer right away... or keyspell things to friends... Sigh. I'm sure it'll be useful somewhere.

I took Jung's typological test last week at www.humanmetrics.com and scored out as an ESTJ. Which is odd because last summer, I was an ISFJ. I think I'm going to take it again in a few weeks to see if it was a fluke, or if my personality's changed over the past year. It may have. I'm not sure.

I'd like to go to camp today (Wednesday), but that'll all depend on whether or not the car's back from the shop yet. It's been gone since Monday morning... Kinda funny how it worked out to be in the shop on my two days off this week. Ah well.

Otherwise, life just keeps on moving. And it's really, really warm in the upstairs of my house, even with the air conditioning on... the thermostat's a level down, so it doesn't really help me out much. I may move down to the couch to sleep. It's cooler down there.

I'm out.

T.

fhkawhgads

As of yesterday, there are 15/16 pages of what some might consider a yearbook complete. So it will most likely be in the hands of unwitting subscribers mid September, seeing as I'm most likely not returning to KW until Sept 2nd.

For those who are interested, there is also an updated condensed SLT eBulliten on the school's website with some basic information about what's happening this fall. The first few weeks should be fun.

I bought Bethany Dillon's CD the other day. I actually quite enjoy it. I'm more into soft rock music than I am hard rock and punk like most people. It's not that I don't enjoy the occasional rock song, it's just that I'm more prone to purchase music that will last the test of time because of it's smoothness.

While driving home from KW last night, there was a storm passing through to the north of the 402 the entire way home. It was an awesome light show. For those who went through it, I wish I could have been there watching it as it passed overhead, but I was trying to get home before I fell asleep... which was a good plan. Though I didn't fall asleep til 1ish, it was still good to get home while I was still somewhat coherent.

This year's going to be a different year, I think. There's things that have changed and other things that have stayed the same. It's not that any of it is bad, it's just different from before. But that's the thing with life. Things change. And you have to deal with it and take it all in stride.

ah well. I had a dream about my wisdom teeth last night. Wierd to say the least. It's just a simple procedure that I have to go to the hospital for, and I don't know why my dreams are starting to lean towards it... Ah well. I'm done at Nordia on the 25th, and then teeth out on the 26th and back to school on the 2nd. Hopefully I'm eating solid food by then... if not, it'll be a long SLT training week. I'll be sure to have a blender to puree my food.

T

counting down

I'm back at EBC in 32 days from now. In that time I have at least:
11 8 hour shifts
2 6 hour shifts
1 5 hour shift
and 2 4 hour shifts
plus whatever I work between the 22nd and 25th.

Then Wisdom teeth come out on the 26th, then back to school on the 2nd.

I've enjoyed working at Nordia. A lot of people ask me if I hate it yet, and the answer is no. It's not something that I could do forever, but it's a good temporary job that'll last me 3 months. I think it's one of the better jobs that I could have ended up doing this summer. I tried to get into labour, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I would have struggled doing a labour job. I think I'm just at the stage where I feel burnt out and ready to sleep at any chance I have. I counted them up and I only had 5 days off in July. I guess that's no more than you'd get working at a summer camp, but it's still a lot to think about.

My next day off is this Thursday, and I'm going to KW I believe. I'm not going to say that i'll accomplish anything definatively, because I didn't the last few times I went... we'll just keep working on what needs to be worked on and hopefully I can wash my hands of it and prepare for the future.

I also realized recently that I have issues with guilt... but that's something that needs to be worked on when I get the chance.

I work in 1:45... it's only 4 hours tonight, but this is the last 4 hour shift I have for a few weeks, so it marks the beginning of the end.

I should also do some reading for SLT... there's a huge pile of material that I need to go through.

Out.

T.

amazing

It's kinda funny how this summer's been working out for me workwise. I was expecting a struggle to get a job, because that's what befell me last year, and I was pretty much handed one within a week of getting home from school. I was expecting an average of 20 hours per week and though I did have that for the first 3 weeks, I've been getting handed extra hours left right and centre for the past two and this one up coming. I just got called to start at 4 instead of 8 today. All of this is happening under no power of my own. I'm not trying to pick up extra hours, but I'm not saying No when I get them offered to me.

God works wonders... How silly of me to expect less.

bikes in relation to prayer

I've been paying some sort of attention to the Tour De France this year. I've never watched it before, but I never thought that it'd be so captivating. One man winning this race 6 years running and so far going strong for the 7th. Kind of amazing when you think about it. So I figured out what the yellow LIVESTRONG bracelets are all about this summer. It was a question that had made me curious for a little while anyways. And I think it's a cool idea. Maybe a bit overrun and overplayed, but a good idea nonetheless. For some reason, this led me into thinking about school and how I plan on living out my next and final year at EBC. It's hard to think that I'll be out in the real world and after 4 months I won't be returning to school to continue on with my next diploma/degree.

