The h-bar

10:01pm: Back in the 'Loo
Well, I made it back from Newfoundland quite sucessfully (with delays of course!) and even made it back to Waterloo without any damage. Maybe a bit to the psyche though. I am not adjusted to school and summer yet, and I am still getting used to this whole not seeing Adam thing. I know it has been done before, but now he is close enough to see (ie. a couple hours of driving) and I don't have a mode of transportation. Oh well. Once school really starts up, I won't have time to think about it.

OH! They are going to watch Star Wars... Laters!

8:36pm: So it has been a few months...
I was recently (well, like maybe a month ago) in Waterloo to see "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown". One Mr. Kirk Schmidt told me that I need to update this wonderful blog of mine so that people who aren't so close can still know what is going on in the world of Shannon. I am going to give it a shot... no gurantees though.

As some of you know I was at Snow Valley in Barrie for my first coop term. I got to teach the Physics of snowtubing and design another program. If there were a bunch of people there, then I got to be a liftie and sing at the top of my lungs! MAUHAHAHAHA! Do you know how fast you go down one of those chutes when it is freezing rain outside?! Easily 95 km/h. So much fun! Thanks to the guys and gals I worked with for the entertaining season. I learned a lot (not much physics though) and had my patience tested many a times.

Well, I have this week off and need to write my coop report. I know what I want to write about; however, I don't know if there will be enough book research to make it legit. It is more of a lab style of analyzing. Trial and error for fixing the unload ramps along with some of my ideas that haven't been tried yet. Dan, I am going to call and ask because you have done some of these before.

Those of you in Waterloo on Thursday need to watch out for I will be there! I decided to get books and stuff early incase I don't make it back in time for classes. I am going to Newfoundland in 6 DAYS! If you can't tell I am increadibly excited. I haven't seen Adam since New Years and as most of you know, I miss him muchly. Well... the coop report calls and we shall see how many people actually respond to this. =)

Peach out (that was supposed to say peace.... meh!)

Peace love and tunafish

8:43pm: In the H-dot for a weekend...
So, this keeping up with a blog isn't working for me. It seems so impersonal and that is very un-me, so pardon the last of posting. Anyway, I was curious to know what others thought about the personal part of a blog.

10:43am: Tis the End of the Summer
Well, the vast majority of my summer was spent at the Georgian Peaks club being a jack of all trades. I had a blast getting to be a sailing instructor, lifeguard, play director (that was so much fun!), a golf instructor, a canoe trip leader (and going across the street to find someone to defrost our frozen chicken legs for the kids lunches), a science geek, a cook, etc etc. Then this week, since there weren't enough campers to warrant all three of Bryony, Karin and I to work at the club, Bryony and I got to go and be construction workers for her dad. I had a blast! I found muscles that I don't normally use too... and I got screwed (think highbrow, I sat on a screw and Prenny yelled out, "Shannon got screwed!"). I got to learn how to rip out walls, tiling and drywall then clean it all up!

Anyway, I am going to Toronto later this afternoon to see Adam off at the airport on Saturday and hang out before then, but I will see most of you in Grebel (or a specific affiliated housing unit...) in the near future! I hope you are enjoying your summers and we still have time!

8:15pm: Photos for Thought
So, when I went home this past weekend I was in a slight funk due to the whole time thing that I previously posted about. To add to this funk, all of my Grebel papers were sitting on my bed and I didn't know what to think. After flipping through the faces book I started to think "Well, if I have to leave here, I am glad I am going to Grebel". Thus, I sorted through my pictures of last year and chose a bunch to get printed to add to my autobiographical book. Some were from here, but most were of Grebel. I just wanted to say to all of you Grebelites or ex-Grebelites: Thanks for making Grebel, Grebel and keeping the old school Grebel spirit alive to pass on to us. It makes me sad to leave here and the people (Nelson, Danika, Mia, Kar, Chris and mostly Bryony and Adam) behind (or watch them fly/drive away), but I know I will have a blast back in residence and am looking forward to it.

