Day 2 in Paris, lots of photos

Well friends I am now officialy a Parisian (or at least for the next week or two)... I've had my first bagette experience with a HUGE piece of Brie which was only 4 Euros!! It was NUTS!!!!

Anyway great times, I went out again all day with my new German friends Olaf and Inga, they are awesome and Inga had lots of huge plans for the day and that was awesome so I went along with their plans and it was great.

We started at the Arc de Triumph and then headed to the Obelisk and saw the Eiffel Tower from a far. Then we went to some parliament buildings and then to a fancy food place to buy chocolate and look around. Then we took the subway again to a great place for coffee and had a picnic in a beautiful park in the Marais and had some freshly made bagettes with a huge piece of Brie, and my friend had an Oringina and I had a Schweppes Lemon drink which was also good. Then we got a Cafe Au Lait later on and then walked more to Notre Dame. Then we spent 30 min trying to find a toilette in what we think was a very old hospital that is still functioning. Then we went to the jail where Marie Antionette was held prisoner and then executed which was nuts. That was a great day!! Oh yes, also we got some "Ice"... by that Inga meant "Sorbet"... i.e. Ice Cream but without the Cream!! It was awesome and we sat on the steps on the River Seine, overlooking old Ile-de-Paris... just taking it all in. What a fantastic day... again!!

Oh yeah, note that my typing this time isn't filled with 3000 typing mistakes. They told me here how to change the keyboard preferences so I have a USA Anglais (English) Keyboard rather than the French one which is nuts (see photo of keyboard!)

Ok onto the photos!!

Cool sign, not sure what it is for, but something to do with cinema and animation!! It was on Reynaud's house maybe?


The view out of my Hostel window


Pizza I got last night


Pizza was super weird Salmon Pizas!!


Sarah from Australia and I, laughing about something


L'Arc de Triumph!!


Olaf, Inga and Me


Our shadows


Arc De Triumph inside


More Arc de Triumph


Sweet deal!!


Cool Spider-Man 3 poster in French


The Obelisk


Close up


Me, Olaf and Inga


Obelisk and Fountain


Awesome fountain pic


Nice parlimentary offices area


Mary Magdalen church


Mmm... individually wrapped sandwiches!!!


Awesome selection of cakes


Aparantely there are lots of different types of Eclairs??!!!


Famous Paris cookies


Weird sweet fruit


Huge piece of Brie at lunch


The brie we bought and we ate that along with 2 bagetts, some tomatoes, drinks and a Fauchon Milk chocolate bar with coffee flavour that I got at the fancy store earlier.


Awesome view at the park


Sweeeeeet


The brie was HUGE!! And only 4 Euros!!


Someone thinking and sitting in the park


Cool band that played on the street


Haha funny dragon thing


Nice sidestreets!!


Holocaust Memorial, it was closed so I will try to see it next week


Vive le France!!


Weird city recycling bins


Local Parliament buildings


Courtyard near local parliament buildings


Haha these two pretending to fight, haha


Me on the bridge to old Paris, Ile-de-Paris!!


Awesome sorbet place


Chillin' on the Seine River, eating our Sorbet


Good times!!


Haha silly berets at a souvenier store


Crrraaaazy French keyboard!! Note the A and the Q are switched!! Also there
is crazy punctuation everywhere!!


Notre-Dame


Front view of Notre Dame


Me at Notre Dame


Inside of jail where Marie Antionette was held and then executed


Courtyard of jail


Going back home on the Metro


Inside the Netro station


Sweet picture


Inga waiting for the subway train

Jutan est dans le Paris!!

I got to Paris this morning and took the Métro from Charles De Gaulle airport to my hostel, I met some awesome people fron Germany after spending some time buying strawberries and other good stuff.

i am typing on a crazy keyboard here in paris!!
I an typing on a french keyboard it is nuts!!!!
i am here in paris and it rocks sooo much. Pleqse excuse the typing mistakes, qll the keys are different and there are french accents on the keyboard, this is nuts!!

