They got me again!

Hmmm. I like to think, if it wasn't for Beth - none of this would have ever happened, damn - I underestimated her!

The guys here got me good. To make up for the fact that I tried to keep my birthday quiet - I guess they decided it was best if I had two parties. Just a small one on my birthday to keep me happy - then a surprise party of Friday night - it was awesome! I must admit - I had no idea what they where planning, even though I had plenty of clues and almost a tip off! But I must admit - the quiet party on Tuesday lulled me into a false sense of security.

So the party - it was downstairs in the Residence Rec Room. Filled with streamers and balloons of course, with a large breast/cleavage cake (Much better then a penis cake). I got a variety of presents - a canadian shotglass, some stickers (of all the things i've lost - i miss my mind the most), Bulgarian Rose Oil, a dodge pong set (Note R&V: Dodge not doge), some shots, a fake mobile phone etc etc - thanks for all the presents guys!

From what I can remember - there where four early 'fatalaties' to the night, In no particular order: Alvin (Hospitalised), Mike (Sin binned 2X), Myself and Annie (Apparently). i'm sure many others struggled with their absinth shots but since carlos informs me i had 5 in a row I didn't feel so bad about using the girls toilet (No point keeping things quiet - I'm sure plenty of comments will be made about this post!).

So yeah- from now on I'm going into hiding - nevermind that it is halloween this weekend? Who's organising that halloween pub crawl?

Hiding!

Well the time has come for me to go into hiding - I have 2 exams and a 2500 word research report due in 10 days, I have done zero study for all of them. Party on the 1st November anybody?

Just a note: We won the Team Spirit Award for Outdoor Ultimate Frisbee! Go Mothers Finest! A warning to all teams in the indoor competition - we will be back better then ever and our goal is to win at least one game this season! I wouldn't want to be the team we beat - what humiliation!

Baz Luhrmanns - Everybodies free (to wear sunscreen)

This is a fantastic song, and I know it is quite old, but it has been one of my favourite songs for a long long time and is in a way, strangely similar in some ways to Nietzsche's philosophy of life, just not quite so dark...

Maybe one day I'll be able to put a link here for you all to download it!

Thanks to Beth and Mick and anybody else who helped put together my Birthday CD - its a treat!

The buggers got me!

Well, thanks to Beth knowing more about me then I thought, my cover was blown and everybody semmed to know it was my birthday on Tuesday, however in a show of how friendly they are, they didn't embarass me too much!

My room was filled with the mandatory ballons, rude comments where written on my whiteboard and we had a few drinks. We went out for a quiet dinner and they managed to suprise me with dessert - thanks guys for a birthday just how I like it!

Shout out to Reid, Vanessa, Alex, Magda and Brittany for all making it special in their own way. Thanks to My family & beth for getting in touch as well. Missed you all.

Thanksgiving Weekend!

Yours truly being led around on Red by Brittany until he got used to me - we eventually got into a slow gallop!

Although it was almost 2 weekends ago now, I managed to get myself invited (Along with 2 other exchange students) along to a 'traditional' Canadian Thanksgiving! It was great!

Brittany (Magda's Roomie) invited Alex, Magda and Myself home with her to Yellowgrass for the weekend - we ate an immense amount of food (BBQ Friday night, Turkey on Saturday, Turkey leftovers Sunday and Monday! The food was a very healthy, refreshing change!)

Brittanys brother, Ryan is into the Rodeo and they have a few horses so we also got to go riding! Wat they didn't tell us is that one of the horses is a bit wild and had bucked their dad, Darren off a couple of times! Anyway - I got to ride Red and it was very different to riding the trail horses at home, Ryan uses Red for roping in the rodeo, so he's very well trained and very smart, the only problem i had with him was that he could obviously feel I was a bit nervous, so he was happy to do whatever he wanted to a certain extent!

Strider, Ryan and their friend 'Roping' calves.

Of course, being a small country town there was also a fair bit of underage partying going on, but it was great to get out to a farm party with the big bonfire in a massive combine shed - they called it a concep party or something! So lots of drinking, and revelry all round for a great weekend!

L-R: Renus, Mike(red hat), Ryan, Brittany, YT.
Thanks for the weekend Brittany, Ryan, Darren and karen!

Cabin Weekend!

This weekend just gone, I finaly managed to get us away to Lake Diefenbaker (Or however you spell it). From the word go, this trip was an organisational disaster, probably because i was organising it! We were supposed to stay at 'The trails end guest ranch' and go horseback riding and a whole bunch of stuff, the the useless buggers cancelled on me, on Thursday morning! They had 'other plans'! Can you imagine! I had called 2 weeks prior to let them know we where coming, and had emailed a week prior to confirm numbers! Arrgh - i hope they go out of business!