11:18pm: Time
I have been having problems lately realizing how quickly time flies and so I have decided to post an idea of time on here. This is being brought to you by "Chris the brilliant child" (aka. one of Gina's friends).

"Linear time could be described as a flipbook with each page representing a moment. Each moment, or division of time, is thought to be infinitely small; however they are infact infinitley large. Each "moment" is a singular eternity and time is observable simply because there are an infinite number of eternities being leyered on top of one another. Now you may be incluined to ask, who's flipping the pages? I would answer you by saying first God, then humans, and then when humans loose control, the computers. When the parade of forces (God, humans, computers,....) has ceased, and no one flips the pages, there will exist a singular eternity instead of the plural eternities we observe as time that's also why time is relative... because we don't flip the pages at the same rate."

Or in the words of MXPX:
"In my younger years, I used to be so free,
But I don't know, what's happening to me.
We all know by now, time's the enemy.
It controls us, tells us where to be"

Why must we always be goverened by a clock. We should all just eat when we are hungry, sleep when we are tired, and only use the clock for getting to work and school.

5:49pm: Hurrah for High Speed
So, I know I haven't posted lately. I must confess that it has the most to do with my unwillingness to sit and do it on dial up in Meaford. That and I have been having way too much fun up there in the process. =)

It is hard to believe that there are only a few more weeks of summer! I don't want to leave Meaford yet for numerous reasons. One being the people (you guys and gals all rock!), two being I just finished school for the term today and three being that I still haven't gone sailing! We had 20 knot winds on Thursday and Friday and I still didn't get to go! =(

Hurrah for the meteor shower this week and sushi party part 2!

7:26pm: Time Flies!
Kudos to Kirk and Robyn on the wedding. It was an absolute blast and I wish you the best of luck and love. I hope I get to see you both before you leave and thanks for having me there. It meant a bunch to me. There were so many funny stories to accompany that night that it must be another post.

As you have all read numerous times, I am having a blast up here! Bryony and I are quickly becoming good friends because she is just as totally crazy as I am. We went clubbing last night and ended up at Gel, in the Blue Mountain village. It sucked. Bry and I were the only one's dancing! Well, Mark (friend of Bry's who works there) danced for a few seconds. We left by midnight and just sat in her car and talked until 1 or so.

We did find a Ben & Jerry's though! For those of you who know my obsession with Phish Food, you will be shocked to know that I tried something new. I got a scoop of Dublin Mudslide (Irish Cream flavoured ice cream with fudge sauce and a coffee swirl that you couldn't taste). It is at least as good as the Phish Food! We were hit on repeatedly by 25-30 year old men and just laughed off. We also ran into the mother of one of our campers in the club. Mucho entertaining!

Anywho, I am headed out for dinner (I don't know where, I was just told to be ready) so I hope you are all doing well and hopefully see you soon!

6:17pm: Another Way of Looking at Nerds
The camp that Karin and I are working at has a different theme to go with tennis every week. Well, this week is science for the little kiddies (4-7 year olds). I said something about being a nerd to Bryony (the tennis councellor) and 3 of my campers. Well one camper asked what a nerd was and before I could say anything, another kid said "It's a candy". I killed myself laughing. Thought I would share that.

6:47pm: A Few Stories from the Great North
Aaahhh the north. Or at least north of where I usually am! I am having a blast up here. My parents came over from my grandparents trailer on Thursday and Dad made WAY too much pasta. When Karin's boyfriend, Chris, came up on Friday he laughed at how much there was because he wouldn't be able to eat it all and normally he is who we rely on to finish off the leftovers. Anyway, Karin's dad had decided that he wanted finger food for dinner so instead of pasta (personally anything can be finger food, some is just slightly messier) he went and got mini pizzas, deep fried cheese sticks, hashbrowns, springrolls and I don't even remember what else. Somewhere in the middle of this hoard of food being squased onto oven trays, Adam shows up after working. So, we feed him and eventually used him to help clean up the leftovers. Peter (Karin's dad) decides everyone needs a drink so goes to the beer fridge (yes, we have a beer fridge, but it does have more than beer in it) and comes back to throw a Corona at Chris, a Kilkenny at Adam, has one for himself, and looks at me and says "Sorry, no Guniess, so I brought this" and threw a Smirnoff Ice at me. I laughed hysterically, haven't figured out why though. Adam and I horsed around with my guitar and his bass for a bit then Karin, Chris, Adam, Bryan (Karin's brother) and I watched "Bad Santa". It was hysterical! Billy Bob Thorton plays one of those department store Santas (who swears, drinks and comes to work drunk) and then on Christmas Eve, he and his "elf" rob the department store. I started crying I was laughing so hard!

