I'm Dreaming of a Brown Christmas

Hey all,
I know it is boxing day, I haven't had much spare time over the holidays to much of anything really. It is Dec 26th and i still don't have all of my christmas shopping done! How bad is that!?!?!

Other than that christmas went off without a hitch. On christmas eve, i worked at the Glenrose in food services. Luckily we got off an hour early, so i got home and was able to relax for an hour before the mad rush to get ready for christmas eve church began.

After church the family always gathers at my Aunt Debbie's house for a party. She puts on a buffet and everyone drinks themselves full of christmas cheer. The weather here in alberta has been amazing, for the past couple of days we have been above zero. getting 8 degrees celcius at the end of December is very out of the ordinary. everyone one was outside in only shirts and sweaters. All the snow, as a result, has melted and everyone one in Edmonton got to have a brown Christmas this year.

Christmas morning was a bit different this year at our house. We all slept in rather late, then we had breakfast before opening presents and even our stockings! this was because my Gran and cousin Dorelene came out to celebrate with us. everyone did really well this year.

As per usual, at about 3pm everyone headed out the door to head off to my other Grandma's house for a huge Christmas dinner. Good times were had by all. There was lots of great food (i ate myself into a turkey coma before the night was out), good company, kareoke, and even a poker tournament. Great fun.

Now i am currently at work, doing the stock counts for the Glenrose, I'm almost done here, and will be heading out boxing day shopping right away. so to everybody who reads this, I hope you had a merry Christmas, finde some great deals boxing day shopping, and have a very happy New Year.

Rob.

Rob in Blue Stripes

Rob in Blue Stripes
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

To date, becauase of the bear and long people have said that I look like:
Shaggy
Scruffy McGee
Grizzly Adams
"Embrace The Yeti"
A Cave-Man
A Pedophile
and a Serial Killer

No word of a lie, these are things people have told me to my face. I'm beginning to wonder if people are laughing with me or at me.

Life Thus Far

It has been a regular end of term week for myself. Last friday i Wrote my EAS 294 exam. I studied two straight days for that exam too. I think i did rather well, however there were a few things that i wish i had payed more attention to whilst studying, and i might have done better.

The exam was on a friday, i then had the rest of the weekend to study for my french exam the following monday. We had to write a poem in french for the exam, i'll post it here when i get home, right now i'm at work. I like what i wrote, i think it was clever and witty. It is all about what one needs to do in order to study the french language.

I was called into work on the saturday, to work the evening shift. I don't mind this shift that much when i do not have oodles and oodles of homework to get done on the weekend. Then I arrived home, got myself something to eat and then set about the task of writing my french poem. I was having major writer's block and finally, at 1am, decided to call it quits and go to bed.

Sunday, I set down to studying form my french final at 11am, by 1pm i had my french poem written in a rough draft. I revised for the remainder of the day and in the evening went through it and corrected all the grammatical errors that were present. there were many.

Monday was the last day of exams! i wrote my french final, i fell i did okay in it. Not the greatest but i don't think i failed it. I then met up with soem friends who were also finnished their exams at the same time. we went for Beer and lunch at RATT (the Room At The Top)It is one of my favorite bars in Edmonton, has a pub-like atmosphere and a decent selection of beer, but best of all it has a great skyline view of Campus and greater Edmonton, as it is on the 7th floor of the Student Union Building.

I then spent the remainder of the day wandering around campus waiting for my father to finnish work. It was then that i decided that i will try my hardest to find my own place to live in the new year. I know i have said this before, but i'm determined now more than ever to do so. I honestly feel like i am 15 again. I am beginning to act like a 15 year old. I am beginning to resent my parents and my family, simply based on the fact that i fell like a prisoner in my own home and a leech who has to get permission to do anything that involves leaving the property. Hopefully i will be able to make it work.

On tuesday, i resumed working, i'm really happy as i am working almost every day of the three weeks that we have off from university. I'm also experiencing the pangs of the post uni life. granted i'll be back in 3 weeks, but i really don't know what to do with all this free time. I love having my evenings empty of coursework and studying, yet i also feel somewhat lost. what do i do with all this freedom? End up sitting at home watching TV until its time for bed that what.

So now it is wedneday and i am going christmas shopping tonight while i wait for my mother to get her massage. again another reason why i need to move out, no more waiting around for parents to do their crappy errands.

