Thank you gov't, no thanks blogger

I wrote a whole post and it just got erased. I'm sure this has happened to everyone here at least once and it is the biggest pain. I believe the notable things were Alana coming to visit, going to QE park, HMV and the Keg with her. This week I watched lots of Smallville, shot people with waterguns, ran around, threw balls at people on different floors, didn't really study, helped other ppl with hw, did my laundry, wrote some verse, hacked, bought a whistler pass, received one grand from the government, went grocery shopping, drank pop, ate pizza, ran away from a weird guy. Believe me, my other post was way better, but it was brutally ruined.

If I was Garfield, I would be about to meet my nemesis

Tomorrow has my first monday classes. Lecture at 8:30 am. ack. This past week has been crazy, but awesome. On Saturday, Alana came over to visit we had a great time. The weather has been awesome and I showed her around campus, residence and the transit system. She got to meet a bunch of my acquaintances in residence. I wrote a new song in the past week. It is really emo, and in the style of Oasis somewhat. It is nice, because you can play it on the acoustic guitar and it is in a decent voice range. Highest note, E above middle C and lowest note, C# below middle C.

Last week, even though I had 9 lectures, 2 tutorials and a lab, I felt like I had tons of free time. Of course, I "chose" to use that time for studying, but it was weird. 50 minute lectures just don't seem that long. I hope it stays like that always. You can pretty much choose to do as much or little work as you want to do. I have a chemistry lab every other week and a hardcore biology lab every work. I think those will be the most "work". English will have a couple of medium length essays (1000-1500 words). Biology will require a lot of studying. Math and physics are pretty straight forward as long as I stay on top of them.

Last week was free food week. I got so much free food it was awesome. I'm trying to turn my fridge into a freezer somewhat unsuccessfully by turning it all the way down. I think it will work eventually. I bought some CDs (American Idiot, Disclaimer II and Out of Exile). My brother brought over Soundtrack to the Apocalypse and my Van Halen and Sum 41 Cds. I also chanced getting Morpheus, so we'll see what happens.

Before being completely settled in, I have to get a chemistry text and English book. I also have to cash in my Passport to Education and get my Provincial Voucher. Fees are due at the end of 2nd week of classes, then my scholarship is deposited to my account. Excess funds, if any, are returned to me in the form of a cheque. I'm hoping the Shrum scholarship and Passport will cover it. If not, the provincial one will cover the difference. I am slightly worried about keeping my scholarship.

It is a slight worry. People talk about how university is harder, I have 5 classes while most people have only 3 or 4, it is on a bell curve, English isn't my forte, residence is distracting. Nonetheless, I think I can pull off a 3.0 GPA first semester. After that, I need a SGPA and CGPA of 3.5, so even if I get 3.2 first semester, I need to get 3.8 second semester to balance that out to a 3.5 cummulative. Mreh, technicalities. I'll do my best.

I guess no more free stuff. I got after shave, coffee coupons, a beanie doll, a coffee mug, and tons of other free stuff my first week. I took lots of coke when it was lying around for free. Right now, sleep is probably a good idea. I say hello to everyone in Nanaimo. Hopefully, I can get home sometime in September. :)

Happy Labour Day

Yesterday was pretty good. I woke up incredibly tired and went to Metrotown. It sucked there, to be quite frank, so I left and went to Granville street right by the bridge looking for a Long & McQuade. I found a 7-11, bought a map and LD phone card (4.4 cents/minute and no connection fee). The lady there did not know where on Granville the store was. I went across the street and there just happened to be a guitar store (West Coast Music). He told me that Long and McQuade was closed on Sunday's.

I shopped in his store. I looked at two acoustic guitars: one with a laminate top and one with a solid wood top. I ended up getting a solid top Aria acoustic guitar and hard case with my grad present money from my grandma. I also bought 12 packs of electric strings, 1 pack of acoustic, 6 picks, 2 guitar straps and paid 10 dollars to get a strap piece in a better place on the acoustic so basically I'm ready to rock.

That night I saw Dave and Jamie and they decided to have a belated birthday party for me. It was pretty crazy and very university-like. I went outside and sprained my ankle quite harshly playing ultimate. I was quite happy to be able to just crash in my room down the hall and answer no questions. I woke up the next day feeling great having just slept 11 hours. Today I've rested my ankle.