So, Thursday afternoon I spent several hours organising alternative accomodation when I should have been doing my HUM 207 Essay. All up i think it was an ok trip - we only got lost once (for about 10min) and the hire cars where very nice, if a bit more expensive then expected. In total, all 14 of us did a 650Km round trip!

The cabins where very simple - just 8 bunk beds, food was cook it yourself, ad we cooked lots of it! All we seemed to do for a lot of the weekend was eat (True Newcastle style barbies boys - only missing the kangaroo meat!) We also had a look around an old setllers cabin, church, and visited the local duck haunt - as all the geese are on the move at the moment. In true country style we had a decent fire to sit aroundat night and shared a few drinks with some American duck hunters who where staying at the cabins also. For me - it was just good to get out and about, I really enjoyed just driving around and having a look about!

The Lake itself was really just a massive damn, and when we drove over the damn wall on teh way to the cabins, the wind had whipped the lake into such a frenzy 2m waves where blowing spray all over the cars.


Pics are up on FlickR so check them out!

Reids Blog!

Reid larson, AKA The Heartney Hearthrob is one funny man and he has started a blog, not sure if he intends to keep it going, but his first post is funny enough to warrant a look. Its also linked on the sidebar. Kind of worrying that 3 of the last 6ish blogs have been about him!

Spriggers - Remember That Scottish Guy Who Told Crap Jokes?

I wonder if any of my fellow Wattlespriggers remember that Scottish guy whom we met in Shepparton - you know, that loud obnoxious guy who made jokes that none of us understood and who looked a little like Billy Connely with his goatee?

Well, he pissed me off a bit because he was rude (beyond funny). I remember distinctly sitting around the ground after Shepparton had beat us convincingly and he made some jokes that none of us understood, one of those jokes was about Rene Descartes. It went something like this;

'Rene Descartes walks into a pub, alone, one cold night in paris, and takes a seat at the bar. The bartender comes up and asks "Would you like a beer Sir?" too which Rene replies, "I think not." and promptly disapears in a puff of smoke right before the bartenders eyes. '

If you get it, (Good for you!) keep reading. if you don't get it, keep reading!

Now - the point of the conversation with this Scottish guy was that he refused to explain his jokes because it would ruin them! So we where supposed to remember these jokes for another time. The great irony of it all is that the only joke I can remember is the one he explained, and even further irony is that since I have now been studying Rene Descartes, I get it!

Anyway, I wanted to ask if you prefer to have a joke explained, or prefer to go away, be all intellectual and hopefully, maybe, one day hear it again, understand it and find it funny.

If you prefer to have the joke explained, as I do, see the Quotes on the sidebar for a hint. If you don't - don't look and please tell me why!

Reids 19th Birthday!

It was Reids 19th Birthday on Thursday, 6th of October. What did he get? He got a big surprise when he walked into his room after our game of ultimate. He got a big Penis Cake. He got a whole bunch of bitches. He got a reserved table at JD's. He got $10 for stripping in the club. He got Third place in an all-girl twister competition (Default first place because the girls wouldn't place their right hands on Reids C&B.) He got Drunk (Most of us got drunk). He got vomit on his shoes (Someone got vomit on her tounge). He got an early night (Midnight).

The party spirit AKA White Man Dance Moves (WMDM)
The Bitches
The Cake.

More pics will be available on FlickR soon. Once I figure out how to do it - their will also be video available of Reid stripping, twisting and WMDM'ing. Happy Birthday Reid! You have almost achieved your life long goal!

Define Me

Nick has commented that he would like me, to "define me." now I'm sure he meant, define him - NJM. My answer is to that is 'you.'

Now - we can have much more fun with this, and its something i've been trying to get Samir to do for at least 2 years (on that basis that you are (or will be) what you want!)

Define Yourself!

Here are the rules of definitions again:

Rule 1: All definitions must have a genus and differentia. (Genus = category)
Rule 2: A definition should be neither too broad nor too narrow.
Rule 3: A definition should state the essential attributes of the concepts referents.
Rule 4: A definition should not be circular.
Rule 5: A definition should not use negative terms unnecessarily.
Rule 6: A definition should not use vague, obscure or metaphorical language

Create your definition, or just make one up and leave it as a comment - maybe leave it as annonymous and let us all guess?

Military Justice System Update

Despite the "Scathing" findings of the inquiry into the Australian Military Justice System, not much has been done, or even promised to be done about it.

The problem, as I see it, is that because the Military Justice System is not independent of the military, they cover up things which have become entrenched in the military way of life - essentially they do not have the same sense of 'justice' as a civil court.

Why has all this come about? Because of the entrenched bullying in the defence forces, a number of suicides occur every year in our defence forces. The families of these soldiers have been key to pressuring the government into forcing an inquiry, and now that that inquiry has reported what we all feared, the government is backing down and going all weak-kneed and not doing enough about it.

