I swear I still exist here, somewhere...
Things are crazy.. fun, but crazy... and usually pretty drunk, yes they are.

Oh hey, it's been awhile!

Hrm hrm what is new... well, for one, I'm almost done my first tattoo.. which is a sleeve! I don't like to do things part way, heh.

The 26th brings me to Montreal to see Adam Beyer, weee! Later that weekend the plan is to head to Stereo.

Tomorrow I will get up at 6, head to the gym. I'd been slacking off but starting last week I'm back on track. Feels good to be active. Then, being Friday, I'll work then head to the bars to drink away any health my working out has given me

Woo, I have to update more...

About my health, all is well... it's a long story but I'm out of danger

Work is insane. It always gets this way right before and after a release... last minute features and bugs before and fixing all the problems that snuck in after. ;P We;ve really got to rethink the way we;ve been working lately.

I just started my first tattoo. A sleeve - yep, I dive right in. Itchy. But so far I love it. Speaking of mods, all my piercings have been abandoned. Screw you, barbels that irritate my nipples and tongue piercings that threaten to make my gums receed.

I'm hoping to go out tonight... after this work week I need to relax - wait no, party. Sunday will bring a day trip to Montreal to see friends and hunt for vegan shoes.

Well that was a big disaster.
Amazingly, though, 6 days after a grand mal seizure I'm pretty much back to normal. With, of course, the residual need to find out exactly why it happened - I have a pretty good idea and for the most part I can prevent it from happening again, but the fact remains that I have freakishly high blood pressure, which is a serious risk factor. I don't fit the profile at ALL - I'm a healthy weight, I exercise regularily, I eat well (NO saturated/trans fat, low sodium, plenty calcium amd magnesium) So, I'm confused, and a litte worried.

Wee, this weekend is COMA in Montreal! Industrial isn't my favourite type of music, but I like some of it, and one good example is Iszoloscope, who will be playing. Some friends and I booked a semi fancy hotel and everything.. I usually stay with friends when I go to MTL, but this will be a nice change.

Project Weight Train is going well. I'm surprised how quickly I'm seeing results.

And last but deffinitly not least, today I was told I'm being offered a full time permanent position at work! Which is nice, because I was expecting to be a contractor for the rest of my life (such is the IT industry..).. yaaay dental plan! And right on time, cause I suspect I'll be needing these wisdom teeth out in the next 6 months or so. It's not official yet.. I still have a meeting with the president, ceo, and account... though I can't imagine a time where the three of them will be free at once. Maybe I'll even get a raise, ooo Here's hoping they don't ask me how much I expect to make... what a scary question

I've largely ignored this journal.. especially lately. I've decided to change that, this time for real ;P Also, I'm going to actually start readng my friend's journals. This did, however, necessitate a little list cleanup... I kept only those I know in person, met in person, or have gotten to know on here. I might decide to remove the second category too.. not sure yet. Just gotta make this list manageable.

So.. what's new with me? As last entry said, I got my comp sci degree, and got a job I really like. There are down sides.. like often being on call (2 weeks a month ), but over all it's awesome. Part development (yay!) and part client support... but at least we're top level, so most of the problems are interesting ones where I have to get into the code to fix. If nothing else, I'm learning a TON about the user's experience and seeing the software from a new perspective, which really helps me as a developper. Still, I'm hoping to move towards more development and less support, and most importantly NOT BE ON CALL.

So thats what I do all day... most evenings my time is taken up by gym things. Yep, I have a self imposed fairly rigorous cardio routine.. about an hour a day most days of the week, focusing on interval training. It's awesome. Exercise is nature's cure for mood problems, sleep problems, etc... just amazing. I've never had mood problems, but man, do I ever notice the improvement anyway.. and as for sleep, the reason I started working out in the first place, my insomnia has all but disappeared. My job is stressful by nature, and exercise fixes that up too.. I leave work in a state of " " sometimes but after working out... " ".
The other is my new personal trainer imposed strength training. I'm just starting with that, as well as trying to learn more about it on my own (any good resources for women's strength training welcome ). I'd been doing it half assed for awhile, but I decided that this was something worth spending the time and money to study more.. as to get the results I want and to avoid hurting myself.

On the weekends I mostly go out with friends (something I did far to little of while in school, so I'm trying to make up for it), sleeping as much as possible, and lay around doing nothing, spending too much time online doing nothing. Haha. I just need a break some the weekend... though I'm going to have to get my butt on gear and get on with project Make Home Less Repulsive.
Yep, my appartment is crap. Actually, it's quite beautiful.. it's my stuff tha is crap. I have to get around to phase 1: Buy all new furniture, then phase 2: paint ugly white walls something better. In addition to being lazy, I think I'm also putting it off for fear of making decisions I won't be happy with long... I'd hate to get a GREAT idea for the look of this place AFTER changing it. So far.. my plan is very modern looking things (Ikea-esque, metal where possible) for the appartment and white for the bedroom... medium blue walla for the bedroom and either more of the same for the living room, or a light/medium green. For the bathroom, a light peach. I have very high ceilings ( ), so I'm thinking of adding some kind stencil borders.. dreamy in the bedroom, vines or something in the rest. Yes, this will be a very girly appartment when I'm done Suggestions on any of this welcome.. I'm a complete decorating newbie. Seriously... at my previous place I lived in a barely furnished basement and kept my things thrown about on the floor. I'm trying to break my tornado habits and actually have a NICE place!