But anways, I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to just breeze through the final year like I have been through the past 4-5 years of school. I decided to take liveStrong and change it to suit what I want. Finish Strong is what I came up with. The idea first came up in an RA meeting as we were deciding on goals for the end of the semester. I think we accomplished it to some extent, but there were areas that were definately lacking as well. Second semester was really draining on me personally, especially near the end. But I survived and passed. I even did better than a D in Wisdom Lit (which was what I was expecting, seeing as I have no clue how to do an exegetical paper... I wonder if we're going to get those back...)

So yeah, I think that I need to finish strong. I've been praying alot lately. Which is good, because the beginning of the summer was really sucky for my prayer life. I'm just praying that I have the ability to finish strong this year and make it through the final year of my current 18 year old education career.

So yeah. I'm just trying to formulate a plan as to how I can attain my goal without giving into apathy. It's a long year ahead, but it'll be worth it in the end.

T.

etc...

Here is an update:

Work: I worked full time hours this week (36) and I'm into overtime hours for next week (40), which is a huge improvement over my previous weeks of max 24 hours. Last night, I handled 784 calls in 7 hours of being online (112 calls/hr), and my quality r0x0r3d your 50x0r5 off. Booyah. Tomorrow I start an 8 day streak of working, but that's ok... it's mostly 8-12 with a few 4-12's thrown in the mix as of now. If they call me for overtime, I'll most likely take it because I really need the extra money.

School: Payment of res is due soon. I have my cheque written (signed and dated too!) and I'm going to be sending it off on Monday or so. The fee statement was off by quite a bit for some reason... it had the damage deposit on it (already been paid), and had me in a double room instead of a single, but I altered it and sent an e-mail off to the school clarifying what my cheque would be for whenever the rest of it goes.

Life: I went to camp the other night and they told me to quit Nordia and go up there for the rest of the summer. I politely declined, but it was good to go up and see people I haven't seen in a while. I was only there for a few hours but somehow managed to get told I was doing the Prune Song at campfire.... bitterness ensued... I'm leaving before 8:15 from now on.... maybe.

Also, I went to Dr. Gretzingher's office the other day for my wisdom tooth consultation. I'm going to the hospital for surgery on August 26th. My last day of work is set at the 25th, and I have to be at school on the 2nd, so I figured this was an optimal time to get it done. They called me the other day and asked if I wanted it yesterday (Friday), but I politely declined due to the 3-5 day recovery time needed and the nature of my job (using my mouth for 7 hours daily)

So that's about it.

T.

unexplicable ways

I led the opening at the church this morning. It's kinda funny how things worked out because everything tied into each other. The first service theme tied into what I did which tied into the sermon even though there was no collaboration on anyone's part regarding what we were doing. It's cool how the Holy Spirit works in the background and brings things together like this.

I started with Hail Gladdening Light, then into All Creatures of Our God and King, then Glory, then Shout to the North, then Take My Life and Let It Be, then Beautiful Scandelous Night, then ended off with Old Rugged Cross.

It was cool.

"On that wonderful, tragic, mysterious tree
On that beautiful, scandalous night, you and me
Were atoned by His blood, forever washed white
On that beautiful, scandalous night."

a story

Here is a story about a guy of which stupidity followed him around a lot.

Let's call him Fred.

Fred = human.
Humans = stupid.
Therefore Fred=Stupid.

Fred was stupid in the sense that some things that were usually common sense didn't come quickly to him, just like any other human being, such as why we don't gawk at the opposite gender for kicks and giggles and why we don't watch television late at night. Fred thought he learned his lesson years ago, but no, Fred was prone to make the same mistakes, even after they had been absent for years.

Enter Jesus. Jesus is a cool guy. He is full of all the things that Fred isn't. Love, peace, joy, intelligence, grace, and most of all common sense. Jesus doesn't like the things that Fred does because they're not the way things should be. So Jesus intervened in Fred's life and said "Hey Fred, you don't need to be like that anymore. All you need is me and the things I like." Fred thought that to be a good idea, so Fred went with Jesus.

However, Fred's become temporary blinded by stupidity throughout the time that he was hangin' with Jesus. It happens often and Fred feels really sucky about the whole thing, but it's cool because Jesus is like, "Hey, don't worry about that. Come and hang with me and do the things I do, and it'll be great. I forgive you of your stupidity. We'll be chillaxin together forever." No matter how many times Fred is stupid, Jesus is still willing to hang with him as long as Fred is repentant. And Fred is.

