Ok, so it's been like days since anyone has made any comment or post so uhh... what the crap?

I arrived safely in Vancouver earlier today. We picked out today to fly home since I am supposed to be at work for 6:00...well... it's 7:00 now and I'm not there! In fact, today is one the academy's scheduled no-lesson weeks. SO I LEFT FOR NOTHING.

It was an exciting 12 days. Lots of walking and lots of church and holy crap I musta met like 100+ new people (I wouldn't be entirely surprised if that was accurate). Definetly enjoyed the events of Christmas day, and was definetly blessed with a myriad of miracles on return day (being today), first being that my flight was delayed like an hour and so on and so excitedly forth.

Now, after I write paper, I have ten days to kick it. Literally. I will kick it. The bucket? Kick something. Point is I don't gotta do nothin. YOUPIE! Phone me and we hook up.

at a loss for words

a rabbit eating nuts
a squirrel digging up carrots

so brutally conflicted

overjoyed yet sorrowed
blessed but cursed

still a man in need of a Saviour

Hover mouse over photos for a short description. WHEEE!! If you save them you can see them bigger, but none of yas probably care to, which is fine.

We watched from afar; it was quite the ordeal. They clamoured around like a couple of tourists, unsure of where to sit, unsure of how to order. Couple of young kids, what do they know, anyways?

So, they come back to their table with their first plate of really good buffet food, I must say, and sit down. We could see them eating, and talking, enjoying themselves. The young boy seemed to fiddle with his chair and table and couldn't seem to get comfortable at all.

You see, these chairs, their arm rests are higher than the usual chair, so it makes for an uncomfortable utensil to plate angle. Anyways, the young boy slid his plate of roast beef and green beans closer to the edge of the table, to satisfy whatever need to be comfortable.

Sure enough, as any silly young chap would, he reaps the reprocussions of his choices, and in attempt to cut through his roast beef, pressed down on the portion of the plate overhanging the table and sends it in his lap and on the floor.

Beef and green beans everywhere! You shoulda seen this kid look around in pure embarassment. Both of them froze, not really knowing what to do. He ended picking up most of it onto his plate and switched spots with the chair next to him. I kinda felt sorry for the kid now, cuz he had this beef blotch all over his crotch, nevermind the runners he was wearin'; clearly he wasn't from around these parts.

I couldn't help myself but to stare at him any time he got out of his chair. Maybe he's American. Don't they use a fork and knife down there?

We're sorry, you can not proceed any farther. It is not safe for you well being to advance. If you go any further, you will be faced with the detrimental effects of contamination, and will surely suffer the same.

See, up ahead is a leaking nuclear reactor. Although it is the sum of our culture's intelligence and is powerful beyond our comprehension, it is full of faults. It is just not fair to expose you to these harmful effects.

We forsee a long and arduous recuperation process, possilbly taking many years. The device as it sits must be allowed to cool and be left alone for some time now...

Dear all of you,

I got in to Toronto safe, and "on time". Flight was well... Cramped. Bleh. Couldn't sleep, infact, slept two hours over night. So in the 27 hour day I had (plus 3 for time travel) only two hours sleep, and only 4 hours the night before.

Just want to write you all, let you know it's all good. How's vacation going for all of you? Write back soon!

-Andrew

So aparently, Christmas break is here, cuz the dorm is EMPTY, save me and Geral, who is sleeping. Emptying the fridge was fun... ice cream, bacon & eggs...etc. Except for the grossly overdue milk, dated december 2nd, which lay seperated in the fridge downstairs ... **Shudder**

Did everyone get the memo about locking their doors before leaving? Aparently not. In fact, one friend managed to leave all his lights on and his door propped OPEN!

I've got my work cut out for me... I have an assignment to finish, gotta pack up the surround sound from the lounge, gotta finish cleaning the kitchen areas of the lounges, gotta pack, gotta clean my room... Wow, this is a long list. I'd like to be done most of this by 12:00. An ambitious goal.

Flight leaves at 4:00, I leave here 1:30ish. Hope Steve is enjoying himself!...and is on his way back, yes. Poor guy is driving everywhere today.

And then I'm in PETERBOROUGH.

K, so I'm excited. Better get to work!

It has often been said that I am a master at making things more confusing or more difficult than they have to be. The same can be said about the exact oposite, that I can make simple any matter.

However, it has come to my attention that the Introduction to Philosophy class offered here at Summit is simply making easy matters complicated, without ever acknowleding their natural simplicity.

With that light, I sincerely hope I am no paladin of complicaiton. To cause such suffering amongst my peers?

In any case, reading philosophy hurts my brain. Maybe I should exersize it more. And my body.

I did ten push-ups today. That was hard.

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Happy 400!

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I'm confused as to who is winning the train argument. Matt, in his rebuttle, has done little to refute my claims nor present any new grounds. Bleh?

Man was never intended to build a dam. The rivers flow, from mountain to ocean, as God had intended; until ofcourse, man decides to control that which was never meant to be.

He walks around in his carapace of comfortability--an air of false confidence, a premonition of failure. Surely he can see the pressure building. Surely he knows his inaction will bring doom upon all those surrounding.

If the purpose of the water is to flow, and the purpose of the dam is to stop it from flowing, then one purpose or the other is failed, and a conflict arises. Perhaps the simplest solution is to have never built a dam ever; allow the waters to flow, as they should.

It is a thing of beauty to allow the natural forces to do their work, and to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Never again should we endeavour to allow a build up, never again should we allow ourselves too much control.

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Word of the day - December 13th, 2005: "carapace".

Where you don't wanna wake up. Everything is... Every thing sucks. You don't really know why but you wanna justify ripping someone's head off.

