25 random things

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

25. when i was living in saskatchewan, i cut my head on a rock while on a rocking horse and got stitches. when i came back i fell down a flight of stairs. when we went to the doctor's office, they thought i had scurvy.

24. i once fed a grilled cheese sandwich to a vcr. it freaked out my sister.

23. you should never ask me the following question: "does anybody have X?". i will usually respond with "i'm sure someone has X."

22. most things i say or do are to annoy people or for a reaction.

21. i am very pedantic, cf. 23.

20. my favourite book to read is the dictionary. i can get lost in the etymology, usage notes and editorial notes.

19. out of my five senses, sound annoys me the most. i can't stand it when i'm being bombarded with multiple noises at once. this is one reason i avoid large groups of children.

18. my favourite kind of humour is random stuff like robot chicken or bonus stages, it's an online cartoon that has the best ending ever.

17. i have the worst eating habits of anyone i know. there are several examples of this: i went three days without eating anything except two donuts, i have narrowly avoided scurvy several times, i once went grocery shopping once in three months. tip of the iceberg.

16. since i can remember, it has always taken at least an hour for me to fall asleep. i don't usually have problems staying asleep.

15. i would classify the dreams i remember into two categories: fubar, and small apparitions about me. the first make me question my sanity and second make me question free will.

14. i am an altruist.

13. i have never left canada.

12. on hallowe'en, i was known to not ask "trick or treat?", but every other possible question in the book: "is that your car?", "do you live here?", "is that your fridge?", and apparently my favourite "is that your punkin?"

11. i once fit into size 3 women's shorts. don't ask. if you don't know, i'm not telling you. the best comment i got was "size 3, that's impressive."

10. the following have all been nicknames i received: elvis, harry, bob, lloyd the void (actually, this was a nickname for my stomach), george harrison, charles manson, smart ass, shit disturber, asshole. the last four are from my parents.

9. i had chickenpox twice.

8. once a professor stopped in the middle of class, turned and looked at me and said "you've changed, your head looks different. your shirt is less offensive. did you have surgery?" after i had cut my hair.

7. i have been known to speak in tex (markup/programming language) during seminar talks because i have become so accustom to typing my notes in class that can see everything in tex. those who know what i mean usually laugh.

6. i started undergrad in computer science. math is so much better.

5. i am a great speller and a terrible calculator.

4. i shouldn't be telling you this, but i'm exceeding ticklish. some much so that was once slammed my head into a wall.

3. i am partially ambidextrous. i swing left-handed and wear my watch on my right hand, but everything else is right-dominant.

2. babies stare at me. i don't know why and it doesn't actually matter if i'm clean shaven or scruffy, long-haired or short-haired, staring at them or not. my cousins, babies in the elevators, streets, wherever.

1. i think peanut butter is the best meal.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

mario kart anyone

so i got mario kart wii for christmas and was wondering if anyone was interested in playing online. if you are either email me or post a comment.

also, i've discovered two ways to avoid the blue shell. there might even be a third now that i think about it. although they are very difficult to plan for. so chances are you're still screwed if you one's on your ass.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

new year's resolutions

so it's been awhile since i've updated this thing. instead of trying to remember all the crap since my last true update, i am just going to wipe the slate clean, similar to the new year.

i've never understood the fascination with the new year as being a cleansing or purifying time. it's the winter, my old resolutions would always die so fast because it was harder to get things done in the winter. the pagans were right, the new year should begin in the spring, but since we are in canada, in should actually happen sometime in late may. i know, the day after may 24, everybody gets drunk anyway and summer is just around the corner.

this year i have many different new years resolutions. i found in the past that having only one resolution is almost the slowest way to improve yourself. plus it has the added disadvantage of having low success rate. you fail once, and get a zero. last year i had several, most of which did not work out but at least one of them was a success. so here goes for this year:

-update this blog more often
-read at least 24 books
-be more social this year
-start volunteering again
-write at least two chapters of my thesis
-learn about elliptic curves and modular functions
-finish writing up old research
-get in shape. i don't know what this means yet
-learn 2-4 new non-mathematical skills
-change at least one stupid mannerism
-travel
-have an average wake up time of 9:00 am or earlier. this is harder than it sounds for some reason or other

twelve is enough, one for each month.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

onion tV

need i say more. the onion has created its own youtube.


