Look! there it is!!

I finally finished a huge load of homework...whew glad that's over. Ahh!! Calculus!! Integrals, away!!! Look! there it is! The fabled lost limit of the undefined resultant!

It's already mid-session!! I can't believe it. Can you believe it? But seriously, this is certainly a faster pace than High School. But so far, it's feasible. My average isn't all great, yet, but it's getting there. My tutor came over to help me out.

I still can't get over the beauty of the burnishing trees...they have a mesmerizing quality. When I leave the CEGEP in the early evening, and the trees are aligned on both sides of the trees and they just scream with color. My friends don't seem to be as thrown away as I am, but hey, I've been known to scare some people.

I'd like to mention to the few friends that visit my blog this other blog I found. Very, very interesting!

http://random_thots.blogspot.com/

The birds are leaving

I just noticed that birds have stopped singing. It's 6 o'clock and not a sound out of those flying musicboxes. I guess autumn is really settling in.

I barely have nails left, having been at them all day re, re, re-reading the first book of the Dragonlance saga. It's title is Dragons of Autumn flame. Great book, I was able to read it in three days, being so caught up in it. I feel a tug to go at it with the other two of that trilogy, but I have an insurmountable amount of homework to do. So I've settled to work this evening followed by tomorrow all day. I hope.

Had a great training session yesterday. Found a dependable training partner. I'll finally be able to really exhaust myself and put on a couple more plates on the bench. So far I've promised myself to stay at 215 lbs, but seeing as to how fast my strengh was returning from this summer's inactivity, I'll start somewhere around 230 lbs next Monday.

Since I came here from the Maritimes, I've felt very sad about this new environment that I had to learn to love. It is not like the vast, open sea or the refreshing smell of the salted marshes. It is an akward existence I have lived here so far, every minute a moment of fleeting thought accompanied by an even more quieted sense of passage. It is as if I am visiting, everyday since this summer, thinking everything as a short-term visitor would. I guess what it all comes down to is that I'm simply unnacustomed to Quebec. They call it "La belle province", or the beautiful province, but so far I have been unable to see it. Sure, I've seen a lot of beautiful things and people in Quebec, but the land itself never appealed to me. Until today.

I just came back from gazing at the most beautiful sight I have seen in a long time. The sun, setting in the crimson leaves, lit my backyard aflame, leaving the rustling leaves to sigh as they slowly died away. When my body could move again, I litterally ran into the house, shoes and dirt and all, and ran for my camera. Finding it out of power, I cursed loudly and ran for a pen and pencil. I then did what I could, with my less-than-spartan skills as an artist. I thought of running to my friend's place and get his camera, but it seemed clear to me the sight was not gearing itself for a long stay. So I worked. I drew the trees, that usually never looked so colorful, until I felt I had the gist of it, or so to speak. Even now as I type, the sun leaves my backyard smoldering in darkening contrast with its colors now shining on the horizon. The sky is orange, with a light blue underneath, as if the clouds were quickly rushing to the setting sun. These two colors slowly fade, the yellowish-orange into wisps of dark red; the sky becoming scarlet, then purple. Damn it! Why isn't the camera recharged!!!

Well, I guess that's that, I better do some homework, or dent it at least.

And this is where I have a positive denouement

I did roughly 9(-ish) hours of homework today. It was pretty awesome: I would alternate between different mathematical subjects, Linear Algebra, Differential Calculus and basic Integral Calculus. I feel that I've gained a few thousand neuron connections in my brain through this mathematical marathon.

Tomorrow won't be as bad, however, as to I have done gargantuous amounts of work on my schedule. I think I may be able to go outside...to peep at the sun and all that's green. My room is green actually, with wheat-ish yellow as a secondary color. I picked a pretty flashy green and when the sun hits a certain angle, usually around 1-2 o'clock PM, my room looks like it recently got exposed to stereotypical radioactive material.

I talked with a friend of my parents' yesterday evening. He gave me a few pointers on studying methods. I personally like this one I heard from my friends' aunt: have multiple books laid out in front of you, on the ground, bed, table, tablemonkey, hippopotamus' belly, anything relatively large in area and flat (that's why I like the hippo's belly) and alternate reading/writing to another book, every 20-30 minutes. That works well for me. I can get a huge amount of work done under a couple of hours. A friend at my college says he stands up when he gets tired. Drinks a lot of water and eats something with simple carbs like maple syrup. Then again, he sleeps rarely more than 6 hours. He's a machine. Looks kinda weird too.

Music helps me a lot. I can get a decent pace, and as long as the music plays, I keep working. Miles Davis, or general Jazz, is good. I've listened Fire Garden (http://stores.musictoday.com/store/product.asp?dept%5Fid=438&pf%5Fid=SVCD06&band%5Fid=208&sfid=2) by Steve Vai at least a million times. I think there's a song called "Aching Hungered Heart", or something like that, and it sounds a bit like some old-school Genesis. I like it a lot. I'm a big fan of Genesis, and Phil Collins is an amazing drummer/vocalist.

Gotta love apple sauce.

Has anybody else seen this?

I was checking out updates on www.homestarrunner.com when I found two new Teen Girl Squad updates, that I hadn't seen before. It means they're...secret updates?? Damn you Strong Bad and your stealthy ways!