Love.

Truth.

Grace.

From Jesus alone.

The only thing worth living for.

booyah

I think tonight, on my 11th shift since training, I've reached 33 seconds/call on average. That's where I'm expected to be after 3 months. Boo yah. I would be better because I was at 31/call before my break, but after break came the longer calls one right after another until my average was up to 33.... arg.

Ah well, I'll survive. The thing I dislike about working til midnight is that by the time I get home, I'm wide awake and can't get to sleep until 1, or on nights like tonight 2.

Arg... 4 hours sleep, here I come.

T

liturgy

I prepared most of my opening for Sunday morning today and decided that it would be cool to start off with Phos Hilaron:

Hail Gladdening Light
Of His pure glory poured
Who is the Immortal Father, Heavenly Blest
Holiest of Holies, Jesus Christ our Lord

Now we are come to the sun’s hour of rest
The lights of evening ‘round us shine
We hymn the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Divine

Worthiest art Thou, at all times to be sung
With undefiled tongue
Son of our God, giver of life alone
Therefore, in all the world They Glories Lord, Thine own.

why are my feet to the sky?

So I went to Wonderland yesterday with Gord and Meghan. A fun time was had by all.

3 Rides happened that I said I would never ever do:
Dragonfire
Drop Zone
Sky Rider

I was freaked out from Drop zone... my eyes were closed the entire ride down.... Yuck.

We went on the Italian Job Stunt Track too. It's an ok ride, but not worth the hour and 45 minute wait due to it breaking down 2 times while we were in line... that's right. And the people at wonderland didn't offer us free water because it was freaking hot outside too. Ah well.

Here's the ride tally of the day:

Dragonfire
Wild Beast
Drop Zone
Vortex
Ghostercoaster
Mine Buster
Sky Rider
Vortex
Italian Job

Not a bad day in all. I would have liked to do the Fly, Thunder Run, and Tomb Raider, but the others weren't so keen on that idea. Tomb Raider was also broken down for a large portion of the day.

Out.

T.

btefnet?

I went to btefnet yesterday to see if there was any hope of redemption for the site and there seems to be... But it's now a pay service. 30 US for a lifetime membership for unlimited downloads of tv shows. Now the question that stands is if this is legitimate or not. For a while there it said the domain name was for sale and I'm wondering if the whole thing's a scam.

It's a good question, and we'll see how things turn out. I probably wont pay, but we'll see in the future.

after day 1

I was told:
f you
your moms are pigs
to go to a massage parlour in Toronto because it's a sex shop.

The joys.

gradumacated

So I graduated from Directory Assistant training today and am going on to begin work tomorrow night. Call 411 between 8 and midnight tomorrow.... you may get me. Maybe.

Today's stats were:

Time online: 4.75 hours
Calls taken: 371
Average time per call: 41 seconds
Calls per hour: 78.1

I'm still pretty consistent with my call time so far. When I first started I was between 47 and 57 seconds per call, so it's come down quite a bit over the past week. Maybe I'll get it down into the low 30's by the end of the summer as I become more familiar to the system.

I may try to get a job at the Kitchener centre when I return to school. I'll have to look more into how that would work and if it would be feasable at all.

Out.

T.

sigh

I'm going to have a bit of trouble when I go back to school. The backspace button on the keyboards at work is in a different location than it is on a regular keyboard... Ooops!

Also, we were online taking everything the past 2.25 days or so now. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be before we started, but after 2 days, I'm down to the following stats:

Thursday:

Time online: 7 hours
Calls Taken: 586
Average time per call: 42 seconds
Calls per hour: 83.7

Friday:

Time online: 5.5 hours
Calls Taken: 448
Average time per call: 40 seconds
Calls per hour: 81.4

Monday's the last day of training and then I start on Tuesday for my regular shifts (which for the first 3 non-training weeks are all but one 8-midnight shifts... yucky.

overload

Well, finally after 1.5 weeks of training we went into the main queue for all calls. It was a lot. It was only 40 minutes and the time flies when you're taking calls. I'll be ok when we do a bit more of this and I get a bit more comfortable being able to multitask. But on the plus side, my manners have gotten amazing and my diction is much better than it was a week ago. Go figure.

T.

ugh

So for some strange reason, I started to panic about funding for school this evening. I don't know how I'll manage to afford a final year of school because I most likely won't be getting full time hours at work, but I'm sure something will work out in the end.

There's a few things that I'll have to drop out of my schedule in order to make things more feasable, which include:

backpacking in algonquin
PEI
Scotland (yucky!)
Laptop
Maybe more...

