An end to another term

The summer term's over... *sob*. Before I get all emotional, I just want to say that it was a great term at Roxio (though it's going to be Sonic soon) working along with Andrew, Dash, and Luc. They've finished their work terms already, but I still have 2 more weeks -- it buys me enough time to finish my report before I head back to Waterloo :P

The company farewall party was held on Friday 27th at Frankie Tomatto's, a famous Italian buffet restaurant with a remarkably renovated interior that really gives the feel of being in Italy. The floor was pretty slippery though. And the line-up for pasta was really REALLY long. Anyways, after lunch, us four co-ops played our last game of pool, foosball, and Starcraft... *sniffle*.

What was funny was that on the ride back to Roxio from the buffet, while talking about gas-guzzling SUVs, John (the supervisor of Luc and Dash) mistakenly said "SCV" instead. The big QA boss, Anat, was like "Huh? SCV? What's that?" to which John quickly covered by saying "Uh...yeah, it's a John and co-op student thing... yup..." :D We couldn't really contain our laughter... (Of course we don't play games during work, what are you talking about? :P)

Today, as I sit here typing up this entry, a new batch of co-ops from Waterloo have arrived. I've being putting off chatting with them - I still like our old group better :P

Oh yeah, the Midnight Sun's in Texas now, almost at the 9000 km mark (still very behind though, since they're 8900/19300 km and 24/40 days). Adam van Koeverden from McMaster University got 2 medals - a gold and a bronze in kayaking - but I'm sure anyone following the Olympics knows that already :D. The world record-tying win by Xiang Liu in the 110-metre hurdles was also pretty significant -- it marks the first win by an Asian athlete in sprint athletics.

Procrastination period is officially over

For the last three weeks I've been pretty much slacking-off, and now I have to start getting my act together. Procrastination is never a wise thing to do - it's always the worst choice - yet many people, including myself, do it all the time. I wonder why...

Anyway, some things I must do soon:

-work report (67% finished)
-housing for Fall and Winter terms (pretty much finalized)
-switching streams (have to talk to the school about it)
-choosing a major (narrowed down to 3 subjects)
-prepare for the JLPT and another work term in Japan (I guess I'll start in September)

On a side note, today I attended a sermon given by an Inuit pastor from Nunavut. He sang a couple of songs in his native language (I wonder what it's called) and made people fall down after he prayed for them. (I wonder about that too...) Anyways, there's no real point to this post other than to remind everyone that procrastination isn't the way to go. (But sometimes it is! hehehe :P)

Oh, and Canada got her first GOLD medal today! (in Men's Artistic Gymnastics, if I remember correctly) And, the Midnight Sun is somewhere in California now, having completed more than 5500 km. :D

Go Canada Go!

Let's all cheer for Canada during the Olympics in Athens! So far, Canada only has a bronze medal, but we'll get more... Congrats to the Women's Synchronized Swimming team for winning our first medal! <(^.^)>

Here is the medals table.

Disparity in higher education?

UW's Daily Bulletin (Monday, August 9th) featured an article with an intriguing snippet by President Johnston:

"The gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world in the quality and accessibility to universities and investment in post secondary education and research grows. It was interesting that no leading U.S. university attended this conference -- though the leading UK, Australian, Chinese, HK and Canadian ones did. The U.S. is in a league and a mindset of its own. Truly, there is a new Rome and that is a pity for global higher education and research."

If this is true, -- and I don't doubt it -- what implications does it have for us? Are we bound to head south for graduate studies?

Passed!!!

I passed my G1-exit driving test! w00t! Actually, I almost failed because of speeding, but the examiner was very nice and said it would be between the two of us :).