Christmas vacation update.

I spent most of the 26th shopping with my mom, I got an mp3 discman for Tracie, and a few other things. Mom bought a new digital camera and docking station. Dad has learned how to download the pictures, by using the Irvine school camera and mom bought an identical one.

On the 27th, Dad and I hauled some old boards to the dump for Gail and Ralph. They really have changed the dump since I went there the last time. We unloaded the garbage, and on the way home, we took a little tour of the flats. I went and played squash with Ralph, he beat me every game. I only scored between 3 and 6 points in every game. That night I went to the Jacobson's house for their shin-dig. It was quite fun, I enjoyed the little visit that I had with all of them. I excused myself so that I could go to see if Tracie had gotten to Medicine Hat yet, I walked right past my own car and still wasn't sure if Tracie had gotten there yet. She was downstairs, and so we got ready and went to her parents house to open the rest of our presents. Becky was really happy to see us.

On the 28th I went to play squash with, Ralph again. I did about the same, but I did win one game about 9 to 4 or so but he won all the rest. I'm not sure if he was just fooling around, or if I really did beat him. He claims that I really did. I showered at the Y and then came back to the Daniels' to have supper. It was quite good, and Tracie finally learned how to make gravy. Tracie learning how to make gravy may quite possibly be the best thing about this whole trip so far.

Well I guess the final total as far as gifts are concerned is this: 1 shirt from Mom and Jackie, electric toothbrush from Mom, 2 helicopters from Tracie, $50 from Dad, 2 pairs of pajama pants from Tracie and Becky, bag of candy from Grandma Daniels, piggy bank and socks from Grandma Follis, clothes basket and materials to make bread from Ralph and Gail, bread maker from Ralph and Gail, blank CDs from Ralph, head massager from Jackie, tic tack toe game from Becky (hand made in grade 7 woodworking) Sequence game from Gail, and I'm not sure what else, but if I remember something I will update the list.

Merry Christmas! I went shopping all day with my mom on the 23, we went out to eat together at the Pita Pit. It was quite fun and I am having a good time here in Medicine Hat, but I miss Tracie. She had to work a bunch of night shifts in Calgary at the hospital. I got a lot of presents, I went to Tracie's parents in the morning to open presents with them. It was pretty fun, Becky got a ton of presents! Amy got dance dance revolution and it was pretty funny to watch her play it.

Somehow the dog story wasn't nearly as funny as I expected. I guess it was all the hype.

I am trying to get down to California so I can spend a week with Anna and her family before my swim camp (which is also in Southern California). Anyway if I take the bus down and don't take the flight down with the team the airline will cancel the ticket for the return flight. So my coach sent out an email to see if anyone on the team who is not going would like to take this last chance and if someone replies then I guess I'll be going, otherwise it doesn't look good. For sure I won't be leaving until Saturday at the earliest.

In other news, I haven't been accepted to the Faculty of Fine Arts in Multimedia, but apparently they are accepting me as some multi-classified student or something weird like that. Whatever it is, it means that I will be eligible to compete on the swim team.

The build up to this dream story is going to ruin it, but here goes...

I was at the race track watching the horses racing, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a puff of dust. It intrigued me, I had to know what that puff of dust was. My dream rewound. I zoomed in, and saw a dog running beside the track then a puff of dust. It rewound and zoomed in so that all I could see was the dog running then suddenly the dog fell into a hole and a puff of dust flew out of the hole. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. The dog fell in a hole and dust shot out of the hole. In the hole!!! Dust shot out!!! The dream replayed 3 or 4 times, I was laughing so hard that I woke myself up because my belly was shaking so hard. It woke Tracie up too. Now, all I have to do is think about the dog falling in the hole, and I start smiling. I can make myself laugh by thinking of the dream.

I have to admit that the story is a lot funnier when I tell it in person.

ps. The guy I was hoping for won survivor. That's 2 out of five survivors that I picked to win.