Most people are more sympathetic to a cause if they know somebody affected with that illness or someone who has experienced the drama and trauma associated with that cause. I'm telling you all this because a friend of mine from highschool committed suicide for what we can only assume was bullying in the army. This is why we need to form opinions of things and why we need to support those courageous people who form an opinion and act on that opinion.

For more information and some comments from Dave's father, please follow these links. These reports will only be available for a limited time until they are archived by the ABC.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1475598.htm (comments by Daves dad)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1475636.htm (more general info)

Thinking!

It seems everybody has assignments coming out their ears at this time of year, but then it seems someone will always be complaining about assignments at some time! Since this is my blog, I feel free to whinge and whine, rant and rave!

So, I just want to tell you about the 7 hours I spent last night doing a 10% logic assignment. I was never paying it my full attention at the beggining, thinking I'd be done in a few hours. i must concede, since I have done no work in this class so far, I had to recap and do a little revision.... and then I actually got interested in one question in the assignment:

We where required to evaluate the following definition of the underlined word according to the logical rules of definition (to follow) and provide an alternative definition that does not break the rules of definition that the current definition does.

Let me know what you think - rules provided below with my alternative definition.

“Thinking is purposeful mental activity whose goal is to avoid error."

Rule 1: All definitions must have a genus and differentia.
Rule 2: A definition should be neither too broad nor too narrow
Rule 3: A definition should state the essential attributes of the concepts referents.
Rule 4: A definition should not be circular

Rule 5: A definition should not use negative terms unnecessarily.

Rule 6: A definition should not use vague, obscure or metaphorical language

My Alternative definition.

"Thinking is a conscious mental process to purposefully combine thoughts so we can make the best decisions."

Note: I found the original definition broke rules: 2 & 5, and arguably 6.

Email notification of updates!

Hi all!
This has taken me nearly 4 hours to do, and i'm still not sure if it works!However, if it does - you can enter your email into the box on the sidebar, click submit and you will receive an email each time the blog is updated!

There is one condition - you need to be a registered blogger user - however, this does not mean you have to have your own blog! You simply sign up, receive a profile and then everytime you make a comment on the site - you can sign in and it will assign your name to the comment!

Update Alert

Pics on FlickR have been updated, and the sidebar has another new addition - "Friends Profiles." This is essentialy a link to a post I have made about a friend, so you all know who I'm talking about! Keep an eye on it over the next few weeks!

Profile: Reid Larson AKA 'The Heartney Heart-Throb'

Reid is one of my 4 flat-mates. Here are some facts:
DOB: 6/10/86 Therefore he becomes of legal age for Sask. in 4 days!
Nationality: Canadian
Height: 6'2"
Taste in music: Old School Rock (Awesome!)
Life Ambition: To be a drunk Aussie. Favourite Drink: Rye & Coke
Quotable Quote: If you ain't good-looking, I ain't drunk enough.
Life Philosophy: Once I'm done having fun, I'll save the world. Mwwaahahahah.
Infamous For:

• Shooting me in the arm @ pointblank range at paintball when we where on the same team.
• Drinking 1/2 a bottle of Rye in 2 Hours, hooking up with a Semi-random & not remembering it or the fact he walked around the carpark writing on windscreens.
• Trying to get into the Owl 2 times in one night, succceeding & lasting only about 30 seconds.
• Trying to impersonate an Aussie accent when drunk. Its awful. Slander.
• The White-man dance moves.
• Inventing dodge-pong

Sidebar missing?

Just a quick note: If the sidebar on the webpage is all the way at the bottom of the page - its your fault!

Not, but it has something to do with the size at which you view the webpage, so you can adjust your settings in the control panel (Windows), or you can simply (on internet explorer) reduce the text size under the view menu... If you have a Mac, I have no idea!

Paintball!

We where once a band of brothers..... Residence brothers, or Frat house bros?

I dunno, but the residence organised a fantastic paintball trip and we all camo'd up and prepared ourselves for the bruises! In fact, if it hadn't of been for Reid (Who was on my team!) shooting me in the arm at pointblank range, oh and the suicide run with no gun which resulted in me getting clipped in the nads... and the kneecap shot from 1 metre away... I would have survived the day relatively unharmed!

Thanks to all these guys and girls who made it an awesome day!

A very few more pictures will be available on flickr soon.

Birthdays

Just like to mention happy birthday to Dad, Mum and Brother (Peter, Anne and Simon) who all had birthdays this month. I was probably slack, but I did try and call mum and dad, albeit I think it was about 1am UK time!

As my birthday present to you all, Rhian has kindly donated some pictures I can embarass myself with, and as I have publicly promised to publish them - so be it. I hope you all enjoy finding out what i was like when I was a little tucker!