August 29, 2007 - 11:45pm

I went buy a parking pass for the parking campus garage near Spadina and Harbord. It's a good spot that has pretty good access. My original route had me taking the 400 to the 401 to Bathurst to Harbord to Spadina to the garage, but as luck would have it, there's no exit for Bathurst on the 401eastbound but there is westbound! So, I've decided to go maybe take 401 to Allen to Eglinton to Bathurst and so on.

I went downtown Monday morning to buy books, too...I'm taking an English course so I thought that I'd get started on some readings. I went to the bookstore but they said they didn't have a published courselist for the English course I'm taking. So, I went to the library and checked the course website, where I found the list. I then went back to the bookstore and found that out of seven books, they only had one. It was very disappointing. However, I'm glad that I went on Monday since the parking office had a line-up...the probably sold out of passes later that day!

Anywho, I emailed the professor for the English course and he emailed me back with a complete syllabus, including a store that I could buy the books from (he told them to order them all)! So, Matt and I went down today to pick them all up. It was good.

August 24, 2007 - 9:30pm

I am sooooo ridiculously bored!!! It's a Friday night and I'm sitting at home pondering what to do. Matt was supposed to come over so that we could watch a movie or something, but that would have left his mom home alone and she wouldn't stand for it. My sister and her friend Melissa are busy doing "girl stuff" like their nails and stuff...I'm channel surfing but there aren't any waves...there's nothing on TV. My parents are gone to the Gulerya's (family friends) since they are having a few people over...I'm considering a trip over there but fear that it will be boring since there isn't anyone remotely close to my age. Maybe I will go. It'll give me something to do.

It's funny...my plans for this weekend are beginning to deteriorate already! it's Friday and those plans changed and Saturday it's supposed to rain, so the BBQ isn't going to happen. It started raining about half an hour ago, so even if it doesn't rain tomorrow, the ground will still be soggy. Hopefully there is an alternative plan in effect.

Well...I guess it's off to the adults...wish me luck.

August 23, 2007 - 12:10am

I went to the York University Observatory with my buddy Matt Ramnauth. We drove around for like 15 minutes looking for the building...of course, the fact that York is undergoing extensive construction on all of the main roads, coupled with the fact that the online map had no street names didn't help. The sad part was that it was cloudy when we got there. We didn't see much beyond the equipment, but even that was pretty cool. They had two at York, a smaller one for general observing and the larger 60cm telescope for research. It was pretty big, very solid and quite old (it turns 40 soon!). There were a few people there, but the "volunteer students" from York were pretty talkative. Actually, there was this one guy who kept talking to these two people during the entire hour that we were there...and I'm sure that he had been talking to them for a while before. The odd thing was that he seemed like he was wearing a mic and that the sound of his voice was being amplified across all of the speakers in the tiny dome...it was odd...it was like a publicly private conversation.

There was this other Asian kid, a first-year, who literally freaked the crap out of us. He crept up out of nowhere and asked us if we'd seen the Moon. He took us on a tour of the research telescope, maintaining, if not increasing his level of creepiness. I guess because it was dark in the room he seemed more pedophillic...is that even a word? <Spell check...yes it is>. It was funny and awkward.

Hmm...what else? When I got back home, my sister told me that my parents and our family friends, the Gulerya's, are thinking about getting an RV and going to some Thousand Island...I told my sister that Thousand Island is a salad dressing. They wanted to do it this weekend, but both my sister and I are busy. My sister has her friend, Melissa, coming over for a sleepover on Friday. I have a high school reunion BBQ on Saturday afternoon, and my friend Shervin's birthday party...or as he puts it, Persian Feast, on Sunday night.

Yesterday night I bought the entire series of Arrested Development on DVD from Future Shop online. It was great! I requested in-store pickup and found out that it is more of a "reserve the product" type of purchase. Nothing was charged to me until I picked up the DVDs. I'm glad I made the purchase...$80 including the taxes for hours and hours of excellent, intelligent, witty and original entertainment. It truly was the greatest sitcom on television. It's too bad that it got cancelled. It was because it was on Fox and the show was considered "too intelligent" by their executives. I'm convinced that they know nothing there...they cancelled Family Guy a while ago! Arrested Development even won awards! Good ones!

In any case, I look forward to watching the episodes and exploring the special features.

August 20, 2007 - 5:15pm

I was kind of bored and decided that Wikipedia was to be the cure for my ailment. Through my "research" I discovered the budget for NASA from it's inception in 1958 to present day. There is a very interesting table at Wikipedia detailing (in adjusted dollars) how much NASA was being funded back in the 60's, during NASA's heyday of success, compared to today. They are being funded half of what they were back in '66! Well, these numbers should go up in a few years with all of the new projects that will get people back into outerspace...beyond the space station. I can see another space race developing, except with the Chinese being the communist country that the "free-world" must beat.