The sucky part about this is that I'm forced to have extra finances in my account to be able to afford weekend meals next year because they're not included with the meal plan. Maybe I'll just save up from the rest of the week or freeze a lot of food this summer for reheating in the fall. I already have 5 extra pieces of lasagna!

online

Today was the day. We went online for the first time. The feeling you get when you don't want to take the leap of faith and try something new happened today. We only took 800 calls and US calls seperately with a few canadian numbers thrown in that emily got mixed up on. Wasn't that bad in the end. The US numbers were really slow for some reason. I only did about 10 of those in 20 minutes online rather than 15-20 800 numbers in that time.

Supposedly we'll be taking lots of calls by Tuesday in a variety of areas. Eek.

back to school

I've felt like a student once more in grade 7 and 8 the past few days as I've been returning to Hill Street School, now known as Nordia. They've done quite a few changes with the inside, the most welcoming being the addition of central air conditioning which has been an amazing addition through this latest heat wave we've been having. We've been learning on the computers and through online based training how to be a directory assitance operator for the various companies and conglomerates that use Nordia's service. There's a lot. So much to learn, so little brainspace to cram it in.

Haven't taken any calls yet, but we've probably spent 2-3 hours listening in on agents as they've been taking calls. As with any business, there's the weird requests that come through that you're wondering what the person is on. I'm at the point where i've experienced enough oddities through my term at the travel centre that nothing really faces me anymore... though there was the one request for a place called stitch and b**** (son of an unwed mother). The agent was taken aback and had to clarify. No listing came up, but it was still quite interesting.

The rents are home, and nothing's really changed except for that I haven't had to cook for 2 dinners now, which has been nice, though I hope I don't lose my willingness to fend for myself ambitiously rather than through microwave edibles.

T.

directory assisted

Well, I've had two days of training at Nordia. I haven't messed up yet... but I haven't taken any calls yet, so that kinda helps a bit. So much to remember, so much overload when I realize that it'll take forever and a day to get it all down. Ah well. We might be live for a bit tomorrow... i'm frightened beyond belief.

If you call 411, 1 (area code) 555-1212, or 1-800-555-1212, you'll be through to a Nordia agent somewhere in Ontario or Quebec... most likely Corunna or Kitchener. Try it sometime (from a payphone - it's free there)

bcn

So my parents are in Barcelona right now theoretically. According to Wunderground.com, the temperature there is about 24 C, about 6 degrees less that it's supposed to be here today. I'm glad that there's good weather for them to explore my favourite city that I've been to. We had a day of rain and a day of rushedness to see the city that's known for the Gothic architechture all around it. Anton Gaudi was a genius, I say.

I have the house to myself for another 48 hours. It's still presentable, which surprises me. I've never kept it this spotless before. I just keep doing the dishes and cleaning up after myself. I guess I am becoming slowly domesticated.

In other news, I think I'm going to the Pinery today to have a relaxing day in the beautiful weather that we've been having lately. Hopefully others are coming with. It'll make things more fun.

And to make myself look presentable, I shaved completely last night. Originally it was only a trim, but the humidity made my face sticky and I messed up, so it all came off. First time since March. I'll probably keep clean for a month or so now, just to be different... but when I get to the point where I don't need to be presentable anymore for professionalism's sake, I'm going pretty again with the facial hair. LOOK AT ME! I'M PRETTY!

domestic tim

This week has been a week of firsts for me:
First time making lasagna
First time frying potatoes
First time changing door knobs
First time fixing a toilet
First time scraping a deck
etc. etc. etc.

I fried chicken and potatoes for supper tonight. Neither were fully cooked in the end, but I had to stop so I didn't set the smoke detector off... oops. I'm not dead yet. I nuked the chicken to finish the cooking process and the potatoes were fine in the end. And the left over creamed corn didn't taste so hot, but that's ok.... I'll survive. I also made a lasagna and caesar salad from scratch the other day and no one who ate of is dead yet.

I think I'm doing pretty well for myself being on my own for this week and a bit. I start at Nordia on Monday. The 'rents return on Tuesday. And life continues.

T.

scrape your booty

I've spent parts of the past 3 days working for my grandpa scraping a deck of the stain that it once bore in order to sand and restain it. Today, after about 12-15 hours of work, I completed the top level of the deck. I have 4-5 steps to scrape now and a culvert cover before I can get to work sanding all the pieces (with an electric sander, thankfully). It's something to keep me busy throughout this week of potential work that Nordia stole from me.

I just wish I knew of a professional masseuse where I could go for free/cheap... stiff necks suck.

Sigh.