What else... I've been thinking of a tattoo for long enough that it really is time I go get it. I'm wary of making another monetary committment right now though, as what I'm thinking will be fairly expensive.. what with the gym/trainer fees, as well as the new furniture. I'll elaborate more on that later when I'm actually going to do it.

Sooo.... I'm done University. Wee! I kind of miss it... I'll likely not see such a variety of new things in work places. I can play at home, I suppose, but without the free equipment that work/school tends to provide, and without a prof to kick my butt into actually getting into it rather than blowing time on the internets.

I really should commit to a new project, though... for now, I think it'll be limited to upgrading Ubuntu to the newest flavour, and switching to KDE.

Heh, the problem, is time. Damn! It's true.. in school I put things off until after school's finished, but now that it is I still don't have any extra time. Funny how that works... er dedicate our lives to our jobs. Fortunately I like mine, it's right in my field too.. but seriously, today I went to work, came home, ate dinner, vegged while I digested, went to the gym, and now... it's 11:30 and I better start thinking of going to bed.

Is it weekends people DO things on? Cause OH HAY that's when I work at my second job! I suppose I should think about quitting... so sad, I love my coworkers there, it's a fun job, and I've worked there for over six years... but it's very much a part time thing for me, and since I no longer need the money...

Ok, that was a lot of complaining, On to something less sulky:
NYE was nice, a house party with good friends... instead of going to see Steve Lawler, which promised to run well into the morning hours and ve crazy. I'm glad I made that decision. Partially because I like my friends a lot.. partally because I took the partying thing way out of hand the night before

So, I rarely make New Years resolutions, but this year I will, simply because the timing is right for taking on some changes. One is to take the gym more seriously.. instead of 30 mins of sucky cardio and lifting light barbels a little like 2 days a week (man...) I'm going to aim for an hour of good cardio 5 times a week, and serious weights three times a week. Why? Cause muscles are hot More importantly, exercise seems to be crucial to my mood, coping mechanisms, and ability to sleep a full night through. Also, a side resolution to this is to sleep 8 hours a night. Not 5.
The next resolution is to drink less. Now seriously. I'm not a huge person... and the fact I can (and an willing to) drink a six pack and an undetermined amount of rum in the span of 4 hours is not a good thing. I'm pretty good on the hangover bit (training ) but I know it's not healthy for me physically, and it's deffinitly not helping me emotionally. I also wonder how I still have friends after some of the shit drunken Sarah spews forth Now that I'm no longer a student, I gotta cut the excesses out.

One presentation down, one more to go, two ~20 page papers,and three exams.. then I'm freee! The big free, too, and one comp sci degree richer. I'm somewhat concerned that I havn't been given a formal job offer for my contract in january.. (software dev at a neat lil company ).. though they did invite me to the christmas party, so I'm attributing it to an oversight. Still, something tells me I should look into that, but with this stress++, it just. doesn't happen :S

That said, with all this work, I'm taking a break this evening. This presentation today was really not that hard (I've been working on this thing for 4 months, I have plenty to say about it!) but it was MADE to be hard and stressful by the prof and his constant emails over the last two weeks reminding us and making it into a huge deal. A la 'Do not rely on ANYTHING working! Have your slides downloadable AND on disk AND on memory stick just in case something doesnt work cause then you FAIL FAIL FAIL DOOOM DOOOOOOMMM Strict marking, 20% fail!' So much, in fact, that I arrived at school an hour early after 4 hours sleep to make sure my files looked just as good in power point as they do in Open Office. They did, fortunately, aww free software, you're awesome

Oh yea, right, taking a break. I've napped (much needed) and swept up the fur tumbleweeds.. I have enough fur to construct a third cat :S Other much needed cleaning up. Now, off to the gym, as I have been sitting in this chair at this computer for like 15 hours a day for the last week. My body is crying for something more active than typing, haha.

Maybe I should update more.
But seriously, you don't want to know what I've been up to lately. It involves a lot of machine learning.. which is exciting to me but I'm starting to think it's boring to tears for everyone else. From, you know, my friends' reactions to all my bla bla bla.

I did see Richie Hawtin in Montreal a few weeks ago. That was awesome. So talented that I would like to eat his brain in the hopes of absorbing some of it. Wait what?

Uh.

My cats are...fine...

My appartment is... hot..

Canada is... cold...

My love life... does not exist..

And one of my favourite friends is coming to Ottawa this weekend
Too bad I have all this homework.

Slightly more than a month until I am one degree richer and some debt poorer...

I got nothin'.

Anyone fluent in Chinese care to help me for 10 seconds?

I have a little translating to do... or rather, just making sure I'm getting the meanings from the context correctly.

From here.

page 7 - exact translations of the english pieces to the left, I think, but which go with which?

page 14 and 17 - exact translations to the given words/senses?

Thanks