I just got a cell phone today too so we are good to go!
I have free inconing calls so if you want the number please email me. But renenber I am 6 hours AHEAD of you if youre in Toronto EST time zone!!

I am in the Monmartre area. Sweet eh? haha wow it took me 2 min to find a question mark on this crawy keyboard!!! hahah today I went with my new friends Olaf and his girlfriend, both fro, Germany and awesome, to Montmartre area, saw Moulin Rouge and Le Chat Noir and more.

Here are pics I have qlreqdy.



Mike :)
ça va très bien!!!!!


Awesome gelato, coffee, red wine on the plane


crazy phone that took me 10 min to figure out


sweet Paris sideroad


Awwwweesooooome


cést magnifique!!


Bonjouuuuuur, France!!!!


A Patessierie (french for "awesome")


The tiny shoppers drug mart style grocery store had a Kosher section!!! I took a photo and a cute French girl talked to me because she thought it was funny!


Gold, pure gold. This is funny on SO MANY different levels.


How cool is this??


A "free" public toilette


Me at the Moulin Rouge


We bought the blueberry tart, and then walked for 4 hours to burn it off


Sacré-Coeur church


A cute cat trying to ride a motorbike


Hahaha the Moulin Brun!!!


A coffee place my new friends (in picture) and I went to and got a Café Latte


The Chat Noir!!!

I'm going to Annecy Animation Festival!!!!!!

So I've booked my ticket and maaaaaaaan this is going to be AMAZING. Probably the biggest and most awesome Animation Festival in the entire world.

http://www.annecy.org

This trip is going to be ammmaazing.

Annecy Animation Festival in France!!!

Oh maaaaaaaan this looks AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I thought that the world-famous Annecy Animation Festival was in July and I was definitely going to miss it. I wanted to go to Cannes but it seemed too expensive and kinda nuts. Instead I've decided to skip it and maybe instead I will try to go to Annecy!!

Check it out: http://www.annecy.org/home/index.php?Page_ID=10

I figure I'll probably be in Rome or Florence or so by the time I'd need to be back in Annecy, France for the festival... so since I have a Eurail Pass I can use it intensely and make good use out of it for the huge trip all the way back into France! It's about a 10 hr trip from Rome back to Annecy but that'll work out great! I can use it and then maybe even meet Matt and Alex there or get Joel to come with me too. That is SO awesome. I would love to see it and this works out much better than Cannes. Also it's more like 50 Euros rather than 400 Euros, so that is great too. Looks like there is also an Annecy YHA so that rocks and if they have spots it would be pretty sweet and also a cheap place to stay. Soooooo awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

This rocks SO much. I can't believe I can actually go to Annecy. This is nuts.

Gmail is sweeeeeeeeeet!!

Ok so Gmail is AWESOME!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it took me this long to switch over to it. I have really liked using Thunderbird so I wasn't really keen to get back into the whole web mail thing, but I really need that for Europe so naturally Gmail was the obvious choice. It's really well organized. And the chat thing is awesome.

New email address

Hello friends and homeys,

I can *likely* still receive my jutes@rogers.com and mjljutan@uwaterloo.ca emails for quite some time. But, to be extra safe, I've got a new Gmail account for Europe and beyond!!

Please update your address books to this new email address:

jutanclan@gmail.com

I will be checking this email in Europe, but my other addresses will forward to this account, so don't worry if you email something to the old addresses, I should still get it.

Packing for California, new North Face backpack

Today was nuuuuuuuuuts!!!!! I got everything ready for California. I am moving all my stuff there and going off to Europe, so I needed to separate what I need for the next little while and what I will need in the long run in California. I've got all the California stuff ready to leave now which is great, and tomorrow I've got to pack my large backpack and small suitcase for Europe. I used a small suitcase at the end of my East Coast trip in Australia and it was actually really good and helpful. If it has wheels on it, it can make moving stuff a lot simpler so I am going for that route this time.

