I can't tell if it's because Excel is too user friendly, or too non-user friendly, or some strange combination of the two, but it takes forever to figure out how to accomplish some seemingly simple task. Like adding a linear line of best fit to a graph. This is in part because searching the help for 'trend line graph' gives adding a trendline to a graph as the tenth or twelfth hit, rather than, say, the first.

In giving thanks for small miracles, however, the three-month garbage strike has finally ended, which means come Wednesday morning my week-old three bag of mashed yams will be gone, along with some truly sketchy hot-pot leftovers. And my video card, integrated though it may be (look, it was like $200 cheaper, okay?), is still awesome enough to run Halflife Source, which means I have something to do when I actually have time to play games again.

I have just spent the last three hours working on stats. It's all very simple stuff, but the data sets are really big, and my graphing calculator batteries are dead, so I can just program the set in and then let it run all the functions. On the plus side, it's the worst of all my current assignments, and it's _done_. I had my first midterm yesterday, which I'm fairly certain I did terribly on - I didn't realize it was yesterday until Tuesday afternoon, at which point it was too late to do much other studying than rechecking my notes (I don't pull all-nighters to cram, it would just make me do worse). I think I passed, though, which is a start.

Thanksgiving on Monday was fun - unlike my mother, I almost managed to get the amount of food right so we weren't swimming in left-overs for a week (too much mashed yam, though). Unfortunately between this and a large cell bill from August, I should probably not spend money on anything other than food until next month, really - although I think in the confusion I've paid my next cellphone bill as well (Rogers doesn't list late payments until the next billing cycle, which is really confusing).

My dad is coming next week, my house is almost clean, I'm helping Jon go shopping tonight - life is largely pretty good.

- Jon is really cute in glasses <3
- Had another mp3 player death (my brother's old one) over the weekend, so I bought a CD player until I have enough for a new mp3 player
- Thinking of joining Fencing Club, but I'm not sure I want to sacrifice my Thursday evenings for it
- This has lead me to wondering if my old fencing instructor remembers me - probably not.
- And fencing gear is pricey. Damn.
- For the first time since moving here, I lost money converting from USD to CDN instead of the other way around.
- I impulse-bought a 1GB flash drive today. It was only $15, okay >.>?

Icebreaker on Friday went surprisingly well - a ton of people showed up, and we managed not to run out of food despite that, so everything went well. The afterparty was a bit more low-key, as half the people who were supposed to come, didn't, so there were only six of us. We got a bit tipsy and sat around playing Rayman for the Wii anyway. It may have worked out for the best, given my lack of furniture >.> I did, however, take the delivery of a table and four chairs last night, and am getting a bed today (king-size!). Hooray from people moving and getting rid of stuff for free!

Managed to cut back on some of my work commitments, too, so zomg, free time again. Now if only I had my memory card... Although I still have Twilight Princess to finish off.

Got some of my scheduling worked out - one game ending in a few weeks, and we hired someone new at work, so in a few weeks my schedule will be better. I'm also getting better about actually getting work done on time. This still leaves very little time for blogging, though, as some people may have noticed. Been getting lots of stuff done for the club, though, which is good.

In school news, my vertebrate anatomy lab sucks, my cell bio lab is awesome, and one of my profs has encouraged us to lick toads. Being a biology student is a strange life.

Somehow, despite having internet again, I haven't had time to post at all. Classes aren't bad so far, I may do a run down later. I'm finally starting to feel like I have a home again, instead of the somewhat transitory state I've been living in for the last year. I bought a set of pots and pans yesterday, as well as dishes, food, and two big fluffy pillows, and I'm getting some left over furniture from some of Jon's relatives who are moving. Work is a little crazy right now, as we're understaffed - hopefully they're hiring new people. The end of this week is Clubs Days, so we've been running around like crazy cleaning the office and finishing up the paint job on the lockers. I may post photos later, as I'm really happy with how they've come out. Games are going well, although I don't think I'm playing Ally up enough. I've been kind of of brain dead the last few weeks anyway, though, which isn't helping my performance.

Also, abysmally stupid things I've done in the last week:
1) Slept through my alarm the second week of classes, and wound up missing my first two classes
2) Accidentally mailed a package to myself - I cut out an address label for the reciever to mail it back to me with my stuff in it, along with the reciever's label, and taped the wrong one on. And then got confused when it showed up in the the state I had mailed it in.
3) Skipped a class to pick up my new acne prescription...and then left the bag laying in the club room tonight after game.

Hopefully this stupid streak will end when I sleep more, and learn to say no to things like going out for tea after game, at eleven pm. It was very good tea, but now it's two am D:

Former roommate is going to give me an aneurysm, I think. Seriously, I spent five hours cleaning that kitchen. It will take you _fifteen minutes_ to run a sponge along the inside of the fridge and grab these cobwebs I supposedly missed while wiping down the entire stove, fridge outside, floor, baseboards, and windows, along with all the corners and top edges of the room. Christ. I have more important things to do like, oh, I don't know, go to work? Actually unpack my belongings? I was civil in my e-mail back, but I am this close to a scathing response if she e-mails me back.

Thank god she only has my school e-mail address, and not my cell or my new house address.

Got my schedule sorted out, no thanks to the Linguistics department - I got lucky and there was finally an opening in the section I wanted. I also signed my lease for the next year, and am moving tomorrow night with Jon's help, which means I will have interwebs again pretty much all the time. I somewhat amazingly apparently will be getting my deposit back. There's also a BPAL meet-up this evening which should be awesome. Work is in chaos as half the department is going back to school, but as I am merely a lowly clerk, this is Somebody Else's Problem. People are coming back in the next few days, and now that everything has finally fallen into place, I'm just excited. Got to play Ally again last night, somewhat unexpectedly - one of the Earthdawn guys didn't show, so it was Shadowrun instead. And now I'm going to go pack more and get some McFood, because some days I just want that sweet, sweet artificial flavor.

VNV Nation, Wednesday September 26 at 9pm. Tickets are $20, and I am going to Zulu right now to buy mine. Anybody else interested?

So excited!

So, I realized last night that summer is almost over - moving in two weeks, and then classes start soon after. I've actually started doing some packing - stuff I'm not going to need in the next two weeks, largely, like costumes and books. Still not entirely sure where I'll be living, but there's a few options on the table. I still actually need to pick a few electives in the next week or two - one for first term at the very least, although I need three total (suggestions, anyone?). Julie, when's move-in for on-campus housing? I think I'm going to have a little welcome-back party the weekend after everyone moves in.