Now that all the yearlong shows are over (Scrubs, Survivor, Amazing Race, Lost, Joan of Arcadia [permanantly... stupid cbs]), I'm left with very little to watch on the tube. Maybe this will help a bit. I made it to world 4 by myself on Super Mario 3 on Sunday afternoon before turning it off due to poor game cartridge quality and getting sick of seeing it in my head everytime I close my eyes. One day I'll return to that spot and pick up where I left off. I also have a few books that I'd like to read. One of them is "God is closer than you think" by John Ortberg. It looks interesting, so I'll give it a go and see what it's like. I'd also like to re-read "A Royal Waste of Time" by Marva Dawn and "Who You Are When No One's Looking" by Bill Hybels.

Reading is the lost artform when there's TV around... you don't have to think for TV. Or computers for that matter sometimes.

T.

toilet training

You can add to my handyman resume that I fixed a toilet today too. The flushing chain broke, so I went out and got a new one... though it's not installed the way it should be, it still works wonderfully. Happy times.

And the neighbours for some reason like using our driveway better than their own... I'm considering purchasing a boulder to place between the drives which would be wonderful to the bottom of their car when they meet in a gracious conglomeration of metal and rock.

tim the handyman

I have just completed my second accomplishment as a handyman. First was the shelf in my room. Today was the replacement of two doorknobs in the lower level of our house because they didn't open properly anymore. I experienced what it is like to be locked in the bathroom due to fautly doorknobs a few weeks ago... I've experienced the locking in the bathroom due to mean brother before, and this was almost as humiliating.

So I don't know what I'm aiming to do next, but I know it'll be something fun and end up looking cool. Or something like that.

T.

frustration galore

So firstly, even though it made my evening last night seeing Arzt blow himself up on Lost (seen that part 3 times now... always worth it), the ending of the show left me frustrated beyond all measure. You'd think that a season finale would tie up all loose ends and such, but no. We're left with more things to ponder than we had to begin with. Hopefully it's like the Simpson's who shot Mr Burns and everything is figured out the first episode of the next season. Gah.

Secondly, I received my call from Nordia today, but it wasn't what I wanted to hear. Training's been moved back a week, starting on the 6th of June rather than May 30th. That means anything extra I wanted to do this summer is pretty much lost all hope now due to the lack of money. So maybe I'll get a better job before then and I could do all the extra stuff, but argh. I'll survive, I think.

I drove to Kitchener yesterday and home this morning and after about an hour in the car my back started to get really sore. Hopefully it was only temporal. I'll start slouching less in case that's part of the cause. I only saw one OPP cruiser with radar on, and that was 30 km from home on the way back. But no worries. I wasn't going too fast.

Tomorrow I may apply for more jobs in hopes that I can cure my boredom dilemma, which needs to be cured soon. Like now would be nice. But we'll see.

T.

in spirit and in truth

So I had a dream last night... normally I don't take much from my dreams because as those who have heard what my dreams are sometimes know, there isn't much to take from them because they're so whacked out. But anyways, I was out in the Grove visiting a friend (in the dream), and on my way home, I decided to stop by Mark Mclimont's house, (seeing as it's right on my way home from the Grove), but he was at church, so I went. It was an Anglican church, which I do believe is the correct church for the moment, and I went in and found him and his family and sat down with them (other people I knew were with me, but don't ask me who they were...)

But then I started to bash the liturgy. Then comes the line. Tim, you need to worship in Spirit and in Truth, no matter the style. Then I woke up.

So I looked up John 4:20-24 where Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman at the well and he says that a time is coming where we will not worship on the mountain or in Jerusalem, but we will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. So for all of those who are in worship wars out there because you started them... Doesn't matter the style. Just worship.

ugh

so I've spent most of another weekend indoors watching tv and playing Super Mario 3... I've made it to World 3 (water) before dieing off repeatedly. I've only been able to finish world 3 level 2 (flying fish, moving platforms) once out of the 30-40 tries, and I clouded over world 3 level 3 (big fish, sinking ground) to make it to the castle, which I couldn't quite figure out... but I think I have now. go in a door, and then do it again in order to make it beyond... maybe. Let me know. I'm not sure. Maybe I'll go play super mario 1 now. I can do better at that one... maybe.

T.

lengthy update

I know people are wondering what has tim been up to... well, that's being optomistic of me, anyways...