I bought a $100 North Face bag today too, and it rocks. I was looking at cheaper ones but they all were not very good and had problems or had small zippers that I would definitely break. So this one is pretty sweet. I've got a huge backpack from Novack's here in London, that's the main bag I'll be carrying. But I also needed a replacement for my Eureka pack for my carry-on luggage, and also for normal day-trippin'. I'm generally going to be carrying my stuff in my bag, so I'll have it on for almost the entire trip. It's a great idea to get a nice solid one and it really is good.


My new North Face "Recon" bag. Sweeeeeeeeet!

Home, Dave Matthews Band tickets, Europe, Vista

I'm home for a few days and it's totally awesome. I had time to play with Windows Vista Business and it's pretty sweet, definitely a lot of it looks like OSX but it's cool anyway and it sure looks nice. There are some pretty great new UI design features of Vista too which I like and some space-saving stuff and very good options that are worded quite well which is a change from the usual.

Today we went to the market with Heev, Fink and Mrs. Heev (i.e. Matt, Alex and Matt's Mom), it was really fun and we got some great food as usual. Then I went to Novack's and looked at backpacks but decided not to get a new one yet. I did get my France/Italy/Greece power converter though which is great. Heev and I went to the mall at exactly 1pm so I could buy my Dave Matthews ticket for September. After about 8 min of waiting in a virtual line on the Ticketmaster website I got a ticket so that rocks.

So just getting ready for Europe and for California. I gotta sort out and inventory all of my stuff for the movers so that's the big job tomorrow. Tonight I've got to write back to some emails that have been sitting in my Inbox since before exams and make another To-Do list. Then I gotta send in my taxes and take care of some other stuff tomorrow. In other news, Windows Vista looks really nice. But man I hate those "Are you sure you want to do the action you just requested to do" security warnings. Matt and I had a discussion today as to whether those are actually good, or if they just promote an instant response. An instant response implies that the user will never read the dialog boxes and the dialogs become useless in attempting to curb malicious software from running code on your machine. I assume Microsoft is trying to stop this kind of software running on your machine by adding these "Are you sure you did what you just did and wanted to do that" dialog boxes, and I don't know if it's actually going to work as they want it to.

Anyway cool stuff. I gotta get to this stack of emails. :)

End of University party

I'm DONE UNIVERSITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO exciting and AWESOME to be done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael Justin Lee Jutan, B.Math (Hons. Computer Science) whhaat upppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So it is totally awesome to be done and I am really happy and excited and it's totally sweet.

We had another goodbye party tonight at my place and it was great.


Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Making some chicken fingers


Jocelyne and Joel chillin'


Matt is happy


Jer and Alex bustin' a move


Word


Hangin' with the homeys


Matt


Hot photo with Lisa


Bustin' a move on the couch


Matt and Keizo at Campus Pizza


Jer and I in our usual post-Bomber spot, rockin' some Campus Pizza

Le Cell Phone

Wow the Virgin Mobile France website is confusing. After reading it in French for about 20 minutes and getting most of the details figured out (i.e. Cartes Prépayées = "PrePaid Cards") it seems to make sense. It looks like about 50 Euros for a phone, and I can't figure out the per month thing. It looks like maybe 30 Euros a month, or something. Anyway it looks like about 0.48 Euros per minute I think. So that's kindof expensive I guess, but ALL incoming calls are free, so that totally rocks and is very useful for people calling me from Canada. I couldn't find those details on the website but that seems to be the case after reading about it a bunch. I can potentially get an Italian SIM card once I am in Italy but there's not really any particular reason to do that, I can just keep the France one I think and continue to use it there. I gotta figure that out but I think it'll work. Good stuff.

Professional Interests, Friends, Photos updated on website

Hi all!

Tonight I did a bunch of updates to http://www.mikejutan.com including some changes to the "Professional Interests" page, updated links and some photos of me, along with some photos of some of my friends.

2 days left of University!!

Well now it's only 2 days left until I am DONE UNIVERSITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH MAN THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just 1 exam left on Friday, it's Music (Soundtracks in Film) so should be no worries. I gotta study for it and read some chapters over the next couple of days but it's all super interesting and cool so no troubles there.

Getting ready for France too and that TOTALLY ROCKS.
What an awesome end to a long 5 years at University. Happy days!!