Last night, Karin, Chris, Bryony (the other councellor at work) and I went and saw Spiderman 2. I loved it! I was so mad at the end of the first one because he didn't tell MJ, even though that would be straying from the comics and normally that would bother me. The next line is a spoiler, so don't read it if you haven't seen it! Right after Peter told MJ that he didn't love her while they were sitting in the little cafe, one of the people in the audience yelled "Idiot!" as loud as they possibly could and had the entire theatre laughing. It was great.

Then today while walking on the pool deck to pick up one of the toys, I stood on the wood covering the filter and it collapsed because it was so rotten! So, I have a nicely cut up knee and twisted toes. Oh well, Chris and I had a good laugh at it.

8:29pm: Fun, fun, fun!
So, I moved in up here and have taken over Kathryn's room in the Smith estate. It has been a blast! It is also hard to believe that we have been here a week!

Camp was a whole bunch of fun this week, for I got to go to the harbour and sail with my group. I only capsized one boat (on purpose and I will say Georgian bay is bloody cold right now!) and retrieved one kid from the sewage pipe.

We (Nelson, Adam and I) went to Piper's on Tuesday and well, I got home a little late and woke up Karin. Oh well. Tuesday is open mic night so I went to hear Adam and Nelson play. Adam didn't end up playing but Nelson kept adding jazz licks into rock songs. They fit in "Ride Sally Ride" but that is about it.

11:57am: Moving Time
So, I have almost entirely figured out when I am moving. I am leaving either tomorrow night or Thursday morning with Karin or Friday night or Saturday morning with some combination of my parents and brother. I am sad to leave the H-dot and thus be further away from the Loo (Water-loo that is!), yet am really excited to be going Meaford way as well. If anyone is headed up towards Meaford/Thornbury/Collingwood/Owen Sound/ Sauble Beach/Wasaga Beach/Stayner (*cough* Mike *cough*) area, let me know and we can hang (or lend a bed for the night, we have 17 if we count doubles as 2)! I will most definately be down for Kirk and Robyn's wedding and for my exam in August (ugh, arts exam). Other than that, they will be slightly random trips so hopefully I will see you all!

Adam (Hale), Nelson, and Danika, here Kar and I come!

11:50am: The Election
I learned so much working the election yesterday. Things such as how differently the elderly vote (at least from mobile poll 506!) as compared to what I thought. As well, how annoying Scrutineers are standing over your shoulder as you count votes. Those and how anal retentive Elections Canada is. They wouldn't let me take any boxes to take to camp for the kiddies to play with because they say "Elections Canada" on them. The battle is not over yet though! Peaks Kids will get boxes to build spaceships with if I have anything to say!

3:20pm: Bring Back the 110!
So, I was up in Meaford this weekend as my blog stated and I must say that with not visiting 110 recently, I am so tired from staying up until 5am. My abilities to be coherent at 5am have diminished since exams finished. Needless to say, I clarified a few times so Adam had some idea of what I was saying and could interpret it properly... or at least try.

3:51pm: My Splendifferous Day!
Normally I would seperate topics; however, that takes too much effort. First off, I would like to say that today was awesome! Best part, it isn't over.
I was cleaning my room this morning (I'm finally done!) when my dad came in and said that mom called to say there was a huge sale on Birks at some outlet place. My Birks are in dire need of replacement so we went. I ended up getting a new pair of brown ones, a pair of nice shoes for coop interviews and Dad got some boots and a pair of Birks (mom is going to laugh hysterically... you have to know my dad to know why). Great part was that they were only $60! I was told earlier this season by one Sir Brentilius that $60 is cost. Bonus for us.

