An interesting life question..
So it's my last day here at Hbc and I really don't have very much to do so I thought I'd blog and discuss an interesting question my mom raised today at breakfast. If you had a choice, what would you choose: to live as a world hero/superstar and die at 40 or live a normal life until 90?? Initially I said I would want to live a normal life until 90....that way I get to see my children grow up, have grandchildren, see the world change. But then as I thought about it more, how often do people just live "normal" boring lives, care about superficial things and just go about their day to day activities like a shell of a person....is that any way to live??? I guess I equal a "normal" life to the life I'm living now =)...but I think my life is blessed and that I'm quite fortunate for what I have...financially sound, good family life, health, a beautiful girlfriend, a career....so what do I have to complain about....

But then there's the other side...if I could live as a hero...like Mario Lemieux or Joe Sakic or Bill Clinton and die at 40 would I take it??? I'd make millions, make my mark in history and live forever in textbooks, and in people's memory...I could do good work for people that I wouldn't have the opportunity to do in my "normal" life...

I guess it comes down to the question of quality of life...would you take 20 amazing years living every dream or 100 years doing what you're suppose to do but never truly living.....I'd take the former.....

The lesson in all of this is that I think whatever we do we should try to do it to the best of our ability and have no regrets in life. Do what you want to do, follow your dreams (within reason) and balance your life in perfect harmony....balance is key....

Cleaning is hazardous to your health...
So this weekend, I decided to attack something that I haven't done in like a decade.....clean my room...and when I say clean I really mean clean...like vacuum....throw out random stuff lying around...put out clothes that I don't wear etc. This adventure started at 9 am on Saturday and did not stop until 6 pm on Sunday....I cleaned and dusted for hours on end.....Since I'm going to be living at home for the next 4 months and try commuting to school from Scarbo, I thought I better get my room in "study" order. I organized my closet and freed up some shelf space for books. I itemized my university notes in a very anal fashion by course and then my year.....and I cleaned up my desk so that I would actually have a working space to do homework on...imagine that...what concept =)...Well throughout this whole ordeal...I couldn't stop sneezing and blowing my nose....I felt like I was dying =)...dust doesn't like me and I don't like it....and boy was I disturbing some really big and"mature" dust bunnies...actually it was more like dust elephants....because boy were these puppies huge! =).....I still have the sniffles this morning...I think it's residual from my cleaning adventure.....

Online sign up for courses a pain
So as most of you know, I don't have high speed internet and today was the day engineering students at u of t can sign up for their humanities courses.....so I really wanted marketing geography....but there was only one spot left on Friday last week so I pretty much knew that I wouldn't get it......

So I went to work to use the T1 connection there to hit the registration website as fast as possible.....I got to work at 5:45 am because the site opens at 6 am...First of all, not only did it take me 15 minutes to just get into the site but then not only did I not get my first choice....my second choice was also out.....I ended up signing up for three other courses which I didn't really want...I'll go to each of the classes and see which two I get to drop....the courses are "Global Warming", "Origins of Western Technology" and "Environmental Ethics" Any suggestions which one I should take???

So i don't think it's fair that engineering students get the last pick of humanities courses...I mean we pay more per course than the artsies to take these artsie course....if anything we should get first pick....I realize that some courses are mandatory for certain programs and I have no problem with reserved spots for them...but if you get to choose any course....it should be fair game to all.....I mean the engineers are stuck with courses that they aren't interested in....isn't the whole point of a humanties to broaden your interests???..Anyways I didn't get stuck with too many bad electives so I guess I'll see which one's the best......

Count down begins.....3...2....1.....
And so my journey with Hbc (at least this time around) is coming to an end....3 more days.....I cleaned my desk today and boy did I accumulate a lot of paper over the past 16 months...it's nuts...I think I killed several trees throughout the process....3 days left and count.....it's a bitter sweet feeling...I can't wait for vacation but I hate to leave because I really love my job here......Thanks PES for everything!!! You guys rock!!

Goodbye Hbc.....
I cannot believe that in like 7 days, I will be officially done my 16 month PEY (professional experience year) work term at Hbc. It feels like yesterday that I just started but yet looking back, I've accomplished so much in that timeframe. When I gave my final presentation and looking at all the projects that I've done it was quite astonishing how much you can accomplish in just 16 months. I'm left with a mixed feeling about leaving. The people here at PES are like a second family to me......I've hung out with them, worked with them and I have truly developed some friendships that will last a lifetime....the other part of me can't wait to get back to school and continue on with my education.....

Hbc discount....
So because my discount ends when I stop working...I decided to get a couple things for myself to totally take advantage of it =)....so here's what I've purchased over the past little while:
-leather sofa set
-futon couch
-hand blender
-2 designer suits (one grey and one black)
That has significantly put me down by some serious $$$$ but they were all things that we needed and plus the regular sales were good too =).....