I've got some friends coming over on Friday and we're going to have a little goodbye party which will be great as well. Fantastic. This week is awesome so far, hangin' out with Joel and Jer at the concert and then seeing some other really nice friends and cool people that I've met while at University. Paris is going to be sooooooooooooo ammmmaaaziiiing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interpol and French Toast

Last night was cool, Joel, Jer and I went to see the band Interpol in Kitchener. They are part of this sort of new wave of "Pop-Indie" which seems like an oxymoron but really I figure it's just the sort of band that is Indie, but can now pay their bills. The concert was pretty good, but kinda nuts. There were a LOT of tall people there. Therefore, ergo, vis-a-vis, it was hard to see the stage. But good times anyway. There was a crazy bouncer that kept coming into the crowd and yelling at people for taking photos with their cell phones, very weird. The opener bands sucked somethin' fierce. But Interpol was pretty intense and excellent, a different kind of music than I usually rock out to, but it was recommended by Joel so obviously it's good music.

I just saw the Blogger "Blogs Of Note" site and one thing that I had to click on was a blog called "French Toast Girl." Clearly I love French Toast, as we all know. So I checked it out and she had a REALLY funny quote on there about why she calls herself the "French Toast Girl." Haha.

So what's with the toast?

The basic philosophy of the french toast girl site is this: life (like french toast) is made up of simple ingredients that combine to make up a marvelous concoction we often take for granted. It's time to relish all the wonderful flavors in your life. And by the way, if you aren't crazy about the way your life tastes, remember: you're the one who controls how much sweetness goes on top, or if it's soggy and underdone.

So savor the simplicity and the magic that is french toast. Order some at a diner at 3am. Order some for someone who looks as if he could use it. And don't just eat it, put strawberries on your french toast, make a pot of Earl Grey tea, and have it outside on the porch listening to the birds in the morning. And before this gets too deep, have some fun and play around with the site, okay?

Hilarious, and legendary.

Dave Matthews Warehouse Album

Tonight I am listening to the Dave Matthews Warehouse 8 album, this is intense!!!!! I think it was a special album sent only to Warehouse members... man it is good.

It has a reaaaaaaaaaally good One Sweet World version on it. Man this makes me want to see Dave Matthews again, oh yes... right I am about to buy a ticket for an upcoming show. Good times. My buddy Travis wants me to come to the long weekend of all 3 shows at the Gorge in Washington state in August, man that would be AWESOME!!!!!!!!! But it's a bit nuts, maybe I'll do that another year. I am going to see Dave at least once this year though as usual. I guess the new studio album might be out by the time I see them in concert again??

Man this version of One Sweet World is amazing (and the intro is still going as I've been writing this) ammaaazing. It has a live version of "I'll back you up" which is pretty sweet, that's a pretty uncommon (and awesome) song.

I got my travel phrasebooks for French, Italian and Greek languages, haha they are cool but I think I am going to be SO bad at speaking in Greek. I tried all 3 and French was the most natural (thank you, Canadian school system), Italian next, and then Greek I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Haha this is going to be interesting to get around over there. I've got to take that book with me everywhere I go!!!

The Office, once again, is amazing

It was SO good this week. How can one show be that awesome?!

It cool that Ed Helms is back on the show (Andy), he was also from The Daily Show like Steve Carrell. I wonder if there will ever be a Jon Stewart or a Stephen Colbert cameo on The Office?!?!? I certainly hope so.

Best line this week was Michael saying something about how the guys in the warehouse think they are so important since they work in a warehouse. He says, "I worked in a warehouse once... (pause)... Men's Warehouse." Priceless.

Taxes, Studying, France, Shabbos Dinner

Wow lots of stuff going on today. Good times.