Things are only going to get worse when my sister and Martin get here and need a car to do some sightseeing and wedding planning. They're going to throw another wrench in the already barely-functioning mode of transportation that is my life.
woah, this e-mail of my week turned out to be one bitter rant on transportation. sorry about that....Merry Christmas Everyone!

La poésie

C’est un grand-chose d’étudier une langue nouvelle.
Les habilitées d’expression est une chose belle.
La langue française est très riche et un peu complexe,
Avec les mots étrangers et l’accent circonflexe.

Le passé composé, le présent et le futur,
On doit étudier l’art de conjuguer, bien sûr.
Le subjonctif n’est pas facile, même pour l’imparfait,
Mais les comprendre, et vous serez plus-que-parfait.

Pendant qu’on étudie la passionnante langue française
Il est indispensable que vous connaissez
Robert. La dictionnaire anglais-français est utile,
Trouver un mot qu’on ne comprend pas est facile.

La process d’apprendre une langue est longue et dure,
Mais les competences vous aider dans le futur.
Alors, bonne continuation dans les études culturelle,
Un conseil, ne oublier pas la Bescherelle.

I'll Do Graffiti If You Sing To Me In French

Procrastinating when i should be studying, sound familiar?

I've been studying for my EAS 294 exam for the past two days and i have been doing really well. I'm actually quite proud and astonished at how focused i have been over the past two days. Granted there were times where i was like "fuck this shit i've had enough" and then i went and buggered around for a couple of hours when i should have been studying instead, but on the whole i did manage to get a lot of material covered. Problem is i didn't give myself enough time to go back and actually learn what it is that i covered. oh I'm sure it is in my head somewhere and that it'll all come out during the exam tomorrow, but i don't feel prepared and having that confidence is what can make or break an exam. I do tend to wind myself up unneccessarily, this is something that i really need to work on. I guess that is why i am typing here instead of writing at my desk. I need to calm myself and get myself into the studying mood. I've got another hour before i should head to bed so maybe i can get some high quaility learning in before bed.

But seriously, i'll do graffiti if you sing to me in french.

Mountains

Mountains
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

this photo is for those of you in England. I just wanted to show you all what a real mountain looks like. I've been to the lake district and climbed your mountains and i have to say, in all honestly, that they plae in comparisson to the majesty of our Canadian Rockies.
I've said it before and i'll say it again, in Canada, we don't do anything small....anything!

Pull the Trigger and the Nightmare Stops

Why is it that when i have a deadline drawing near i can focus on one thing for well over 13hours straight, but when i know i should be working to meet that same deadline a couple of weeks in advance i can barely even put the potential topic into words?
Is this some kind of fucked up game i subconsciously like to play? Lets see how little i can do for as long as possible and then get everything done (half assed i might add) within two days of handing it in?
I know that i don't like it. Do i keep doig it simply becasue i can? What about working hard and doing the best you can do? Doesn't that count for anything? not in my mind apparently.
Maybe i just work better under pressure. It definitly focuses me. I spent all of 10 minutes this morning trying to comprehend one tiny aspect of this one paper i read for my essay, when i would have normally spent an hour trying to understand
it.
I do know that i am happier when i'm busy, when my free time is limited. when if somthing doesn't get done when it needs to be, there won't be another chance to make up the time. There is another thing for me to bitch about later, time. I am obsessed with time!
enough with the ramblings of a sleep-deprived university student! i'm sure people have better things to do than read my few disjointed thoughts.

Hung Up

My titles, generally, have absoutly nothing to do with the content of my entries.
I've still made no progress on my essay. I got a paragraph done yesterday. Today i hope to write 3 more. I'll probably be awake for quite some time.
Fuck.

I Must Be Going Out Of My Mind

I've decided to skip classes today to work on a paper. Normally this would not be something to write about, many University students do the same thing all the time. I, however am feeling rather guilty for doing so, and i have no idea why.
I skipped class all the time at Lancaster. Well, not ALL the time, but much more so than i do here at home. Never gave it more than a "I really should go to class, but i'm hung over and sleep is much more educational."
But Here, at home, i don't know. I have to travel probably 10 times the distance to get to class than i did at Lancaster, I don't have the flexibility to go home whenever i want, and it is -14 dgrees outside, who wants to travel in that?!
There is more to it than just that and thats what scares me. its happening all over again, this is why i've decided to stay home. I hate becomming dependent on people, this is why i need the distance. To skip class and work on my paper.