November 26, 2003
we don't want to see you anymore!!
i've noticed that the last 3 pictures i've put up are of me... quite frankly, i'm tired of seeing me, so it's time for some of you guys to show up on this page.
i've got some pretty funny pictures in my collection (read: really BAD pictures of people), but maybe i'll be nice and not post those up...
here's me taking a picture of simon and herb making ringo drink beer while camping at Macgregor Point. uhh.. maybe cam shouldn't be seeing this.... ah well.....
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November 25, 2003
some mildly amusing stories...
(1)
a priest, a doctor and an engineer are playing a round of golf. the group in front of them are taking forever to finish the hole and the three of them are forced to wait at the tee box. the clubhouse manager comes by in a kart and the priest waves him down and asks him why these people in front are taking so long. "these players are firemen who are blind because they lost their sight fighting a fire at our clubhouse recently, so we let them play for free whenever they want." said the clubhouse manager
"that's so sad." said the priest. "when i get back to the church, i'm going to say a special prayer for their courage".
"that is sad. i'm going to contact the best ophthalmologist i know when i get back to my office." said the doctor.
finally, the engineer says:
"why don't they just play at night?"
--
Professor Papangelakis
(2)
a classmate of mine found out recently that i have a twin sister.
this classmate proceeded to ask me: "so are you guys identical or fraternal twins?"
the funny thing is, he wasn't kidding.
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November 23, 2003
random picture....
i was looking through my old pictures yesterday and i stumbled across one when i was hiking with yvonne in banff. the view is absolutely amazing and i can't wait for school to be over so i can head out west to do some more hiking and skiing. (this was the summer of 2000, when i was 17, i think...)
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November 20, 2003
hmmm.... i wonder
here's something i honestly wonder from time to time. am i a good friend? i know i'm lucky enough to have so many awesome friends around me, supporting me in everything i do, comforting me in times of need and always there for those good and happy times. i couldn't ask for better friends and i recognize i'm so unbelievably lucky.
i'm obviously not going to name any names, you know who you are. but what i wonder is whether these people think of me in the same light. it's important to me that i'm a good friend. i want to be someone that my friend can turn to in times of need. i want to be able to say the right things, ask the right questions and do the right thing. sometimes i think the frenzy that is my life gets in the way of being a good friend, and i really regret that. so in the end, you guys are the best, i hope i'm as important to you as you are to me.
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November 17, 2003
why join??
you know what bugs me?? people who join extra-curricular activities but aren't willing to do anything.
as the photography/art editor for the cannon, i HATE it when people say "sorry Ivan, I can't do this art assignment this week because i have quizzes and tests and labs"
well you know what? that's engineering! suck it up baby. i'm giving you 4 bloody days to draw something. i refuse to believe that you're so busy you can't even do that. why bother signing up to be an artist if you're just going to say you're too busy to do anything??
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picture
i could bore you all to death with what i did this weekend. but i won't. i will say however, that it's definately kinda shocking when two of your friends (that you've personally known for 9 years, and who have known each other for over 10 years), suddenly hook up. and even more shocking is when you find out by just seeing them make out in the middle of a party. pretty cool, but pretty shocking.
here's probably one of my favorite pictures of vanessa and i. it's from the summer at the skydome when we went out for cam's bday.
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November 15, 2003
skiing and foiled plans
so it's been 3 or so days of cold weather and we've even had a little bit of snow. all this means only one thing: SKI SEASON BEGINS SOON. after a summer of a lot of golf, i'm pretty ready to pick up the pace, get on the slopes, and enjoy pure speed down a hill. i'm most likely going up to blue on the 19th of december. you're all welcome to join.
as part of an attempt to get my lazy ass of the couch, i've decided i'd devote more time to going to the gym. i've been playing more squash and taken up a bit of running. today involved a long elaborate plan of running followed by much drinking at dan/dave's house. unfortunately, my running plans have been foiled for reasons i'd rather not mention. however, drinking for dave's b-day, is still on.
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November 14, 2003
hydraulic lifts. and such
i learned something today. and that's actually a little bit of an accomplishment. i spend nearly 8 hours in school everyday, and everyday i come home, i can't ALWAYS say i've learned something today. but today i did.
i learned that building things is not easy. for all you engineers out there, a hydraulic lift has got to be one of the simplest things to build conceptually. add pressure to one side, the other side goes up! how hard can that be!?
VERY HARD. that is what i learned. if you're confined by budget and materials, the simplest things can be awfully difficult. i spent FAR too many hours building a hydraulic lift that was only worth 6% of my lab mark, which is worth 25% of my mass transfer mark, which means it was worth about 2% of my final mass transfer mark. but it really wasn't the mark that was driving me to put so much effort, it was the simple fact that i wanted to get it DONE and finished. so i could say to myself that i finished something i started.
and through it all. i can finally say it. i managed to build a hydraulic lift (albeit a very simple, ghetto looking hydraulic lift).