I got a call this afternoon from the dude from H&R Block. Turns out they are done my US and Canadian tax return already, so that rocks. Glad it's done, but it also kinda was less than I was expecting. I paid a lot in US tax this year cause I had 8 months of Co-op in the USA and thus paid a lot of tax. Looks like I'll only be getting back about 1/3 of what I paid. I was expecting to get back about 2/3 so that amounts to a fair amount of bills. Oh well. At least I don't owe money... oh wait, I do!! Yeah it's nuts, apparently I own Canada $300, although I am getting back about $1300 US. There is a situation where you are taxed in Canada over and above the US taxes as if you were earning the money here. Oh well, not a big deal. But it looks like now I need to borrow some money for Europe. I was going to just wing it on the money I have, but it won't be enough now. So to make sure I still get to do all the cool stuff I want to do in Europe, I'll have to borrow a little.

Studying was intense today. From 8pm-3am I studied AciSci!!! It was really intense but awesome and I got through all the class notes. I've already had my History and UI exams and they both went really well. So another day of studying for ActSci and then once that one is done it'll be awesome cause I have a week off and then Music. That is great as Music is pretty straightforward and won't require too much studying, so I'll get to see some nice friends next week. Angie is coming up to Waterloo and I haven't seen her since she went to New Zealand last summer, so that'll be awesome.

France is going to be sweet. That it all.

I got invited to another Shabbos Dinner tomorrow night, free food is always awesome and I really like that crowd at the JSA place this term. Good times. So I think that'll be a good break in between studying.

Ok well it's 3:45am and I've been studying all day and night, so I'm off to bed. Yung left today!! She is done exams and thus done University!! She was really excited but also kinda nervous to leave Waterloo and enter the real world. She is doing Canadian Idol auditions this weekend which is really cool, that would be amazing if she gets into the next round.

Alex and Matt are coming up here next week so that roooocks.

The best art you may ever see

So Yung and I decided to plug in the Wacom Tablet and go to town on it.

Here is our best work after several hours of slaving over the hot computer, attempting to change the art world, one glorious masterpiece at a time.


The Doggy-Lama and his glorious pot of gold (i.e. firehydrant), and a furry martini glass


Hot stuff TO THE MAX (and her multi-variant friends). Can you "spot" the "double énténdré"?

Back to bread, but not so fast...

So tomorrow is the end of Passover and I'm finally back to the land of bread, pasta, rice and other awesome carbohydrate-related foods. Awesome.

So, in related news, I've gotten kinda fat. Not overly, just a little bit too portly. It all started in 1st year with the classic "Freshmen 15" which kinda turned into the "Freshmen 25" and then... well you know. Living in the USA and eating USA-sized portions at restaurants has been kinda blah too. So I got home pretty tubby, and not too happy about that. So I kicked into high gear and started exercising a lot this term, and being more careful about my food. In a month I dropped like 9 lbs. Ok so that's a good start, but I ought to lose like 20-30 more... so I kept going, exercising a lot and working hard to keep my food in check. And I didn't move a centimetre!! (Or, um, enter small weight measurement here... "ounce"?)

So in 1 month I dropped 9 lbs, and then in 3 months I didn't drop any more. Now, in the past 8 days of Pesach I've lost at least 3 lbs. This is an interesting turn of events. So interesting that I am going to take this as an obvious sign that I need to learn from this. My sister the genius Health Ph.D. student told me that eating too much carbohydrate makes your system unable to process through the carbohydrate and start burning the excess fat in your body. This is bad, of course. Now, what better way to test the theory that I am eating too much carbohydrate by putting me on (essentially) Jewish Atkins for a week. :) Now I know I still need to balance foods, but this is an insanely clear sign that I have been overdoing it. And that food actually DOES have a BIG effect on my weight. (Duh?!) So I think this is giving me something else to focus on. I eat a LOT of fruit and more vegetables now too, and I hardly ever drink juice and never have pop or other junk in the house. But I think an area I've been neglecting is the over-abundance of carbohydrates I seem to be eating without even thinking about it.

Also... I've been hungry a lot this week. I haven't been eating every time I am hungry because, well, there's nothing to eat. I have a bunch of cereal and snacks and random food in the cupboards, but it's all not cool in Passover-food realm, so it's been off the menu for the past week. Instead of eating I've just been doing other stuff. I think maybe I eat sometimes when I need a break from something, as like a buffer activity. I'd say I eat when I'm bored, but I always have like 1,000 things going on at once, so I don't think I'm ever really bored of doing anything. But I do a bunch of stuff, then take a break, get something to eat, and then go onto the next activity. I think this practice in turn makes me eat more that I need to eat, and in fact I am probably not even eating good stuff (or at least it's too much carbohydrate, which is blocking any fat burning that could be happening.)