I sat around and went out to do my laundry. Quite a few people were wondering how I was feeling and I could proudly say I was feeling great. Laundry took way too long and it sucked. My t-shirts are wrinkled. I played the acoustic and looked at a map of Vancouver while I was waiting for my laundry. I came back to my room and started playing the electric. I started writing a sweet song and learned 5 Minutes Alone.

Alana and I are going to continue going out and try a LD relationship relying on cell phones and phone cards. :) I heard about Leah and Brian trying it and wondered why I wasn't. Then I heard about Jamie and how he really liked this shy, smart girl at his high school and just went for it and he is really happy. So I am trying what many people consider hard, but I don't see it being difficult to maintain a relationship. It will just be saddening not to see Alana everyday.

I have a new email address, bradneilson@gmail.com I am using it for MSN and email now because shaw doesn't care for my new computer. Feel free to email me. I love receiving things from Nanaimo. I can promise a 2 day response time. When I find out my workload I can probably say next day response. Everyone who is going to university this year, I hope you have a sweet time. With the price of tuition I should hope we enjoy it. :D

Now to Finish

What I started earlier before I forget it all. Back on Friday I went to the field and played a couple sweet games of ultimate. At the end of it I paid for a 175-gram ultimate disc and to join the ultimate club.

After that, there was a trip downtown to tour the Harbour Campus of SFU which just happens to be pimped out beyond belief. There is a Comitium, which comes from the organization of the ancient Roman senate. The room is similar to the UN General Assembly. The chairs are incredibly nice, you can plug in earphones (and or course listen to translations from the boxes overlooking the room). Well that is going off on a tangent about this room.

After going through the rest of the campus, my clan was given a scavenger hunt of stuff to take pictures of downtown. We had to find things such as Canada place, GM place, 99 cent pizza place, currency exchange, an orca, canucks jersey, etc. and take pictures of them.

Yesterday, I woke up late and took the bus to Granville after an awesome talk with Alana. It was my birthday. After Granville I wanted to go to Robson, so I did. I have yet to get a bus/skytrain schedule, but that would be incredibly useful. In the evening there was casino night and a hypnotist. The end result was me and two friends pooling our fake money for the very real silent auction and winning a $50 Ikea gift card.

Today, there is supposedly trips to Ikea, Metrotown, Kitsilano Beach, Lynn Valley and Burnaby heights. Unfortunately, I think you can only choose one. Classes approach quickly. I posted a picture of some of my identification to prove that I am me:



Yay, educational dining services.

Your Wish is My Command

I feel horrible. I bought exactly what Alana got me for my birthday earlier today and I feel so bad. I ruined her surprise that she was so looking forward to and I feel like I could never make it back up to her. The rest of this post was written before I found that out, but I am really sad right now.

I have so much to say. I believe since my last blog post and before I left for SFU, I spent a ton of time with Alana. I saw her almost every day. We went to the PNE with Chris and Emily and had a great time despite the rain. The last day before I left was really fun. I was glad to see most of my good friends. Thanks for the rap Chris. I hope everyone enjoyed my last jam in Nanaimo before SFU.

I packed an insane amount of stuff into my dorm room here. I am all settled in. My desk was messy as soon as I set it up as it is covered with wires to the keyboard, mouse, monitor, my PDA, printer, stereo, 12 speakers, my camera and my cellphone. It is cozy. I froze my milk and OJ in my fridge.

Orientation hasn't been too bad. I've met a reasonable number of people, including like 7 on my floor. The events here are endless or they speak of them as such. Campus orientation was kind of useful. Having come here twice before, I have a decent sense of direction on campus. In essence, I am oriented. I've spent the last 4 days getting so much random crap necessary for school. I got an SFU ID/Library Card, U-Pass, Gym Tag, laundry card, text books times a million, scholarship voucher, etc. I think I'm done now though besides the text books that aren't in yet. I have everything necessary to begin school here.

My music situation is pretty good, but could be better. I have no downloading software, so I just listen to the cds I have here. I borrowed a bunch of David's cds to rip onto the computer, which is, incidentally, hooked up to the stereo speakers and plays nice and loud. I miss lots of the single songs that I had at home. Songs on cds that I wouldn't buy, because I only like that one track on them.

I'll write more sometime later.