Then Dad said that I could have a guitar for my birthday (yes, I do realize that it is normally in January, but I celebrate my half-birthday with my grandmother because her real birthday is the day after my half). Thus, I am going to learn the guitar. Forwarning to Chodos and Adam... I am going to be asking questions.

I also read an email from one Cressman Jr. (ie. Jon) and I had a great laugh. We had been discussing politics because I am working for the election, and he had stated that the Conservatives are scary because they are running away, hence their colour being blue! It gave me a great laugh, along with my dad. For those of you who are slightly lost, remember the t-shirts Jane and I made, the fact Jane, Cressman and I are all Physicists and Red shift (Doppler Effect of light). Ok, ok, so I am a nerd and proud of it!

Anyway, today can only get better because I am going for dinner with my parents and probably my brother and then going to meaford! Yeah! Maybe we can stop in at Fitzgerald's tonight and see Nelson and Adam play. That would be cool!

I have been keeping a list of all of the books that I have read this summer so far and am really looking forward to the Da Vinci Code (I will finish before you are home Brent so you can't harass me =P) which is next, as soon as I read the last 30 pages of King of Torts by John Grisham. It isn't one of Grisham's best, but is still pretty good.

Lastly, I finally saw Spiderman for the first time and am now hooked! I was so frustrated when he didn't tell MJ. I know she thinks that he is Spiderman and sets out to test her hypothesis in the second movie, but it is one time that I really wanted them to stray from the original plot line. Now we shall have to see if they follow along with her getting mad at him for not just telling her. A few days later, while browsing the local Blockbuster, I picked up The Cider House Rules (Toby Maguire is in that and seeing Spiderman reminded me I wanted to see it). It was amazing! It is definately on my list of favourites. All in all, it is a feel good movie with a great plot line. I don't want to reveal too much of it because you should all see it! Or read the book. As well, I saw Fight Club. I liked it, but I don't think I would watch it again. It seems like one of those movies that is good because of its twists, and if you know the twists it just isn't as good.

2:13pm: New Quest Record!
So, I was doing my class schedule for the fall and guess what?! It only took 42 minutes from start to end! Wicked. Now all I must say is who in the world decided to put a Quantum tutorial at 2:30 on a Friday afternoon and have it as a related class instead of a choice? Grrr... the other lecture doesn't fit into my schedule nicely, so Friday afternoons it is. =P

12:36pm: Shrek 2
I saw this masterpiece last night and I must say that it is great! Puss in Boots (Antonio Bandaras - sorry if this is spelled incorrectly) had the best big, wide eye, cute face of any cat I have ever seen! It was absolutely hysterical and Brent and I came to the conclusion that it was better than the first one. Possibly because we have only viewed it once, yet we have both seen the original a few times. All in all, if you haven't seen it GO! Even if you didn't like the first. I do know a couple of people who didn't like the first and loved the second. It is one of those hysterical, feel good movies. It was great to laugh that hard for 90 minutes.

11:53am: Recently Seen Movies
I saw "Troy" a few days ago and I must say that it was really well done! I thorougly enjoyed it. If you don't like gore, I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't say that there is unnecessary violence. Mind you, it is a war so there has to be some violence. It lacked the "Hollywood Kung-Fu" that most moive fight scenes have, which is definately a bonus. As well, war back then had considerably more strategy. As opposed to just pressing a button that drops a bomb, or pulling a trigger, they actually had good tactics. For example, the wall composed of shields and then all of the men move together with this huge protective wall. Anyway, enough of that and on to Harry Potter.