On that same note, Matt told me about Discovery Channels big-budget project called Race To Mars! It is the most expensive mini-series that they've ever done and is going to air on the 23rd of September! Can't wait!!

August 18, 2007 - 5:45pm

Hmm...isn't it interesting how I mentioned how proud I was of updating my site (nearly) daily and then didn't add another entry for a whole week??? Anyways...I was at work a few days ago when I thought (randomly) to myself: do fruitflies die in the rain? I mean, fruitflies are quite small and a drop of rainwater, falling from the clouds high above, could carry quite a relative force. I wonder, could it injure the fly? Do they know to find shelter when it rains? I welcome your thoughts...

So I left work early yesterday to watch Superbad! It was awesome!!! Great music too!! Total FUNK! It was vulgar, but it was an R-rated comedy...what do you expect? I read somewhere that they used the word "fuck" like 175 times. I don't know how somebody judged that considering that the movie came out yesterday...I guess through advanced screenings. Or maybe the guy just didn't have a life and decided to sacrifice the comedy of the movie for statistics. Seriously...hilarious movie.

After the movie, Matt and I kicked ASS at Pictionary! It was almost embarrassing for the other team. We finished while they were almost a quarter of the board around! It was fun.

Hmm...what else? Oh, my aunt who live in Michigan (and an engineer for GM) is on her way to India right now...she went (with her family) a few years ago for like 8 months! Apparently, GM is setting up plants in India and my aunt went to oversee the operations there...I think that there was training involved as well. So, she's back there again for about 10 days. It sucks for her because today's her birthday. She sent me an email telling me that she was celebrating it while in the airport at her stopover.

Last year, my mom totally lost her birthday. My mom, dad and sister went to India for a vacation last year (I didn't go by choice...free house! Woo!!)...because of their flight time being so close to my mom's birthday, and the fact that they were traveling into the future (loosing a day because of the rotation of the Earth) mom had her birthday in the plane, but it only lasted a few hours!

What else? What else?......Ok. I bought some Guinness beer a few days ago and found out that they place a "widget" in the bottles and cans. So, if any of you know about beer, the head (foam) of the beer is what keeps the beer from being oxidized by the atmosphere. Oxidized beer tastes really bad. It's kind of like sour wine. Or better yet, you know when you cut an apple and it goes brown? It's brown because it has become oxidized. And just as the peel of the apple protects the flesh, the head of the beer protects the beer. Now, all beer bottles (and cans) are pressurized to maintain fizziness and freshness. The way they pressurize the bottle is by using carbon dioxide (CO2) or (less commonly) nitrogen. When CO2 is used, the beer tends to be more fizzy. This is because CO2 is able to dissolve into the beer quite well. On the other hand, nitrogen is not able to dissolve as well, so the beer is not as fizzy. When you're dealing with a stout, such as Guinness, the beer is less fizzy. What the people at Guinness do is bottle their beer with a mixture of CO2 and nitrogen. While this means a smoother, less fizzy beer, it also means that there would not be a thick head. If you were to open the bottle (without the widget) there would be less CO2 bubbles escaping the liquid and therefore less of a head, which leads to oxidation and bad tasting beer. What the widget does is promote the release of CO2 from the beer, thus creating the head. The widget is actually filled with nitrogen, and a tiny hole that sits inside the beer (in the bottle). Once the widget is in the beer bottle (along with the beer) the bottle is ready for sealing. To do this, they place a tiny amount of liquid nitrogen into the bottle and close the cap. The liquid nitrogen evaporates in the bottle and pressurizes it. As the pressure of the bottle increases, the beer is forced into the widget, where the nitrogen pressure is increased as well. When the bottle is opened, the pressure immediately drops, causing the compressed nitrogen in the widget to rush out. This causes agitation which releases the dissolved CO2 in the beer, giving you head... of the beer.

August 11, 2007 - 1:00am

Why do people lick the tip of a pen before they write something? Is it some sort of technique that makes the tip wet so that you don't have to wait for ink to flow? But that doesn't make sense since you're wetting the tip, not the ink pipe. I think it's because people like the taste of metal...Think about it.

On a similar note, how many people where fucked up enough to lick the top of a 9 volt battery as a kid (or even today)? I know I did it...how many times is still a little fuzzy. I used to fear the shock that you'd get but there was just something about it that made you want to (reluctantly) do it again. I think the contradiction in what I just said made perfect sense...