Interesting. Also finally I am getting enough sleep now that classes are over. I am notoriously bad for getting less sleep that I should be getting, and there appears to be a clear connection between people not eating enough and increases in appetite and weight gain. Also, University has been nuts and really stressful most of the time, and I'm sure that doesn't help either.

So I think I've discovered the potential psychological reasons for gaining the weight in the first place, but that doesn't really help me now. I need to keep this rockin'. The problem I suppose is that in the land of plenty (i.e. USA), the portion sizes are nuts and the temptation to eat all of the food you are given at a restaurant is way too high. It's really good, and there's frankly waaaaaaay too much food. Almost every restaurant does this, and it's really bad.

So what's the plan. There are clearly some potential problems. And I don't have to lose a bazillion lbs, just about another 20 or 30 would be optimal. I think my start is that I need to start calming down on the amount of food I am eating, and cut out this always eating between activities business. I am already drinking a lot of water and tea so that is taken care of. Next I need to be incredibly careful in Europe. It's going to be AWESOME and the food is going to be SO good. So I need to take it easy on the amount of everything I eat cause it'll be nuts and I'll want to try everything. Exercise won't be a problem because I'll be hiking and walking around everywhere, so that'll be fine. But it's really kinda blah and I really want to do something more about this. I'm on the way, but frankly that's not good enough. I gotta kick this into a higher gear.

I guess that means going less insane on the bread tomorrow that I had initially expected. Oh well, in the long run, food doesn't really make a difference to anything anyway. It's good but it lasts for a second and then it's gone. I gotta force myself to keep this attitude. It's not that I make bad choices, I eat tons of broccoli, yogurt, milk, fish... etc. But the problem is the amount. FOR SURE.

Anyhow that's my rant about why/how I gotta keep this weight loss plan going at full speed ahead. Good stuff.

Paris is going to be aaawessssome

So yes it's 4:15am again and I am still up as usual. I have been going to bed laaaaaate this week. But also sleeping until 2pm. So I gotta change this schedule up a bit. Anyway good times, I did tons of studying today. Got some friends coming over tomorrow for a study group which should be good and helpful too.

Anyhoo, just got an email from a friend who is living near Paris, she gave me a whole bunch of details and it's getting me really excited for the trip. I really can't wait, it's going to be sooooooo awesome. Sounds like there is a lot of cool stuff to see and man it is going to be great.

My first attempt at Matza Ball Soup - a salty experience

Well it wasn't THAT bad. Joel gave me some Matza Ball Soup mix, and I thought I'd try it out. The soup generally smelled a lot like feet, and the whole adventure was quite salty at best, but it wasn't too bad. The Matza Balls were reaaaaaaaally good/fluffy which is awesome, one of the bigger ones didn't get cooked through enough so I guess it should have been on the stove for a bit longer. Anyhoo, despite the insane amount of sodium I just ate, it's nice to get some Carbohydrates this week. :)

History studying and Bubble Tea (sortof)

Today was good for studying. I'm finally in the zone and getting lots of stuff done. I did all my major studying for History today, I just have to read some more of Ordinary Men and review a couple more things and then I should be set for History. Tomorrow I am going to focus on UI and review a bit with some friends on Monday and then I should be rockin'. Sweet. I am really looking forward to finishing everything, it is going to be AWESOME.

Tonight we went to Bubble Tea as a break but I couldn't rock the tapioca, so I had a shake instead which was good times. I gotta get back to work, it's 2am but I am going to spend a bit more time tonight reading and preparing for History. I read a bunch of stuff tonight and brushed up on some details which is great.

The long, emo, sad, "I can't believe I'm done University" post

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later... I've finally decided I'm actually really sad to be done here at Waterloo.... and it's time to write a nice long, super emo style blog about it!