I am currently, and have been for the past 4 weeks now: bored out of my mind. I need a job soon. Well, I have one that starts on the 30th, but that's not coming soon enough. I've seen much TLC and HGTV over the past few weeks. I want to go and become a worker for Mike Holmes just so I can tear apart some crummy workmanship... I'm not sure if I'll be able to put it back together well, but I can try and learn. Speaking of building things: I put up a bookshelf on the wall in my room, anchors into the wall and everything. I'm very pleased with myself. I also installed new blinds on the window. I'm not as mechanically disinclined as I thought I was with tools. So maybe it took me a while and I wanted to throw things across the room much, but it's finished and looks somewhat nice now. At least better than it did.

I've applied for gazillions of jobs through the Employment Centre, but I can't follow up on any of them due to the way that the application process works. It's all kept confidential. I wish it was done a better way, because then I could know what I'm trying to showcase of my skills and abilities instead of trying to grab a rabbit out of a hat. But I haven't heard from any of them to date. I'm hoping and praying that something different than sitting at a call centre for 12-37.5 hours a week comes along, but I can survive if that's what I end up doing.

How have I kept sane?

I have three close friends in the area that keep me somewhat unbored. I got food poisoning while out with one for breakfast the other morning (not from her, from the undercooked French Toast. Today's the first time I haven't felt bad since Sunday). I'm waiting at another one's apartment tomorrow for 4 hours for the Bell repair guy to show up while he's at work, and I'm going golfing with the other one tomorrow afternoon in the Grove. (Bright's Grove).

I've also played some classic games of Sid Meier's: Civilization 2 and Colonization. Colonization keeps freezing on me, so Civ2 is the most played of the two. I almost want to find an NES with Super Mario 3, and I'm tempted to try and borrow one. I'd like to return to the classic Civilization I, but I haven't been able to find it. The other game that I'd most like to play is the one, the only Curse of Monkey Island. The only place that seems to have it in great abundance on E-bay is the UK, and I don't think it'd be worth the shipping fees. Sigh. Maybe IF I end up going to Iona in the fall, I can take a look around at the stores in Scotland and see what they have to offer me. It'd be fun... I think.

I've watched both seasons of "The Office" the UK version. It's more crass than the American Version was. It had some good points... but it also had some very low points. But, to make up for it, I watched the first season of "Corner Gas"... good ol' Canadian shows. There's a lot of good that can come out of shows from Canada when they're not trying to copy their American counterpart cough Canadian Idol cough... Pamela Wallin on Millionaire cough...

The other night I also went to the theatre for the first time in over a year to see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I think it was pretty good. Next up in theatres is Episode 3. On Tuesday night, there was a guy that I knew from high school waiting as the first person in line to see Star Wars. He'd been there since Tuesday morning at 10. That was 38 hours before the movie was released. That was a long wait. He was there for 14 hours by himself waiting, and then more people showed up to wait. Hardcore, I tell you.

I've been getting lots of sleep, which I guess is good. Making up for the huge amount that I lost at school due to my inability to get to sleep with noise. Even my computer fan is too loud for me. But I don't like the fact that I'm making habit out of getting up at 10 or later every morning. Tomorrow will be a bit different. 0630 is when I'm getting up. Hopefully I can keep that trend going for as long as I need to because my parents are being pained with the task of going on a Mediterranian Cruise and spending a few nights in Rome on one side and a night in one of the best cities I've been to, Barcelona, on the other night... It pains me to no end that they're going through that torture... sigh. Anyways, I wont have a wakeup call coming from the voice of Mom, which I've found very useful over the past... almost 20 years... TIM! THE BUS IS COMING!!! (1.5 minutes from waking up to getting on the bus is my record, which I'm very proud of... change of clothes and packed backpack in that time too.)

I'm hopefully taking my bike into the shop in the next week to get it fixed. the Gears are schwacked... I wish Rockstar Rob was nearby. It would cost me less that way... maybe.

I've come to some conclusions due to experiences in the past few weeks:
1. It's really easy to get insulted while in a church. From anyone, who says anything to you. While it's good to ponder some things that are said, don't take anyone's comments towards you or your likes seriously. Lots of hurt can come from it.
2. When bored, watch renovation shows on TV or leave the house. Simple enough.
3. Don't skip church for breakfast. You'll get food poisoning.
4. Exercise is fun. You need lots of it. I need more than I've gotten.
5. My computer hates me.
6. 99% of the job market IS against me, no matter what I do.
7. As much as people annoy the heck out of me, I need to be around them for the majority of my year or else I get bored. Easily.
8. I don't need a girlfriend as much as I tell myself that I do and should find one now. They're overrated... but at the same time, so worth it. Good points about both singleness and couplehood.
9. It's hard to keep my room clean when there's two rooms worth of stuff in it.
10. It's a lot easier to avoid the bad shows on TV when I've gotten hooked on watching HGTV, Discovery, and TLC.
11. Enjoy life.