So tonight was very uneventful. A little depressing maybe. After dinner, Dad had doubts as to whether or not he shut the backdoor at the factory. Mom and Dad were heading out for coffee with a few friends of theirs (I didn't want to entertain the adults, so I didn't go), but I volunteered to check the door anyway. I raced over only to find that the factory was locked properly. I decided that it would be too meaningless a journey if I headed home right then, so I drove around for about an hour. It was kinda fun...very nostalgic. I drove around the same routes and places that I used to drive when I was younger. After that, I came home and watched Dazed and Confused. I hadn't seen it before. It was actually pretty good. It was very entertaining, with many funny moments. However, I found that there was no point. It was cool for that reason, but the conservative in me desired for a storyline...not high schoolers driving around and getting high. I still think that it was a good movie and would definitely watch it again.

You know, I'm very impressed with myself.

That is all....ok seriously, it's because I think that I'm doing a pretty good job with this site. I think I have an update, however meaningless, every day! Though, the site is only a few days old...

Oh, and Catherine, I remember my first year economics professor told us that within 15 years he expects to see actual wars over freshwater. Whether or not that IS going to happen is uncertain right now, but it seems plausible. Actually, it almost doesn't. I think that any country with no (or next to no) freshwater would not have the resources to wage war. I mean, if they have the money for war, they should have the money for treatment facilities. Then again, these tend to be very populous nations which are able to use their labour advantageously. Hmm...I'm going to think about this one again. But my point about the air was that it couldn't be a commodity..it's just pressurized air that inflates my tires! It doesn't make sense, but it worked and my tires are nice and filled. They were so low that they were starting to skip a bit when I would take a turn too fast.

August 10, 2007 - 7:40pm

Today was a long day. At least I got everything done. I still have to head into work tomorrow morning, but it shouldn't be anymore than 5 hours worth of work...at the maximum.

On my way home I stopped at the gas station for some air...my tire pressure was slightly low and I could feel it on the sharp turns. When I got there I was shocked to see that they charge 50 cents! I can honestly say that I have never seen people charge for air before! I'm beginning to wonder if this is the only one or if there are more Esso stations that do this as well? <Gasp>...maybe they've all started! However, I will say that the 50 cents was much more than suffice for all four tires. In fact, I topped off all my tires, put the caps back on, got into the car, answered my phone and talked for a few minutes before it ran out.

August 9, 2007 - 2:30pm

I was surfing the net today and came across a very interesting Nike internet ad. It said, "Medals last longer than pain." I personally think that it is one of the best taglines that has come around for a long time. It's almost on par with the Mini-Wheats song. Well...almost as good as "Just do it."

August 9, 2007 - 2:10pm

So, I'm at work...kinda bored. I'm waiting on a delivery and have already finished all my other work for the day. I think I'm being lazy because it's a short week.

There's a meteor shower that started yesterday and will continue through the weekend. When it peaks on Saturday, I've read that you can see around 100 meteors an hour! It's called the Perseid shower because it is seen in the constellation....here's the link from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids. The weather forecast for tonight says "cloudy periods" so it should be alright to see something. I forgot about it yesterday.

Back to work...I'll continue this later.

August 8, 2007 - 12:20am

I guess the main reason I'm starting this is because I tend to get lazy when writing an actual journal. I think that if I have people that are waiting for my next entry I will be more motivated to write. The only question now is what to write???

Ok. About me: my name is KB Osahan. I am a third-year student at the University of Toronto, specializing in molecular plant biology. This summer I have been, and continue to, work for the family business. We started a factory in Woodbridge where we put a synthetic fiber known as flock onto rubber mats. It is really interesting work with a lot of potential and room for creativity. I like it a lot. I also love business, which is not odd considering the fact that nearly everyone in my family (even many generations back) have all been business people. I guess you could say that it is in my blood. In any case, I think that I'm putting too much time into work. For example, I left the house this morning at 8:30am and got home at 7pm. Other than this past weekend, I've taken a total of 4? days off this whole summer...including weekends! It's not too bad, but I barely get time for myself anymore. I've been forcing myself to go the extra mile in terms of personal entertainment and recreation over the past week and am regaining sanity. I think I might be exaggerating a bit...I tend to do that at least a million times a day....I'm also quite punny....and corny.

So yesterday was Civic Holiday. We (my family, my uncle's, and a friend of the family's) went to Centennial Park in Mississauga. It was pretty fun. We brought lots of food and some drinks. It was really, really hot but the breeze helped cool things down a bit. We found a nice spot between a few trees so it was shady too. The problem was that the frisbee was flying everywhere but at the target because of the wind! We tossed around a football instead. Overall, it was a fun day. Later that night, we watched a movie at my place. We watched First Born, a movie from last year about a couple that have their first born. The movie was supposed to be a horror/suspense movie, but I found it more ridiculous and funny than anything. The woman in the movie suffers through postpartum depression/insanity. There was only one part of the movie that I found cool, but it still didn't make the film worth it.

It's nearly 12:30...I think I'm gonna get something to eat and aim for an ETA in Sleepsville of 1:30. I will try to update this at least every few days, so check back often.

PS

Is it just me or do I need some sort of sign-off to finish entries...like closure???