I had a really awesome time this term going to Bomber a lot with my old roommate Jer and rekindling (yes, I know I sound like a girl, but it seems like the best word to use... I'm trying to be an Emo Kid here - gimme a break) my 1A friendship with my good buddy Joel who was one of my best friends here in 1A and then we were off-stream for the past 4 years and now we finally met again here and it's been awesome to just continue on from where we left off - me being absent minded and saying stupid jokes and Joel just making fun of me until I say a "Your Mom" joke and then he smacks me over the head. Definitely a good friendship, haha. Anyway it's been really awesome to get back in the groove with some old buddies like Jer and Joel but also nice to make some good new friends too, Jocelyne and I got a bunch closer this term which was awesome, we didn't really know each other all that well before this so it was cool to finally get past the "random acquaintance" situation and really become good friends. Man... definitely going to miss the people from this term.

As I was walking home from Bomber last Wednesday I was really thinking a lot about how I am going to miss this place. It's been a really hard 5 years here, tons of work and so much stress and pain in the first 2 or 3 years - it was NUTS. 4th year has really been the icing on a stressful cake (?!) I've had a great time. 4A was AMAZING because Summer term always ROCKS and I had the best course ever, Graphics. It was SO awesome and I really loved it SO much. I have never worked as hard as I did for that class, and it roooocccccccked sooooooo much. This term was amazing too because it was really very relaxed, I got my work done and I worked consistently on my homework as needed, but it wasn't too nuts. That was really good and gave me time to focus on some more important things this term. Included in the "more important things" was relaxing and actually enjoying my time at school, and going to Bomber every week with my old friends and my new VOC friends was just fantastic. It has really added to my appreciation for Waterloo and is making my exit from Waterloo just a little more emo-tional. (Hehe, "Emo")

Anyway, I better get to bed because it's 4am again and I am up as usual. Props to Waterloo... the place that has given me so much stress, has also given me SO much knowledge, maturity, ability, experience... man it has been SWEET. And I've met some great people along the way who have made the journey even better. John Lasseter says on the Cars DVD that Life is not only the destination... it's the journey that counts. So of course J-Lass has got it right. The stress of the first few years here and getting through the heaps of work has certainly been worth it. Dr. Kelso says on Scrubs, "Nothing worth having comes easy." It's certainly been a long tough ride over here, but man, am I ever glad I have it.

Got my tickets for Europe!!!!!!!

Today I booked my trip to Europe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am leaving in a few weeks and starting in France. I'll spend a bunch of time in Paris and the surrounding area, and then around France down to Marseilles, Nice, Cannes and so on. Then off to Italy where I'll be spending some time in Cinque Terre and then down towards Rome, Florence, Naples, Venice and all the major spots in Italy. From Italy I'll be taking the Ferry from Bari or Ancona in Italy to Patras or Igoumenitsa in Greece!!

That is going to ROCK and my Eurail pass seems to cover the Italy-Greece Ferry too. Sweet. When in Greece I am going to check out a bunch of interesting stuff there and then head to the Greek Islands for a while. I'll be finishing up in Kos and then heading back to Athens and then all the way back to San Francisco, where I'll be starting my new job at Industrial Light + Magic. What an exciting time this is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stranger than Fiction is AWESOME

I just watched the movie "Stranger than Fiction", with Will Farrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman. It was absolutely totally awesome.

I saw a few silly reviews comparing it to "Adaptation" and other Charlie Kaufman films, which I think was a bit of a stretch. The script was self-referential like Adaptation but it was very different from a Charlie Kaufman film I think. I think it was a bit more light-hearted, but didn't lose it's appeal or it's depth. Man it was sooooooo good!!!!!!!!!!!

It was such a good blend of comedy, serious intense analytical thought and a reflection on life and our responsibilities and choices we make. I absolutely loved it. And the acting is top-notch too.

Passover seder, and the end of University

Tonight was really fun. Tonight is the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover, where we commemorate the Exodus of Jews from Egypt, and the story of the Jews becoming free from slavery under the Egyptian Pharoah.

