Redirection

So in case you haven't already noticed, this blog has been 'discontinued' so to speak. I have indeed started up a newer 'blog' that is/will hopefully be updated a little more regularly. Basically it marks a new 'chapter' in life. If you don't know what the URL is... well, you'll find it if you really want to. [I'm sure you can Google-stalk my information and find it. ;)]

If you want a quick update, here it is: I am currently in Morden, Manitoba working as an Optometric Assistant. In August I will be started four years of optometry school in Chicago, Illinois at the Illinois College of Optometry.

368 posts made it to this blog over 4 years. Here's to many more.

Thanks to those that read this blog and I hope it has kept you updated or at least entertained you.

Going somewhere...

So much for keeping up with the updates. I guess it feels like a chore.

Anyway. For the four schools I applied to in the US, I have interviews for them all. I had an interview at SUNY (New York) on the 28th and they accepted me on the spot! I haven't received the letter yet to accept and put down a deposit so it's not technically official [and hopefully I wasn't just dreaming it all lol].

I still have three more interviews to go to, which I will still go to. PCO on the 18th, ICO on the 19th, and NECO on the 22nd. I will be down in the US for about a week as I get to stay at my aunt and uncle's place in Massachussetts.

It's good to know I have somewhere to go for the next four years, and even better feeling to know that I will reach my goal of becoming an optometrist!

As for now, I should study for my four midterms next week. After Reading Week I will feel like my term is over as I will only have 3 more midterms, one in-class assignment and then it's final exams.

And then I graduate...

Hopefully a quicker update for the next time.

Relax

Sweet. I'm done my exams and therefore the term is oooovver.

Feels good to be done and I feel like my work this term paid off. We'll see when the marks start rolling in tomorrow. I almost have no idea what to do with myself. I did some packing and I packed away my hard drive with all my TV shows and whatnot... I'll have to pull it out again. Packing this time is odd. I'm throwing in all this crap that I plan to keep home because after next term I may be moving back home and I need to reduce the shit that's piled up over the past 3.5 years.

In other news, word on the street from a couple of sources is the University of Waterloo School of Optometry is already setting up interviews for applicants. Obviously since the word isn't coming from my mouth, I haven't heard anything from them. Seems pretty quick since the application deadline was the 14th [Friday] and references aren't due until the 31st of January. Interesting...

Anyway, fingers crossed. I seem to be back on the whole, "yeah! Waterloo!" but we'll see. ICO has invited me for an interview as well so now I'm two for four US schools. I'd like to hear from NECO but they seem to be sooo sloooooooow. [Reminds me of when I applied to UW undergrad!] Always seems to be the places you want to go that hold out the longest.

Anyway, perhaps I should get back to figuring out what to put in my luggage or watch some TV shows. Flight home is on the 23rd but UW is kicking me out of res tomorrow at 11:30AM. I have a place to stay but honestly, the school makes everything a bigger pain in the ass. Whatever.

All for now.

Jesus joined Facebook

Interesting...

Alphabet Soup

So much time to study/So little time to study.

It's all a matter of perspective.

This exam period I have boatloads of study time. With exams only on the 7th, 14th, and 20th, I should have plenty of time to study. Frankly I think it just gets spread out. Figure this. If you have exams back to back, the time you have between exams is pretty tight and therefore precious. You squeeze as many seconds out of every minute studying until you inevitably run out of time.

When you have lots of time, you figure you can set out a more complete, yet rigorous study plan. You will do X first, then Y, and then to sum everything up, Z. Then you should be set and ready for the exam and everything will from then on is just reviewing.

In that time you figure you can take a break. Then another. Possibly some more. You have lots of time. Then you realize you've only done X and half of Y and time is running out but by now you're getting sick of doing Y for class P. You'd really like to do Z for P but you're stuck on Y and X didn't seem to help at all. You don't want to stop halfway through Y to do Z because X didn't help as much as you thought it would, so you think maybe you should stop Y, forget Z, do X again, then go back to doing Z with Y hoping that this time X helped out more, as much as you thought Z would - if you had finished Y.