payable on debt

I received my bill for residence this fall in order thatn I may get the nice 45% off discount for being a 3rd year residence student. I like that idea. If only we got that off the food as well, but I guess the price of food can't be compromised... we're already losing out on weekend meals, and we all know how disgusting the kitchen in Lehman gets after 2 minutes of being used... so my weekend meals will have to be figured out. The only issue I have is the storage of food space on campus will be limited because everyone will have food to put somewhere. Wideman's got it ok because of their individual fridges if they so choose, as do those who have their own fridges. But for those of us who don't have the 200 bucks to purchase a fridge or rent one in Wideman, we're stuck with the communal fridge for 12-16 people in which space gets taken up by one person who thinks they own the space. You know who you are.

Sigh. Ah well. At least it's cheaper than living in an apartment. I should learn how to make more than grilled cheese and kraft dinner this summer. That's a task for me to do.

addictingshows.com

I don't know if that's a website, but it is in my books. I've enjoyed watching a few shows this year: Survivor 9 and 10; Amazing Race 5,6, and 7; Scrubs; Joan of Arcadia, and most recently, Lost. Now, it's coming to the time of year when the shows end for the summer... and it's nice, meaning that I have 4.5 hours less per week that I'll be spending in front of the tele. Survivor, Amazing Race, and Scrubs are over. Joan of Arcadia has one more week and Lost has two more weeks. The question now sits as to whether or not I will continue watching the tele after these are done... perhaps... but unless I get some sort of job under my belt in the near future, this is highly unlikely.

If only I had a GPS... I'd go Geocaching or if I had a laptop with wireless capability, I'd go for a little wireless network hunt around the neighbourhood. Not like I'll use them, but it's fun to see how many people don't secure their networks... University Ave in Waterloo had about 4-6 per block that were visible, and about half of those were unsecured. We were going too fast to connect to any of them, but it was still an interesting find.

I've been commissioned to help with a website for the CACSD's annual conference 2006. Originally, it was supposed to be for 2005, so I stole a frame and filled it in, but it wasn't to be... so now I have to figure out something for next year within the next week or so... I have a bit of help from a guy from school in Elmira and the President of the CACSD's husband out in wherever Trinity Western is, BC. We'll see how this goes, seeing as my html is limited by a lot, and that's pretty much the only language I can work with right now... hopefully I can get something done... maybe. I don't want to disappoint.

Ah well... off to the races.

For anyone interested, I'm most likely coming to KW for a day or two next week 25th and 26th perhaps to get a few things done that need to be done. If you read this and would like to visit, let me know.

T.

arg

I'm normally not one to complain, but the MPAA has decided to sue those who are allowing tv show downloads, according to this bulletin off their site.

So, this just leaves it to those who may use one of those sites to go out and get 2-3 PVR's from satellite dealers, and then record tv, and re-watch it just by fastforwarding through the commercials, which is the only perk of getting them from the Internet.

So now, when the networks decide to offer two major shows simultaneously - like Scrubs and The Amazing Race and the only available network (CTV) chooses Amazing Race over Scrubs and doesn't replace Scrubs elsewhere, that leaves us missing a good show because the network was stupid. So how are people supposed to keep up with their shows when the networks don't care? By downloading them, or waiting 15 years for them to come out on DVD and then spend much money on those, even though you could just get a cheap tv from a garage sale with rabbit ears and then pay 15 bucks for whatever you get... Arg.

MPAA = Stupid.

connected

So I've been having issues with connectivity to my dad's router over the past few weeks, where it junks out on me a lot and I'm only connected at 1 mbps if that. So I purchased a D-link Wireless B router the other week on www.tigerdirect.ca for 10 bucks plus shipping and tax, and decided it was going to be useful when I get back to school this fall. That way I can either pawn off the Internet to people or mooch it off of someone else.

But today was the last straw. I was sick of losing my connection about once every 15 minutes or so, so I hubbed up to the modem, which split to the two routers (mine is a floor closer than my dads is, and it's MAC filtered, which means I am the only one who can use my router... Awww, isn't that nice. I'm finally connected at "Very Good" again and 11mbps (max for wireless b). It's the small things that make me happy.

Also, there's a new job posting through the student employment centre that looks really really cool. It's a homeless outreach worker, which I think I would really enjoy doing. I shall be making a visit on Monday to the Bayside Mall... I remember putting like 25-30 suggestions for a name for that mall into the box daily back in grade 9. Sigh. They should rename it the Zach Attack for good times. I'd go there all the time.

On a sad note, I thought I'd found the perfect blinds today at Covers in the Lambton Mall, but alas, when I get home, they're missing the wall attachments and the opening rod... Way to get my hopes up. Yarg.