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November 13, 2003
mmm..... sleep....
you'll notice it's 10am and i'm blogging, which is very strange. but that's because i'd like to express my joy in the fact that i got to sleep in this morning. and yes, 10am is now sleeping in for me, where as 1pm use to be sleeping in. it's so nice to have a little bit of a break.
on a side note, i switched my comments because the old one i was using was really slow and annoying. too bad all those fun comments from before are erased now.
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November 10, 2003
topic 1. too much heat transfer...
if anything, this weekend was an experience. i knew i had time for one night of fun and after originally planning to go to the orchestra on saturday night, i ended up going out on friday night for some late night squash (as in the sport, not the vegetable) and wings. only one night of fun because i knew i had a long weekend ahead of me. i had not one, but two, long reports to write.
long would be an understatement. waking up at 10am on saturday and working right until 5am on sunday morning, i managed to get the first 45 page report finished. waking up at 11am on sunday and working right until 2am monday morning, i managed to edit my first and get my my second 20 page report finished. i never want to analyze another heat exchanger again. on the other hand, if you ever need to know about shell and tube, plate and frame, effectiveness NTU etc.... i'm your man
sad thing is, i finished so much work this weekend only to come back to school and have a statistics assignment and another lab slapped into my face.
can't say this weekend was totally depressing. i really got into the working groove. similar to a runner's high (even though i can't say i really experienced this to its fullest extent), where you're working and working, and you feel like you can do it forever. yes it was tiring, and it wasn't exactly a great time (kinda like running, haha) it was overall... like i said.... an experience.
topic 2. does it ever happen??
i was watching david letterman recently and he had a guest (i think it was bill murray, but i can't be sure, i sorta forget). anyway, bill murray (or whoever) was talking about how he met his wife. he said that he KNEW the moment he met her, that they were gonna get married. in fact he said that one of the first things he said to his wife (before they got married obviously) was "i'm gonna marry you one day". if he did indeed say that to her, he probably did it in a joking way, but i bet he was serious when he thought that he was gonna marry her.
i'm sure we've all met someone and felt that they were pretty amazing. i can't say i've met someone and said i was gonna marry them, but then again, i'm only 20. but i have met people and thought, "wow, this person is pretty spectacular."
honestly though, how often does this "spectacular person" turn out to be a solid relationship. or how often does this amazing person turn out to be your life partner? not nearly often enough i'd gather. too bad life isn't that easy. i guess that's what makes it interesting.
topic 3. who comes here??
i honestly believed that the only people who come here are the people i actually give this URL to or friends of people i give this URL to, and not any random shmoe. i was obviously proved wrong by the comment on november 9th.
topic 4. pictures and memories.
i started this blog with the intention of putting up more pictures and it's slowly degenerated to another one of those talking blogs. time to change that. here's a picture from the second year i worked at blue mountain camp. the kid i'm with is patrick.
patrick.... was quite the interesting character. he was completely non-verbal and non-comprehensive, but he could walk. he spent all day just grabbing door handles. opening and closing doors, over and over and over. it seemed as if he never understood anything i said. i spent endless hours trying to get him to go to sleep, getting him dressed in the morning, feeding him. he was really a handful. i remember getting 2 hours of sleep within 48 hours because of him. through it all, he was quite the blast to have around. and here's a picture that a fellow counsellor, renee, took and sent to me. (this was summer of 2001)
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November 09, 2003
"You can't stop him folks. You can only hope to contain him."
Chuck Swirsky, commenting on Mengke Bateer making a jumpshot from the pocket
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November 05, 2003
chalk up another long day
i'm absolutely exhausted from this week and it's only wednesday. but the best part is that the tough part of the week is over. 1 lab, 2 quizzes, 1 midterm and a whole lotta studying. so tired....
i'm finding i have more and more really long days. today was no exception and i'm glad i have the chance to veg out and relax. even though today's really long wasn't as cool as my last long day (see BEST DAY EVER, thursday oct 30th), it was still pretty good. things are looking up.
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November 02, 2003
personal analysis...
i really do think i'm too emotional. i can hear the jokes now "ivan, you're such a girl". but really, when i say i'm emotional, i don't mean, i cry everytime i watch Schindler's List or Lorenzo's Oil, i mean, i'm borderline too passionate about things in life.
i have such an investment in everything i do that when i trip and fall, i fall really hard. but in the same way, good things that happen in my life are that much more enjoyable. but personally, i don't know if this is the "right way" to live life. i guess it's better to have emotions than none at all, but i find that i'm setting myself up for complete disaster one of these days.
i don't really know what to do about it though. it seems almost criminal to try to live life with the intention of trying to dull your own emotions. strong emotions are what make life exhilariting and unique. but already i've had to deal with personal emotional investments that don't go my way and they're not fun at all.
haha. i sound as if my personality is something i can change. who am i kidding? this is the way i am and it'll continue to be the way i am. looks like i'm just going to learn to deal with my emotions better. never get too high, or too low.
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November 01, 2003
birthday wishes again...
well, ***HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMON***. you're 21 now, so that means i've known you for just over....11 years now? that's a long time. and boy are we getting old.
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