OMG I'm not dead

HI!

So yeah, my loyal readers, I'm not dead. Its just been a while.

Actually, I've spent the past two weeks sick, in one form or another. I had a nice bout of the 24-hour-stomach-flu the Tuesday before last, which sucked hardcore. And from last Wednesday until Today I've had the Cold Of Doom (TM). But alas, I'm recovering, and hopefully things will get back to normal.

Zeroth item: Happy Birthday Mel!

First item: HALLOWEEN!

...is going to suck this year. :( The physics 1 midterm is ON HALLOWEEN, and as such I have to spend the night proctoring and grading. :(:(:(:( sad panda. BUT, this means I get to show up and proctor in costume. :D I'm still trying to decide who to be.

Because of this little scheduling snafu, we're (read: the physics people) are trying to have a party the weekend before Halloween. All we need is someone to host it.

Second item: MIDTERMS

My own midterms are coming up. The quantum test is next week. I don't forsee any problems there. The math physics exam is a take home, and I get from Oct 27th - Nov 14th to do it, which means it's going to be impossible. That could be entertaining.

Third item: BEER

A few weeks ago I started to brew an oatmeal stout. It spent 2 weeks in the fermenter and was bottled and is currently conditioning. It needs to condition for two more weeks, but I sampled one bottle last night and it was pretty good. It needs to round out some rough edges but I forsee it being awecore when its done.

Which brings me to the most important question: What should I make next? I've narrowed the choices to three:

1) IPA (India/Imperial Pale Ale)
2) Pilsner
3) Hard Cider

Hard cider *technically* isn't beer (it depends on how you define "starch source"), but I've had a special request to put that on the list for consideration. DO THE VOTING

Fourth Item: Fall Colors

The trees still haven't decided what they're going to do. When they do, I'll get pictures and post them here.

Fifth Item: Physics 1 panic

Now is the time of year that some of the physics 1 students enter "Panic Mode Version Ten Thousand" and begin flooding my office. Because the midterm is in a few weeks, I anticipate a very high number of people in my office in the meantime. As such, I had to make another office hour on Fridays. XD

Sixth Item: I can't think of it, but I'm sure there is one.

So yeah, I'll post all the relevant pictures later on, maybe tomorrow.

peace out!

GRAR I'm Stupid

k.

So I was talking to my dad a few days ago online, and I said "nothing completely out of the blue has come up yet." And his response was "That's great that you haven't had anything totaly stange yet! It will happen!!!"

...

I took that as an omen.

So this morning I got ready to go to the store to do my weekly shopping. I get all my stuff together and race out because the bus is coming soon. I lock and close the door to my room, and then remember.........."I don't have my keys."

FUCK

So here I am in the hallway, with my backpack and wallet, and no keys. Luckily I didn't leave the whole building because its raining outside and I really would have been SOL.

My first thought is, roommate. But alas, he's at church. Then my thought was, LANDLORD. He's in Montreal, and the phone # to reach him is on a post-it note, INSIDE MY ROOM.

I hate topology.

So now I start going McGyver on the lock. I've seen two ways to open doors: a credit card slid inside the door jam, and picking the lock with a paperclip.

The credit card thing doesn't work worth shit. Even though the bolt was facing with the slanted part OUT, I still couldn't get a card that was strong enough to push the bolt in. Don't worry, I used inconsequential cards like my Dave&Buster's card. All my credit cards are intact. :p

So, the next idea, picking the lock with a paperclip. I've seen it done before, and so I thought I'd give it a try. I found one of those large paperclips hanging around the apartment, bent it out of shape, and went to work on the lock. Now, I did have my leatherman, it was in my backpack, so I used one of the tools to hold the lock and turn it, and the function of the paperclip was to push the pins up.

Didn't work.
Take clip out, bend it up a little. Put it back in.
Didn't work.
Repeat.
Didn't work.
Repeat.
etc etc.
.
.
.
.
Two hours later, I'm sitting on the couch waiting for the landlord to get back. At that point I thought, "wthell, just put the clip in, and wrestle it around. The lock is a strong one, it can deal with it."

So I bend the clip up a bit, put it in, start shaking it around, turned the leatherman and

*CLICK*

I fell over into my room.