Now onto more or less important things.

T.

"there's a moose in the washing machine!"

That's what I thought I heard. It made no sense at the time... But it turned out to be a mouse, just a small one. So I went in for the grab - with gloves that were way too small for my hands on... But I learned from the case of Dawn vs. the Groundhog that animals bite when they're scared. And bite this mouse did. It was so small it didn't make it through the glove, so I don't need rabies shots, thankfully. I chucked it outside when I was done with it.

That's my story. So when you think that there is a moose in the washing machine... be prepared for a lot of mouse.

wha..?

I woke up this morning and had a pair of pj's on overtop of the pair I put on last night. I must have had some wierd dreams....

homes...

I've been watching a lot of Holmes on Homes recently. I like it. It's a guy doing a good deed for those who have been screwed over by bad contractors. I think the best part about the whole contracting thing is ripping out stuff and the finished product. I think I would enjoy doing something like that just for the thrill you get when you're done. But anyways, if you get HGTV, watch Holmes on Homes. It's good.

weekended

I am still starting at Nordia in 3 weeks from today. I'm still somewhat scared that I may end up doing that for the summer, but still, it's work and it pays well. I'll survive, I hope. It's only 14 weeks also... which is a plus.

I went away this weekend and saw various family and friends throughout our voyage to Burketon, Mississagua, Acton, and Kitchener (no, I didn't get to stop by the school, but I wasn't driving and we were hardly there for an extended period of time) On that note, I finally got my phone bill today. It was thrilling. I can rest assured knowing that I wont get charged any late fees from Bell because I moved. I'm still not sure if I'm going with Bell and Sympatico in the fall or not. It's a decision that can wait until closer to the date.

Gord, Katie, and I went to the Pinery today. It was only for a few hours, but it was still good times. We made it back from there in just under an hour, which is good time seeing as it's quite a ways away.

I got quite a bit of sun this weekend as it was absolutely gorgeous outside all the time. I wish every day was like that... ah well. It's not summer yet, can't be too choosy. There'll be more days of cool weather before the heat returns to stay.

Anyways, I'm out.

T.

ambitions

I think I might be going a bit far with my attempts to find employment that will satisfy me this summer. I mean, I was pretty much handed a job within a week that I interviewed for last year with no questions asked. And after last year's experience, I should be overjoyed to know that I'll have some sort of routine to go to...

But.

I don't think I really am satisfied with what I've been given. It'll be sitting in front of a computer all day talking into a headset and searching for information for the callers. Sure, it helps someone, but will it help me other than financially? Probably not. I don't even think that I'd be satisfied with any of the jobs that I've applied for through the employment centre. The whole process is a little bit vague. I think it's because the descriptions of the positions are really vague. They just have a job title, essential skills, and how old you need to be. That doesn't seem to be enough to know whether or not I'll be good working for them. All employers are kept confidential, so I can't even follow up to see if they've looked at my resume and have any sort of longing to discuss the opportunity with me more.

I'm not set on the Bible College thing detracting from my resume this year. That was last year's worry. This year... I don't know. I don't really have any marketable skills that can be honed in on from a 5 word job description. I'm a bit frustrated to say the least.

So am I being a bit too ambitious looking for something a bit more stable for the next few months? I'd like monday to friday, but how realistic is that for a student summer job unless you're working in an office or in one of the plants around here? I'd like 40 hours a week... which isn't too much to ask. I'd like over 8.50/hr, which doesn't seem too high. I'd like a job that I can feel like I've gone somewhere and done something at the end of the day, rather than one that I've just ended up sitting in the same spot doing the same task every 22 seconds for 8 hours. And I have the tendancy to mumble and stutter while speaking, which probably wont help much.

I think I'd rather be in school mode where I don't need to think about anything other than getting the next assignment done and being at the next meeting on time. I got an e-mail today from the CACSD advertising a Resident Director position in BC. I think I could do well at something like that when I'm done at EBC next year. It's something to try... most positions like that are only 8-10 month contracts, so I have the right to try it out, and I'm not losing anything if I don't like it as much as I thought I would.

Maybe I just need to get outside of the bubble that we call Narnia and explore other facets of life in a different area of the province... but I need a job first to pay for the bills that will inevitably come with living elsewhere.

Jobs... Arg.

virused

I was stupid and opened an attachment on my tim.grace@cogeco.ca account. I'm not quite sure what it did, but I keep getting error messages returned to me saying that a message has a virus. I'm not sure if that's what it does or what... but anyways, if you get a message from that account with an attachment, don't open it.

T.