"The Prisoner of Azkaban" has me flopping back and forth as to how much I liked it. As par usual, the book is better. The acting and sets we all really well done (though that is never how I pictured the scenery surrounding Hogwarts as well as the castle itself); however, like most die-hard Lord of the Rings fans, I was frustrated by how much they moved stuff around and left out things that I deem important. I do understand that it is a movie and you can only have so much or people get restless. The amount that was left out made me fell like I was missing a large quantity of information and made the movie seem considerably shorter than it actually is. It is Harry Potter though so of course it was fun. Any movie where Malfoy gets punched by Hermione is a good movie.

2:20pm: NLS Recert
As a large quantity of you know, I did my NLS recert yesterday, which is an exam to make sure you remember all of your lifeguarding stuff. I was really nervous for this because I haven't guarded since last summer, but it all went fine and I got quite a few laughs out of it as well. Most of these were out of sits (situations where other people fake injuries and public relation problems (PR's) and the people being examined are the guards that have to deal with the problems). I got to be some sort of victim for all but the last set of sits and when I was "guarding". The first round of sits had me being a hyperactive 8 year old who was bouncing around the shallow end and goes off of the drop off and starts to drown. In another I was a screaming mother because my "daughter", played by Julia for those who know her, split her chin and I hated blood and my daughter was hurt. My absolute favorite though was when the examiner decided that one of the PR's should be a lovey-dovey couple that then begin to fight over something. He decided that me and the guy next to me should be this couple. He was saying things like go around doing things like the wrap around kiss (where you kiss your hand) and the thumb kiss, as well as fake inappropriate touching. By now the group was giggling and me being me, turned to the guy, held out my hand and said "My name's Shannon. Who might you be?". So the whole group (including the examiner) burst out laughing and drew some slightly frightened looks from the 4 people who were getting this sit. So away we go and we started talking and I found out that he had gone to Waterloo in his first year so we started talking about that. During all of this we were continually getting stern talks from the "guards" then we remembered that we were supposed to have a massive fight. Thus, the next time a guard told us to be at least an arm length apart, I started yelling at him that we should listen to the guard and asking why he always had to be a rebel and he called me a "goody-goody". It kept going back and forth until he yelled "Fine! Have it your way! You always win, but know that tonight YOU are sleeping on the couch because I don't fit!" After that I just couldn't hold a straight face anymore and burst out laughing, which was fine because both of the examiners had started laughing as well. The one who had set it up was actually crying he was laughing so hard. They stopped it there and the one guard looked relieved because she was trying really hard not to laugh.

The one thing that I must grumble about is that during our exam they made us get a 300 lb man who was pretending to have a heart attack out of the water. I was on deck, but couldn't reach far enough around to grab his wrists. It took all four of us to get him out. I think it made him feel bad but oh well.

10:13am: Thought for the Day
This thought for the day was brought to you via Y108 (the classic rock station in the H-dot) and it is part of a song that I think is called "Good Time" by Trooper.

"We're here for a good time,
Not a long time.
So, have a good time,
The sun won't shine everyday."

I am debating as to whether this is supposed to be a metaphor for life, as in there is always pain in life but make the best of it, or if it has no meaning other than what it states. It was on the Super 70's lunch hour so it might be a bit of a hippie thing.

9:46pm: I may not be a Trekkie
A few comments on the Trek quotations I found on the other blog I ran into...

"Emotions are alien to me. I'm a scientist."
-- Spock, "This Side of Paradise", stardate 3417.3
So is it a problem if I am an "unemotional" scientist, yet an "emotional" female? What does that make me? Quasi-emotional? I must say, that is far better than either extreme...

"Evil does seek to maintain power by suppressing the truth."
"Or by misleading the innocent."
-- Spock and McCoy, "And The Children Shall Lead",
stardate 5029.5.
I just thought that this spoke truth on so many levels, so decided to share.

7:51pm: The Problems of Mixing Laundry and Astrophysics...
So, I randomly stumbled on another blog the other day and along with a few other Trek quotations, I found this. It gave me a great laugh, being a Physicist (well, working on getting there!) and I thought I would share it with all of you out there. You don't have to be a Pysicist to find it funny though. Enjoy!