'Cosmopolitan' Institute Completes Decades-Long Study On How To Please Your Man

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

waterloo trip

so it's been awhile since i've updated.

i've taken and passed my comprehensive examination. woohoo. after that i took a break from everything until about the number theory conference/wedding in waterloo. the conference was good. i learned some things which might be useful for my thesis. i just need a fast computer to see if my conjectures are right.

on the saturday before the conference we went paintballing for lino's bachelor party. it was fun and gross at the same time. the floor was so gross that my bike gloves got completely wrecked. also, we all pretty much had honour badges (welts) on our body by the end. i can still parts of my third nipple and it's almost been a month. then we had some fun at d's and snuggles' with board games, mariokart, and poker. i got four of a kind twice, and it was the same four of a kind. threes rule. took snuggles' money both times.

the next day was the conference and so i needed to start waking up early as most people don't have a 10:30am wake up time. luckily fluffy the destroyer of worlds makes enough noise in the morning to wake me up. by the end of the day i was so sore from paintball the previous day that every step hurt.

throughout the week i ate dinner out with lots of people. i went to lunch with d at the vegetarian fast food restaurant, actual name, and had some curry on wednesday. melissa, dave, abby, and i went to ennio's. this place has the best bread i've ever had. they should just have a separate menu item of this bread. on thursday, i went to dinner an pho ben thanh, a vietnamese-thai restaurant with soo, akshay, sam, cam, and some other people i can't currently remember. i had lots of food, a large bowl of red thai curry and massive bowl of rice. on friday, i went to mongolian with chester, robert, and brandon and had three bowls and lots of tortilla bread from the spices. by the end of the week i had so much spicy food i had ripped some of the beads off my tongue. it took a week to heal.

on saturday was lino and kaitlyn's wedding. it was a lovely service and reception. i would have pictures as well, if my !@%&ing camera hadn't eaten the pictures.

on sunday, i took the bus back to kingston. as soon as i got the downtown toronto terminal, they had a separate bus for people going to kingston. so i got to skip this massive line for people going to montreal. it only took about 4 hours from kitchener to kingston.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

Trip to Waterloo

I will be in Waterloo from July 12th to the 19th or 20th. If you would like to have dinner (or have lunch on Wednesday), then email me. I will probably be staying on campus that week so if anybody wants to play some ultimate or go to a movie that would also be most excellent.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

Are you kidding me

So apparently Nintendo has decided to make a competitive eating game for the Wii. I'm note sure what's worse, the fact that their making it or the fact that people are getting licensing for game characters. I hate this planet.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

Iron Man...

was not that good. In fact, I would go so far as to say it's a bad movie. I didn't like Robert Downey Jr.'s performance. When he was trying to be serious he was too casual and when he trying to funny it felt like he was trying to hard. Also, most of the climax was the sky scene where he was just talking to the computer Jarvis. The plot was obvious. The best scene was the one after the credits. I wouldn't recommend seeing it unless someone else is paying or it's on the TV.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

Food Experiment #2: Indian

On the menu was Mattar Paneer, Mushroom Bhaji, Curry, and some Naan. The curry and mushrooms were good. The curry was very spicy and hot. The mushrooms were mushrooms so I was probably going to like them no matter what. The naan was good. It's like slightly sweeter and softer pita bread. The mattar paneer was not very good. It was peas with dry cheese balls.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

Ethnic Food Experiment #1: Thai

So I recently decided to try some food that I have mostly been sheltered from in my life. If you have any have any suggestions on which cultural foods I should try please make a suggest by emailing me or using the comment button and remember, still vegetarian. I know what you're thinking, STILL, I lost that pool. Some of you may even have lost the death pool.

I'm pretty sure I will be trying Indian, maybe Vietnamese or Korean as well as some others. As you may have guessed I've already tried Thai. I had golden red curry, spicy vegetables, and basil tofu stir fry with chili. The golden red curry and stir fry was good. The spicy vegetable was good once the baby corn and broccoli was gone. All in all, I'll more than likely eat this food again. Next I think I will try Indian.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

Way to go Jack

This is fantastic on so many levels. It's just crazy enough to work.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

I wish

This for anyone who has marked lots of first-year papers/assignments/exams.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

Happy New Year

It's been a while since I last posted. Not much has happened since.
December was relaxing, I didn't do any work and spent time at my
parent's house until the new year. This term I'm marking a course and
tutoring another course. Other than that, I would like to get proposal
and oral comps done by the late February/mid March. I would also like
to make a trip back to Waterloo this term, or possibly other places to
see some friends from undergrad. But I'll have to wait and see what the
schedule is like before making any decisions. Anyways, that's it for
now.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

And I thought the Catholic schools were bad

This is crazy. A ban on all public displays of affection in primary school. Has the whole world gone to the nut house? Sure, there are some PDAs which should be limited, but not being able to hug someone who's mourning. Why doesn't the school just put everyone in a plastic bubble and feed them through a tube?

In other news, I gave the worst talk I ever given before. Everyone in the room was bored out of there mind, including myself. I picked up my degree, and my supervisor told me that I might be able to finish my Ph.D. by 2009 or early 2010. Which is fantastic.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert

It's letter time

Recently, I've been finding myself wanting to write letters to people. There's something about corresponding, it's more fulfilling about a phone conversation or an email. Plus I've never enjoyed face-to-face conversations that much either, it usually ends with an awkward silence in what seems like in the middle of a thought. So anyone wanting to correspond should email me.

--
"Dogbert: Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"-Scott Adams, Dilbert