You then sit there in F thinking you would have done better at L but you don't want to waste the time getting there because you want to finish Y. But now that you'll do X instead of Y and Z, maybe going to L would be better than staying at F. Although going to L doesn't matter because you can still study P by doing X, Y, & Z all at F - but you'll be distracted by T, Q, U, E, and probably I at F.

Then you get frustrated and still aren't sure to do, as you no longer know what the hell you want to do anymore. Suddenly you realize you wasted even more time just trying to figure out how you wanted to study instead of just studying.

Sometimes it just seems easier to have less time instead of having a plan of attack...

Perhaps I'll just try to finish Y... or maybe go back to X...

Undergrad Labs

Well, looks like I'm done ever having a lab to go to for undergrad now. Next term I am lab free (which also gives me a sweet schedule). 90% on the case study, 93% on the lab report that I wrote in a couple of hours. Sweet.

An even sweeter event that happened today. A friend told me that a TA marked some (twenty or so) lab finals for 444 incorrectly. I got 69% in it when I checked before, I checked today and it's now a 84%!

And here's some pics for Mike in Australia. (Asshole, taunting me with sunny warm pictures.)

Killer Kittens

Yesterday I saw a small cat running across campus with a fat dead squirrel in its mouth and blood running down its neck.

Samaritan

So today was a good day I suppose. I printed off and submitted my UW Optometry application. It was a crazy windy and snowy day out so the trek up north kind of sucked. There weren't many people out but a girl walking across my path all of a sudden lost her touque from a blast of wind. I found myself chasing it across the B2 green until I finally caught up to it and was able to give it back to her. I felt like a good samaritan.

I finally broke down and decided to watch Battlestar Galactica: Razor now instead of waiting until after exams. It was pretty sweet, although some small parts were kind of... I'm not really how to word it... not really out of place, not really silly, but - I'm not sure. I don't want to ruin it for anyone not that it would. I'm the kind of person that really doesn't want to know anything at all, not even previews, for things I really want to watch. I like to be in the dark so that everything is a surprise so I wouldn't want to say something that I wouldn't want to hear. It was sweet though, as always. That's my BSG fix for now.

What else... I've been working on my long overdue PCO application (still) but this time I've actually seemed to progress somewhat. I took a break and decided to check my email, turns out SUNY wants me to come for an interview! It's good to know someone out there thinks I'm a possible candidate, especially when I hear SUNY is hard to get into. Obviously they haven't accepted me yet, but it's the first step on my path to becoming an optometrist. Woot!

That's all for now. Time to look for a possible snack...

Freeeeedom! (sorta)

Woot! I am now finished 40% of Fall 2007 term! Two of my classes are now done and over with since there are no finals (there were extra midterms). One went well today, the other, not so much. We'll see how it went though. Hopefully they go well since they will be the courses holding up the average.

Now what to do... I feel kind of lost, like I need to do something productive. Shrug, I'll find something to do (like work on my PCO application... guh.)

Back for more!

Two posts in one day, unheard of.

So I'm back from the "Faculty of Science Twenty-First Annual Awards Banquet". Man, Fed Hall sure is fancy, at least nothing I would have expected from that rectangular block on the side of Ring Road. Dinner was okay, it would have been better if I didn't feel so ill. That always seems to be the case, I get sick when I'm out doing something/at an event/going for a plane ride etc. Damn you organs, work better.

It's also funny to listen to people at these award banquets. This is my first time getting on the Honour's List for University marks (I went once for an Entrance Scholarship in 2004) and I am pretty stoked about it. I'm working my ass off to get on the Dean's Honours List and I finally made it on. Then you hear people talking about how everything is the same from last year and the year before blah blah. People take for granted what they have and they don't appreciate that they really do represent only a small portion of the faculty. The food may be nothing special, the presentation may be nothing special (although I really enjoyed it), but your achievements should be and that's what these banquets are for, to show for it. It's the least that can be done.

So anyway, I'm all happy for a free meal even though I couldn't enjoy it, but I'm even happier to have made my goal of making it on the Dean's list. It took a little longer than I anticipated but I did it. Unfortunately I won't actually be graduating with honours as that is no longer attainable. You win some, you lose some.

On a separate but related note, it's interesting going through Facebook and checking to see who's on the list and who isn't. It's rather surprising... (insert inconspicuous smiley here).

Once again, back to studying.