It didn't seem to matter what was said, or in what context, or by whom, just that it was agitating. What could ever cause such a state. I would hope I'm not so easily consumed by emotion, but it is probably very likely.

I find myself again coming to a conclusion of self-distaste.

When is it that we would take responsibility for our actions?

Is it when we dicover that our sin has affected another, that it has caused them to sin, and another, that we should stand back and resound the silence with an understanding "Oh"?

We will ever change? Until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing, no one will ever change.

Poke and prod as long as it takes for an observation to be made. Poke again, really, do it. This is my reaction.

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So, I was bored and surfing and someone did this and thought it interesting. Stone me.

Ok...So I just phoned Tony to tell him I won't be appearing at tonight's drum jury. I'm far from acceptably good anything near what is the curriculum assigned.

I think the total failure in theory is better than the embarassment of even trying to accomplish this.

I feel like I sold my soul to the devil.

Sorta empty.

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Post note: Been reading old ranDOMinion posts, I guess as a sort of procrastenation, but also, to gauge my progress from the summer. Needless to say, I'm not sure it's progressed much at all, beyond recognition.

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Post post note: I visited with Bruce and Tony earlier to talk about the night's events and to promise them I'm not a quitter, encouraged Bruce since I know how personal it can seem when students to stupid things like this. So anyways, set things straight and everyone loves everyone and I have to leave. Ok bye.

It sounds like science fiction: a brain nurtured in a Petri dish learns to pilot a fighter plane as scientists develop a new breed of "living" computer. But in groundbreaking experiments in a Florida laboratory that is exactly what is happening. The "brain", grown from 25,000 neural cells extracted from a single rat embryo, has been taught to fly an F-22 jet simulator by scientists at the University of Florida. They hope their research into neural computation will help them develop sophisticated hybrid computers, with a thinking biological component. One target is to install living computers in unmanned aircraft so they can be deployed on missions too dangerous for humans. It is also hoped that the research will provide the basis for developing new drugs to treat brain diseases such as epilepsy. The brain-in-a-dish is the idea of Thomas DeMarse, 37, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida. His work has been praised as a significant insight into the brain by leading US academics and scientific journals. The 25,000 neurons were suspended in a specialised liquid to keep them alive and then laid across a grid of 60 electrodes in a small glass dish. Under the microscope they looked at first like grains of sand, but soon the cells begin to connect to form what scientists are calling a "live computation device" (a brain). The electrodes measure and stimulate neural activity in the network, allowing researchers to study how the brain processes, transforms and stores information. In the most striking experiment, the brain was linked to the jet simulator. Manipulated by the electrodes and a desktop computer, it was taught to control the flight path, even in mock hurricane-strength winds. "When we first hooked them up, the plane 'crashed' all the time," Dr DeMarse said. "But over time, the neural network slowly adapts as the brain learns to control the pitch and roll of the aircraft. After a while, it produces a nice straight and level trajectory." Previously, scientists have been able to monitor the activity of only a few neurons at a time, but Dr DeMarse and his team can study how thousands of cells conduct calculations together. But it is still a long way from a human brain. "The goal is to study how cortical networks perform their neural computations. The implications are extremely important," Dr DeMarse said. The first result could be to enable scientists to build living elements into traditional computers, enabling more flexible and varied means of solving problems. Although computers today are extremely powerful, they still lack the flexibility in working things out that humans take for granted. Computers, for example, find it difficult to spot the difference between a table and a lamp if they are unfamiliar with them. "The algorithms that living computers use are also extremely fault-tolerant," Dr DeMarse said. "A few neurons die off every day in humans without any noticeable drop in performance, and yet if the same were to happen in a traditional silicon-based computer the results would be catastrophic." The work by Dr DeMarse and his team is attracting interest from scientists around the world. The US National Science Foundation has awarded them a $US500,000 ($A640,000) grant to produce a mathematical model of how the neurons compute, and the US National Institute of Health is financing research into epilepsy.

Ever just watch? Assign numbers and make calculations. Measure angles.

Measure attitudes, measure reactions.

Social interactions can be an art of a science. It's a beautiful thing. Why did they laugh? Who sat where? When did they decide where to sit? How long had they planned it?

Ever watch a tap drip? In total expectation and in anticipation you sit patiently and wait for for the drop to build and build only to its inevitable and repetitive destruction. It divides into 7 droplets as it splashes.

Why is one light slightly orangish when the rest are white? Did he choose to be different, does he know he is different? Why does his table have two napkin dispensers?

Could the imbalance of napkin dispenser distribution cause fluxuations in planned social interactions, in even the slightest manner? Joe who never spoke to Sally except to ask for a napkin dispenser could never have met the girl of his dreams.

...Ahh, to sit back and watch.

There are 5 types of button pushers:

1) Scared and inapprehensive. They see the button, but were taught well, "Never push the forbidden button of mystery". They come in on their own accord and generally want to know what it's about, but the button, OH THE BUTTON! They usually scream.

2) Bored. They've been scouting for the good rooms and haven't found any... Until they press the button! Watch their faces light up as their night is suddenly filled with meaning!

3) Repeat. "Seriously, check it out! Press the button!" They wanna hear how many songs this tree has inside him. Heck, they might press the button 4, 5, 18 times? They might even make requests and expect a programed electrical singing christmas tree to suddenly know new songs. Gosh!

4) Unimpressed. Walk in, hands in pocket, notice the button, push it emotionlessly, chuckle briefly and leave before the song is over. Boo-urns.

5) Tickled pink. They'd come in inquisitively, open-minded and a little confused, but shot out a hearty laugh and enjoyed the songs the tree would sing. They'd make compliments and politely leave after a few songs. My favourite kind.