I am back in Lethbridge. I've been travelling a lot lately. First it was Calgary on Saturday, then back to Lethbridge on Monday. I drove to Medicine Hat on Tuesday, back here again tonight (Thursday) and most likely I will either be leaving tomorrow or Saturday for California depending on how long it takes me to get everything ready to leave. I have two new roommates who would like to move in on the 23rd of December and another roommate who would like to move in on the 4th of January. The problem is, I'm going to be soaking up the sun all the way until the 5th of January so I'm going to have to figure out how to get the house ready for them, find someone to give them a key, and basically just hope everything works out while I'm gone.

Important note: Gary you still never posted about your funny dream. Did you think I would forget?

Hi everybody! I finished my final exam on Tuesday. It's so nice to be done. The stress is gone. I even read a book yesterday. 160 pages in one day.

I can't remember if I posted my complaints and idea for a new book organizing system for the U of C library (I know, I know, it's spelled libary) but since I withdrew 2 books yesterday, it bears repeating. (I can always take it out later) It all started about a year ago. I had some free time, so I went to the library to read a few magazines. I couldn't find a nice magazine section with soft chairs like they have a MHC so I decided to ask the Librarian. Being a new-Canadian, she had a hard time speaking either of the 2 official languages. Not speaking French wasn't as big a problem as not speaking English, let me tell you. Anyway through a series of grunts, clicks and hand motions, I made it clear that I wanted to find a copy of Wired Magazine. This was to be my first run in with the completely crappy Library of Congress organizational system, and the U of C's interpretation of it. The lady gave me a paper with the call number on it and directions of how to find it.

First I had to go up a really large escalator. Then I had to go through the public computer lab. Then I had to go down 2 flights of stairs. Then I had to make my way to the far end of the room to find my magazines. Here is a side complaint. The walkways are too narrow; it's like the first ghost scene in Ghostbusters 1. The shelves are so high a close together it is very hard to find what you are looking for. Anyway suffice it to say that it was a wild goose chase. All I could find were tons and tons of engineering books about making mine shafts safe that were 100 years out of date before I was even born. By the time I realized that there would be no copy of wired magazine for me, I just had to go to class anyway.

Fast forward a year. I decide that I will get a book about Adobe Photoshop. I type it into the computer and write down the call numbers for each of the 2 books they have in the entire 13 floors of outdated books. I made my way back up the escalator, through the computer lab and down the 2 flights of stairs. By sheer serendipity, I find the computer graphics section. How ever there were no books for me. The newest book in the entire shelf hadn't been signed out since 1981. This seemed like the perfect time to ask a librarian for help to find the books. This was the reply, "Sorry those books are on the shelf." Obviously, because if they were they would have been in my hand. She continued, "I just put those books into the computer yesterday. They were donated by a man who....Blah Blah Blah... So they're probably still on the sorting cart. Come back in a week or so." A week or so! How long does it take you to push that stupid cart around the library anyway.

So a week passes. I look for the books again. Obviously to the reader at this point, is the fact that they were still not on the shelf, although the damn computer said that they were. Once again I ask the librarian where these books are. She says, "Oh we just barely got those books. They are probably on the shelves for new books." Well why the hell isn't there a way on the computer search function to tell users that there exists a shelf for all the new books and the book you are looking for is on it.

I go back down the escalators and over to the new book section of the library. I search through both giant racks. There are no Photoshop books on the shelves. I'm beging to doubt the existence of Photoshop based directly on the fact that there seems to be no books written about it.

Anyway to end this rant, I have two points to make about the shelving system.

First, Why does a library need a shelf to brag about the fact that they have new books? In case people miss the news conference or miss the daily newspapers headline "Library gets new books". Libraries get new books all the time. It seems like after the millionth new book that it somehow wouldn't be as special to get a new book.

Second, although it's nice to be able to find all the books of a specific topic in one spot, if no body knows how to find that spot with out consulting the card catalogue anyway wouldn't it make sense to devise a system based on number order or alphabetical order, and then use the computer to find out the position of the book in question. It sure would make reshelfing faster. Book 2125412, that goes right between book 2125411 and book 2125413. You could fire all the librarians, except one boss librarian and then hire flunkies to reshelf the books.

