THANKS DAD

So I'm at my parents' place for the long weekend. Less than 10 minutes after arriving, my Dad passes a message off to me.

"Mark, from the Internet phoned," he says.

"Oh, Mark from the Internet phoned? I didn't know the Internet had a phone number," I replied.

My Dad then passed me a phone number along. Turns out it was my old ISP calling. I wonder what they wanted.

Anyways, my point is, it's always interesting when I come home from school.

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MY BOOKIE'S NAME IS VINNY

Here's a newsflash: higher education does not come cheap, it's nowhere close to the definition of the word "free".

To help the situation, I've come up with three options: get a part time job on campus, spend less money on things, or start betting on hockey games.

Obviously, the third choice consumes the least amount of effort and time. Plus, the payoff can be bigger. My venue for betting? Sports Action BC my friend. Nothing like provincial government sanctioned betting.

I feel I'm fairly informed as a hockey fan, but I'd like to know who you'd pick on certain days. Here are a small selection of games over the next two days. My pick to win is in bold. What do you think?

Friday

Nashville at Washington
Boston at Minnesota

Saturday

Minnesota at St. Louis
Detroit at LA

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PEOPLE ARE TALKING

Ever enter your name into a search engine? Yeah, sure you have. Who hasn't wondered if those naked pics of you have wound up on the Internet?

Anyways, last night I wondered how many sites have started linking to mine. Sadly, the results were not that fruitful. However, I did find one messageboard that had a link to my site. I took a screenshot for you all to see. By the way, though it says, "Star Wars nerds", it does not specifically refer to me as such, though they wouldn't be wrong either... ha ha ha. By the way, don't bother with that link you see, I've moved the file.

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HEY, DON'T I KNOW YOU FROM SOMEWHERE?

So today I'm walking to CICSR to go and sign out a book. On the way there, I cut through a parking lot. At the ticket dispenser, I see this guy. He looks a lot like a guy I used to work with. His name is Doug Smith, and we both used to work at this place called Cypress Solutions. While it was supposed to be a product development firm, it actually was a faithful recreation of the fiery depths of hell.

Anyways, I'm not too sure if it's Doug. During the summer, I went hiking and I saw this guy who looked a lot like Doug, and I gave him a long, hard look. It turned out it wasn't Doug, and I just looked stupid. However, this time, this guy is looking at me like he knows me too. I get closer, and I'm sure it's him. He's the first one to speak.

"Erwin."

"Doug."

We quickly get up to speed on our present situations. He's working for a small medical products firm. I tell him my story. We don't mention Cypress. Just as well I suppose. He tells me he's here to meet with some people over at the Metals and Materials building. I leave him to his meeting, but before I do so, I pass along my e-mail address. He says it'll be hard to forget an address like mine.

Doug was a good guy when I worked with him. I hope he contacts me. Geez, what if he's reading this now? Doug, e-mail me.

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READING THIS MADE ME SAD

This article let me know I'm not alone, but man, what a bleak outlook!

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ROYALTY SIGHTED!

On the weekend, I was made aware of the Queen's visit to UBC. I wasn't really sure if I was going to see her.

She was scheduled to visit the campus during the only class I had on Monday, right at 3pm. So, 3pm Monday rollls around. As I walk to class, I notice, the ceremony is literally right next to the building where my class is. I'm thinking it would be a shame to be this close to the Queen and have to miss it because of some stupid lecture that I'll forget tonight.

I get to class and I sit down with my 310 buddies. Jonathan and Curtis seem lukewarm about seeing the Queen. Chris goes, "Any reason to skip class is a good reason". The class starts and George, our professor, says, "Let's leave early to see the Queen". A good sign.

Half an hour goes by. People are leaving now to rush outside. I see cops outside the window. There are motorcycle cops which probably means a motorcade. Chris and I get antsy. "We're missing everything!" I say. One girl rushes back into the classroom. Even though I'm at the top row of a huge lecture room, I see her mouth to her friend, "Oh my God I saw the Queen!".

Chris has had enough. He packs up and leaves, with me closely behind. Outside, it's a zoo. People are everywhere. Cops are too. One barks at us to get off the road. We do.

We approach this fenced area which I later found out was where Her Majesty had gotten out of her car. Had we been there 15 minutes earlier, we would have been just a couple feet away from her. Now, I'm not sure if she's still there. Chris is taller than me, and he spots the podium in front of Koerner Library. "Dude, there she is" he says.

I crane my neck to get a better view. And there she is, distant though distinguishable, the Queen of England is in my sight. There are speeches by Dr. Martha Piper (the president of UBC) and our illustrious Premier, Gordon Campbell. Don't tell anyone, but I think people dislike that guy.

Then the Queen gets up to unveil some plaque or something. Soon after she gets up and I can't see her anymore. And that was it.

Curtis and Jonathan join us later, but she's gone by now.

I can now say I've seen the Queen of England with my own eyes. Now if I can only say I have all my reading done.

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LET'S PLAY "YOU MAKE THE CALL!"

So I'm going through the Internet like most people do, and I stumble upon some girl's modeling web site, again like most people do.

She seems pretty serious about modeling. As I peruse through her portfolio, I notice one of her sections is labelled "vintage". Intrigued, I take a look. The section contains a few pictures of her that date back a few years, but most of them seem very recent. I start to wonder why she would call them "vintage". I go back to her portfolio and look at some of her "other" sections. Then, I go back to the "vintage" ones. It's then that I notice something. For your convenience, I've taken a "vintage" image and placed it next to a "recent" image. Click on the comparison image for a closer look.



Do you see what I see? Now, it's true I don't have all the facts. There is a chance in the realm of possibility that she might have experienced a sudden, um, natural "development". I don't have all the facts, so it is a possibility. Then, there are other "possibilities" that might be attributed to this impressive "development". However, I'm going to keep this classy (ha ha ha) and leave that up to your imagination.

I've been taking this course in fuzzy logic, where inferences are made based on incomplete data. It might be a stretch to apply those concepts here, but I'm going to make my own inference. What's yours?

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