My math exam went well. Only 7 more to go! (and another 7 in my Linear Algebra class :/)

I did bi's and shoulders yesterday. Awfully sore today. I guess pyramid sets really work with seated double bicep curls...I could barely brush my teeth this morning :D. Standing dumbell row works well too, the traps are well integrated in the shoulder movement.

I have a lab in chemistry this afternoon. Probably preparation, it's only a two-hour session.

A really big show

Tomorrow. Tomorrow decides if I can survive this year of CEGEP. Tomorrow will decide if the path to Medecine is feasible. Tomorrow decides if I will utter, one day, the hippocratic oath (http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_hippocratic_oath.htm). Can tomorrow wait?

Alright, so tomorrow is pretty big for me, as you may see :). But, really, the reason is simple: I have a math test, and I hate math. OK, I don't hate all mathematical subjects. I really like trigonometry, because I used it a lot in physics. You see, I'm all for learning. Knowledge is really power, because in a way, fear is a weakness and fear is born out of ignorance. But, if somehow I could gather the mathematical knowledge of past mathematicians and have it for, say, 2 or three years, yeah, I'd be pretty happy. (Happy at being able to conjure the dead, mostly.)

The autumn leaves have arrived! They come out, timid at their new color, mocked by their green neighbours, but oh, they are much more beautiful. And the vibrant green maple will eventually change color, as will the sky, and then will begin ascending the dreadfully cold nights. The chaotic spirits of Pandemonium that wreak havoc on Hollowe'en will leave, to retreat from the biting cold. Quicky now! And then, one morning I will awake to find my once noisy and brash backyard sound asleep under its' sheets of soft white and precious silk. My cold glass windows will make the most beautiful drawings on my face, as the sun comes up, Emile Nelligan's words will finally ring home: "Oh! Comme la neige a neige'! Ma vitre est un jardin de givre!".

The nights of obsidian darkness, of suspended life, will appear and render the right moments magical. Oh! to gaze on the clear ceiling of our minds, and see our dreams reflected in the stars...

But, not yet.

Sigh!

A large, deep sigh of relief as Jean-Michel, my friend here in hostile Quebec, came to help me figure out some parts of logarhythms and the trig circle. God, I'm happy I understand (if only partly) it.

Do you get the anticipation of going to sleep? Not as in "I can't wait to go to sleep I'm so tired I could puke (?)" but more like "I can't wait to see what funky dreams I have tonight" kind of anticipation. I like the dreams where I can fly. And I have lasers. Lasers that can cut through thick sheet metal, like super-man's super kick-ass lasers he has on his eyes. I wonder...maybe all the cool elements of a dream are related to superman's abilities... we may have something. I'll have to look into that.

Strongbad (www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html) hasn't upgraded his email answering series yet, but there is a funny clip (Labor Day special of this year) of the good old Homestarmy gig, but in the real life puppeteering they do sometimes. Duck guardian is the new game by the website's authors/designers, by (a company?) called Videlectrix. They made tons of cool games (www.homestarrunner.com/games.html) that can all be played for free. Those guys are a blast...of fun! (I apologize, I run out of ideas for funny exclamations...most of the time.) Do try the Peasant's Quest, if you like typing a lot...for some reason. Weirdo.

Weird

I'm having really weird dreams these days. Really weird dreams. I'll have to look into that one day. I could be getting warnings from the future, through an invention like the Dreamtrenscender. It'd work like this: a person from the future could send messages, but only through dreams, because dreams have a timeless quality. They find a perceptive receptacle and voila! You have yourself prophesies of giant red apes colonizing small countries through the use of large action figure replicas of Steve Hercule.

I should be doing some calculus homework.

It's acceptable to advert your eyes

When we walk in Quebec, or anywhere in general, we get the feeling that we're being watched sometimes, right? It's OK though, because I watch back. I have my fair share of akward "look up oh he/she saw me" furtive glances for all of us. Truly, I look at people, and I invent possible stories about their life. Because really, who else is going to do it? Their life probably is stagnant as a forgotten swamp in southern Labrador. Their stories might incorporate Alf as a Viet-Nam veteran recounting stories over a tall glass of lemonade, while petting a small persian rug (because he's afraid of cats, right?) or Conan the Barbarian, played by an ackward Woody Allen in his sporty days of youth. Really, I take pleasure in making up the most random story, and here is the pleasurable part (for those who are sane and aren't following me): try to incorporate all the elements into a logical story with most of the element having a logical place and order. Not too easy, but it's feasible.

It all started when I heard of a game that a friend of mine, a francais de France recounted. They would play a game in which they would write a list of random words on a sheet of lined paper. Why lined paper you ask? It adds a few words in my story. That's all. Tamom'shod. The person who said the most words in form of a question to the teacher would win. Win what? I'm not too sure, but it is to no avail. For the sheer pleasure involved in asking a question about the role of the salamander during the Second World War as a common fire-breathing apparatus that was grafted on the right shoulder of foot-soldiers was enough to set me on the path to create this sick, twisted and to some, confusing game.

Well, until I get a better lie to say, or a better say to lie about, lache pas la patate sagouine!