So anyway yesterday I was going to find some reading material for the holidays (Christmas not any other holiday) and I ask some guy where the non-fiction was, or if it even existed. He asked, "What are you looking for?" I said I just wanted to browse the fiction. He said "10th floor, but you better ask a librarian because it's a pretty big place up there." I said I would take my chances.

I went up and picked out two books and contrary to popular belief, you can judge books by their cover. That's how I picked out my two books and the first one was very entertaining.

ps. Here is a link about LOTR for Jeff and a Link for Anna

Anna and I were just browsing Gary Milner's Super Duper Web Page and discovered that he mentioned how he is in the process of making a new flash movie based on his dream. However, he never told me about the dream - because it was some big secret that would only be revealed when he finished the flash movie. Since I now know that he will never finish the movie, I'm now going to ask: Gary will you please post an explanation of your funny dream for the world to see? That is all.

-begin Homer voice. "Segway. It's spelled Segway." -end Homer voice

Today, I rode the only Calgary bus driven in the Argentine style. Fast acceleration, not slowing down for corners or speed bumps. It was kind of like that movie Speed 2 only with a bus instead of a boat. Seriously, I was having flash backs to my mission. It was scary until I realized that there would be less walking, more music, more tv and more sex. A lot more.

I finished my last final exam. My seat was C 22. I was 5 or 6 seats from the very back, and there was only one row separating me from an engineering class. It's kind of depressing to overhear the engineers say, "If the class average is 50%, that makes 32% an A". One engineer friend of mine said that in some classes 20% is a passing grade. I guess that's why 80% of bridges and dams fail. In my faculty we actually have to perform. Stupid engineers, stupid bell curve.

ps. Don't worry Anna-Maria Onomatopoeia, my expectations are pretty low.

I hate Hotmail. I hate it with a passion. I wish I had never signed up for their crappy, albeit free, service. I just tried to click on a link from a hotmail message to join a blog, but hotmail keeps it's little frame on and that messed up the scripts on the page I was trying to load and in the end I am just very frustrated with hotmail. I'm pretty happy that I now have my own domain and my own new email address, jeff@milnerdesign.com so I can finally say goodbye to hotmail once and for all.

Mom and Dad came and visited me today. We went for lunch at Pizza Hut. They just left a few minutes ago and are heading back to Medicine Hat. Tonight I am going to Calgary but I haven't told Gary and Tracie I am coming to visit yet. Mom thinks I should pack before I call them. I think maybe I should just show up - as a kind of happy surprise. Anyway I am swimming tomorrow so I should get packed and get going. Instead I will procrastinate and end up driving in the dark.

This is one thing I can do to procrastinate doing my Take Home Final Quiz. It's 11:43 right now. The paper is due at 4:00. I'm helping some friends move at 2:30. I really don't have enough time to fool around. I really don't want to write this stupid paper worth 10% of my grade. I wish it were a regular final exam. I wish I could just concentrate on writing it. But I just don't care. Tracie will kill me when she reads this. She thinks I'm working right now, but I'm not. At least she won't read this untill it's too late. Hopefully she doesn't come in here and catch me fooling around when I should be working. I guess thats it, back to work. Wait for it.... NOW!

Saturday I went to the FRES Christmas party. In case you read the whole post before clicking the link, FRES is the Ferret Rescue and Education Society I have nevery seen so many fricken Ferrets in my entire life. There must have been close to 20 in the basement of the chruch where they held the party. Now you may be wondering, "How did Gary get involved with the Ferret Rescue and Education Society?" Well it all started because of an attempted coup d'etat within the society itself. Obviously the two letters they sent were too good not to print, but unfortunately they could only be printed in the AP section of the paper. Well apparently someone took offense at being called "evil" and so that prompted them to send the article to their lawyer (apparently). But they were not mad enough to ignore the media power that is the Gauntlet so we were invited to do a story about their Christmas party. Unfortunately, the only one that pays attention to them is the AP editor who, although he does have a ferret, is only maintaining contact with them in order to find funny content for his section that is Academic Probation.