Looks like I've got a nice little post here from last year's Passover Seder, when I was in Berkeley and Oakland, California hangin' out with some good friends from work. Check it out.
http://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2006/04/thinking-about-freedom-during-passover.html

Tonight we were invited to the Adler's house, a very nice Jewish family and they were awesome and maaaan soooo much fooooooood!!!!!!!!!!! It was really nice of them to have my sister and I over as we didn't have another place to go to for the Seder tonight. Good times. The turkey and the brisket was totally legendary. I ate way too much as expected.

Tomorrow is my last day of school, and in a week or so I've got exams. So of course, Passover happens right during my exam study time, when I've got lots of stuff to do. Passover always seems to occur at an awkward time - I've been traveling, or in Australia, or busy at school, or moving... it's always at a totally inopportune time when I really feel like I should be focusing on lots of other stuff. And that is AWESOME. I think a large point about Pesach is that it's supposed to be extra work, it's supposed to be more effort and not totally straightforward and easy to do. I think this really adds to the importance. I've got a lot of stuff to do, my friends all want to go out for food at the end of term, and most of it I can't eat because it's Passover. So it makes it all the more important to ask myself, 'Hey, why am I going to all this trouble??!!" And that is the WHOLE POINT I think.

Why am I going to all this trouble?? Well I am taking part in an ancient tradition, and commemorating an event that freed my ancestors from slavery. IF the Exodus from Egypt didn't happen, the Jews would still be slaves in Egypt. Instead of living an exciting life here in Canada, finishing off school tomorrow, heading to Europe and then moving to San Francisco to work in the film industry... instead I'd still be building the pyramids. That's a pretty humbling thought.

And I think this idea really drives the point home in my own mind. Sure it's more "effort" to go to a Seder when I am busy, and take part in some of the traditions of Pesach. But, it sure beats the alternative!! And also, the fact that my ancestors were not able to freely practice their religion in safety and that they were not able to live free lives and had to live their life by the rules from their captors... it makes me very happy to be who I am and to be able to have such relative comfort in my life today.

We have to give up bread, yeast, rice, pasta, and a whole bunch of other food this week, and that is sortof like giving up the freedom to eat the kinds of food we usually eat all the time, without thinking about it. At the end of the week, I tell ya, I am ready to eat like 10 loaves of bread. We get so accustomed to living with things, that we can't really imagine what life would be without them.

So I think it's pretty healthy to take some time during this week to really go over in my own mind how lucky I am to be living in these times, and how important it is to realize how good it is to be free.

Google's April Fools joke

Ok this is hilarious.
I just saw this online, for April Fools this year Google posted their new Beta service called TiSP, (Toilet Internet Service Provider)... haha

http://www.google.com/tisp/

Hilarious. I like how they use the standard "Beta" logo so it looks like a real service and there is a FAQ and an installation guide. Awesome.

UI 2D rotation done, VOC training weekend

Today was sweet. I went to the VOC training weekend and hung out with cool people I like. So that rocked. I didn't "need" to go, but it's fun and I helped out a bit by trying to include/talk to some of the quieter new frosh leaders. I am always loud and so on, so it's useful (I hope) to the new leaders to get someone a bit wild to get them into the spirit of things. Good times!!!!!!

Then I went home and Nick and I went to Yung's choir concert. It was pretty awesome and Yung rocked out as usual in a smaller solo group so that was great.

Tonight after getting tons of Kosher-Le-Pesach groceries (can't find Matzah here, but at least I've got a bunch of Veggies/other stuff, and some potatoes and sweet potatoes for carbohydrates next week when I can't eat bread), I came home and just finished my UI assignment. It's pretty darn sweet. I got the crane dropping the weight item now, and it can also pick it back up if the end of the string is in the boundaries of the box. There were a few world coordinate to rotated local coordinate translation things I needed to do again, but it was pretty easy once we figured out all the stuff yesterday. Good times!!

Tonight... I gotta tackle my taxes. And get some Bubble Tea!


Crane after dropping the weight, extending the rope to pick it up


Picking up the weight