*sigh* I think I'm turning into a shop-a-holic!!! someone please help me =)

Vacation time.....
So Selene and I will finally have some time to spend with each other. I know as a couple we were spoiled...going to school together, seeing each other everyday (some might say that's too much), doing homework together.....we were basically inseparable. When I started working, things changed....I no longer saw her everyday....I saw her every other day....but we still had quite a bit of time to do things. When she graduated and started her new program things got really busy. I was working fully fledged on projects and she was commuting all the way to mississauga for school.....now I see her once or twice a week....I know that's pretty good for most couples and some don't see their significant other for weeks on end but she's my best friend and there's no other person I'd rather hang out with =)....

Anyways both Selene and myself finish exams/end work on the same day (August 25)....here's our schedule until the long weekend. In 11 days we plan to do all of the following:
-Go to Cobden and visit her sister Lianne
-Play some golf up around Algonquin
-Visit her cottage
-Go to Deep River to visit her parents
-Do tourist thing in Ottawa
-Stay two nights in Montreal shopping and siteseeing
-Meet up for camping with my parents
-Visit a casino
-Go to the CNE
-Go to Pacific Mall and take new Fobby pictures =)
-just catch up on some R & R!!!

Think we can do it??? it's a lot of driving and quite a packed schedule....wish me luck...I can't wait for vacation!!!!

When is everyone going back to school??

Search Engines other than google

So I was reading the newspaper on Monday and in the BIZ section they had this article on different types of search engines that are more powerful than google itself. They're quite awesome and I've only browsed a couple of them. This brings to mind all the various types of search algorithms and how data is sorted....(yes yes I know it's very geeky but being an engineering these things inherently interest me). I thought I'd post the various search engines that you might not be familiar with so that you too could try them. Give it a whirl...some of them are pretty cool =).

General Searches
http://www.kartoo.com/
http://vivisimo.com/
http://lii.org/
http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm
http://www.dmoz.org/

Topic specific searches
http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/ (for scientific stuff)
http://www.yellopet.com/ (for pets and animal info)
http://www.woodcenter.net/ (anything about wood)
http://www.topix.net/ (general news)

try them out....you just might find them better than google =). I guess reading the newspaper everyday is useful =)....

What I did on the long weekend!!

So I always love long weekends and I really love it when I have stuff to do....anyways here's a short recap of my weekend =)

Saturday
Saturday was pretty much a right off for the family.....after being ripped off my that chinese guy (see last blog post), I pretty much just went home and enjoyed the outdoors, cleaned my golf clubs (yes I know that's anal) and waited pretty much until 5:30pm when I went over to my Auntie Betty's house for my cousin Terry's B-day party. It was alright but I think I ate a raw hamburger which gave me a really bad stomach ache.....and oh yeah..........I found out that I really suck a chess....because my little cousin beat me......

Sunday
Sunday was pretty packed too. First I went to church and then after I went grocery shopping with my dad. After lunch I had to go to a Zellers store to do some project work that I'm working on until about 2pm. I quickly went to the driving range for a couple of hours and saw Freddy and Jenn there of all people =). I mean I haven't seen those guys in ages =)...in any case, apparently they both like golf, and I was actually going to go golfing with Ani, Jay and Gill at 4:30.......I said I would call them later to go golfing some other time. I met up with the guys for golf at Tam O'Shanter for some twilight golf for 32 bucks....pretty good for a par 72 course. We only got to the 15th hole and Jay extrapolated that my score would be 123 he we had double boogies on the rest of the holes....which I don't think is too bad =)....considering that this was the largest course I've played. I think it was over 5000 yards. After we went out and chilled for dinner at a good Pho place up at Bamburgh Circle until about 11 just talking about crap and stuff =)...things that are much too vulgar and offensive to put on this site so I will spare you all....I then got home and pretty much went to sleep to gear up for Monday....

Monday
Here was the bonus day. I went down to the Bay to do a little shopping because I received an extra 10% off on top of my 10% staff discount. I ended up buying a summerm blue dress shirt for only 18 bucks =) from 44 =) pretty good deal if you ask me =).....at 11:30 I picked up Victor for G-Res and we headed over to Borges' place for a SMCS high school BBQ =)....Ed, Tiago, Vic, Oz, Borges and me were in attendance.....we ate a lot of burgers and sausages and drank a lot of beers, talked about politics, movies, careers, old times, girls and sports......pretty much all the dumb stuff guys talk about.....but for 9 hours....... =) hehehe now that was impressive....I really do miss hanging out with the guys like we use to and I think I'll organize something before the end of the summer again........probably for World Cup of Hockey =).......I dropped Vic off back downtown and saw his new room in his apartment that we use to live in....it's bigger and much nicer than the rooms we use to be in.......

Now I'm sitting here really tired and thinking about what I have to do for work tomorrow.......What did you do over your long weekend???? Hopefully you didn't waste it.......