"Laundry is the fifth dimension!! ... um ... um ... th' washing machine
is a black hole and the pink socks are bus drivers who just fell in!!"

7:38pm: Thunderboomers!
So, yesterday Brent showed up at my place to borrow an old OAC Finite Textbook that I had managed to get my hands on. Well, while I was making cookies I noticed a thunderstorm coming. Brent then started making fun of me because I was dancing around the kitchen singing “thunderboomer, thunderboomer!” with a spoon in my hand. I explained to him how I love thunderstorms, as well as how Samara and I used to make forts out of my bed, curtains, and some clothes pegs and have sleepovers during thunderstorms when we were younger. I must say, after yesterday’s events I cannot decide if I like thunderstorms more or less, for just after I finished cleaning up from cookie making, my brother called up from the basement for our dad. I knew that dad wouldn’t hear him over the storm so yelled down to him (meanwhile thinking “If you want to talk to dad, come up and talk to him”). I got a response to the extent of “the basement is leaking”. So, I yelled up to my dad and ran down stairs. When we discovered it was the in ground window that was leaking (and might burst) I grabbed a bucket and started out in to the torrential downpour and started bailing out the windowsill. Evan stayed inside and caught the water in an empty garbage can. He did come out and continue bailing while I grabbed a few bricks from the front and started building a wall around the windowsill because the water was coming in faster than I could bail it. Somewhere in the middle, my brother went in to keep catching water and dad came out and started digging a trench in my brother’s skateboard shoes. That was the funny part. We eventually got everything bailed out without much damage aside from a wet wall and carpet, a nice trench running the length of our backyard and up either side of our house (there was about 3 inches of water up the one side of our house) and uprooting numerous plants in my mom’s garden. Then we went over and helped our neighbours, Harry and Linda, who were having construction done and now have an inground pool… in their basement. After this, I extended the trench so it would run out to the road and then I went across the street and bailed out Deb’s staircase that leads down into her basement. Most people would hate this, but I had a whole bunch of fun (despite my back hurting now and I have to put the backyard back together tomorrow). I was soaked to the bone, covered in mud and grit, yet laughing like crazy (much like when I was half yelling and half laughing at the waves that kept coming into the canoe on the way back from Killarney). I have been told numerous times that I am backwards and here is just one more proof!

10:28am: Words of Wisdom from Spock
"I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to
any question."
-- Spock, "This Side of Paradise", stardate 3417.3

I am female and I don't understand this! Why not just answer because then we can get on with other important things such as life. Guys rarely give cryptic answers (or ones that are so cryptic I have never noticed, but based on previous discussions with different males, I am deciding that the later is extremely rare), so why should we? Another thing I don't understand is a big fancy wedding dress. The bride will only wear it once so why spend thousands of dollars? I am not suggesting that you wear a pair of dress pants, a nice sweatshirt/t-shirt and a pair of Birks (as much as I hate heels); however, don't spend tons on a dress. I was speaking with a friend who's sister recently got married and was astounded to hear how much the average wedding costs! You can put a down-payment on a house for that! I'm not saying that I don't ever want to get married, I just cannot justify some of the extravagance. It is a special day so you have to have some, just don't go over the top. The strength of the vows isn't in the wedding, it's in the nuts that hold it together.

10:21am: For Those Who Like to Read
In my last stint, I spoke of a novel called "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown (he also wrote "The Da Vinci Code"). Well, I finished reading it the other day and I am now recommending that you all read it. As to not spoil it, I am going to give a very short synopsis. The novel deals mainly with the idea of science vs. religion where there is a nefarious plot by the ancient dark cult, the Illuminati. Basically, they are threatening the Vatican on the day of conclave with a new "wepon" that was invented at CERN (a large scientific research laboratory in Switzerland) to get back at the church for what they did to scientists such as Galileo when they proposed scietific ideas that went against the views of the church. The novel isn't predictable, except with parts that are supposed to be (I can only remember a few). So, I am going to highly recommend that you all read it and tell me what you think!