Yesterday was the Swim Team Christmas Party. We had a pot luck which was pretty tasty... well actually there were a few pasta dishes that weren't all that tasty, but there was enough really good food that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Afterwards we had a "chinese" gift exchange. I thought I was going to get a really good present because I drew a high number and would have the choice of a lot of the different presents if I wanted to steal one from someone else, but instead I decided to unwrap a present from the middle. A tradition has developed over the years at these Swim Team Christmas parties. It involves regiving the same crappy / scary doll each year. I was lucky enough to pick the doll present and now I'm expected to save it at my house for a whole year so that I can screw someone else over next year so they can be in charge of it for a whole year... lucky them. Merry Christmas.

Today was the office Christmas party. We went over the paper and then had the party. I acted as Santa and gave out all the gifts. I had the list of all the people and then made a question for each of the people and then everyone had to guess who the person was before they could get their gift. It was a real hoot. Everyone enjoyed it a lot. I'm actually getting more into the Christmas spirit now, or at least is seems more like Christmas now that I have been to a Christmas party. I do have a lot of things that I would like to do over the holidays, and if I were to actually do them, I would be pretty busy.

Actually I posted the wrong fridge, but it's fixed now. Anyway I decided that I'd better not get the fridge after all. The one that I was going to get is only $688.00. I'll just have to make due with the small one that I have now.

I watched the South Park Movie today. To be honest I was quite disappointed. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it just felt like a let down. I suppose there were some really funny parts, but overall I'd have to say thumbs down.

Anna is making elf ears and an elf nose for her makeup class tomorrow. She is making them out of latex paint and they look really cool. It seems to be a lot like the way the professionals must do it. Anyway that's about all I have to say for today.

Only 2 days left for school. I have two take home finals already and two real finals. My africa teacher has continued on with stupidness. The final question is entirely vauge, and is supposed to be no more than 2 pages double spaced. I have no problem with the shortness of it, but I know that there are some people in the class that would have written a two page introduction. Some of my posts here would be two pages if you double spaced them. Ok, maybe not quite, but if you increased the margins a tiny bit then for sure they would be two pages.

I'm having a hard time deciding when to head down to Medicine Hat. I kind of want to rent a video camera over the holidays, but comms media stays open for half a day on Christmas eve, so if I wanted it for the whole holiday, I would have to come down on the 24th. But it sure would be fun. I thought of some movies that I would like to make. One would be a two parter entitled "Reasons it would be bad if I had a clone" and "Reasons it would be good if I had a clone"

Reasons it would be bad:
1. If I told a joke, the clone would laugh before I was done because he would already know the punchline.
2. If I wanted to have the last doughnut, the clone would probably have already eaten it.
3. If the clone did something stupid, he would probably blame it on me.
4. He would wear my favorite shirt.
5. He would take too much time on the computer.

Reasons it would be good:
1. I'm cool.
2. He would laugh at all my jokes.
3. We would be a good match playing games.
4. He would do all the chores because Tracie and I would team our votes together and it would always be two to one.
5. Half as much homework.
6. He would make sure I didn't pay $800 for a fridge.

Riding on a bus for 13 hours sucks. However, the results are in and I did very well at the Swim Meet in Winnipeg. I have a new best time in 50 free (25.58) and that time qualifies me for the Canada West Meet this February. I lent my parking pass to Anna while I was gone and although I just knew this would happen I forgot to put it back in my car on Tuesday and sure enough I got a parking ticket. I am going to appeal it at the security office after my multimedia class today.

In other news, I finally decided to get my own domain. Let the "master of my own domain" jokes begin! It's not up yet, but it should only be a day or two until http://www.milnerdesign.com/ is fully functional! I will probably also use the email jeff@milnerdesign.com but I haven't decided for sure yet.

I bought a fridge the other day from Sears. I came home and double checked the amount of room I have and it looks like I'll either have to cancel the fridge, or remove cupboards. I'm still undecided. I think I have until the 20th to decide.