So where were we? Oh yes, my living situation. I moved out of my apartment at the Mayflower with Nick at the end of April. At this point classes were over of course, but since I still had stuff to do to get ready for convocation, I stayed at my sister's place in North River for the first week of May. My convocation was on Saturday, May 8 in the afternoon. The ceremony was kind of boring and it wasn't exactly a classy celebration. When I got a program, I was disappointed to see that I hadn't won the Governor General's medal. Basically I came in second place. I know a lot of people would probably think it funny that I was disappointed, but I was. Eventually though, I realized that the winner was from the Faculty of Arts, and that made me feel better since Arts and Sciences are basically two different worlds. On the one hand, I was thinking this guy must be brilliant since it's really hard to get good marks in Arts, and on the other I figured that we're in different realms. The whole thing got me to thinking. People probably think that I've been pushed by my family to do well, but the truth is that my parents barely say anything about it, and they'd be proud of me no matter what. If there is any external pressure on me, it stems from the fact that I've always done well and it's come to be expected. But really, I'm the one who places such high expectations on myself. And I guess that's why I do so well.

Anyways, I won some monetary prizes, which is always nice. I got $500 for being the top computer science student, $200 for being the top science student, and another $200 for having the highest aggregate in a faculty other than that of the Governor General's medal winner.

After convocation, I headed home to St. Hubert with my parents, where I'm living for the summer. Luke and I hope to find a place in Toronto for August, so I'm only here for a bit over a month and a half.

Luckily I was able to get a dial-up internet account here, so that gives me a way to pass the time. It was a bit difficult to do, given the whole Aliant strike, but I was only home a couple days before I got it. Besides surfing and chatting at a snail's pace, I have a few projects that I've been working on since I got here. The first was to digitally edit my graduation photo. My sister took a really great picture of me, but it had a black background. So I masked myself and put in a patchy navy blue background. I also removed glare from my glasses and did a few other minor touch ups. I'll put it in the photos section so you can see it, in the Me category.

Another project I've been working on is refinishing my parents' kitchen chairs and table. I completely finished 4 of the chairs, and now I'm working on the 2 remaining chairs the table legs. The table top has always been covered with a table cloth and is in mint condition, so I'm not touching it.

I recall writing about some other things I wanted to do this summer. So far I haven't done much on those fronts... I've been on 4 bike rides, and I played my keyboard one day for a couple of hours. Haven't done any programming. I find that I don't do much computing other than chatting. It's hard to just ignore my parents and do stuff on my own when they seem so happy to have my company. Lately I have described my life as being on pause. I don't do much, and the days pretty much run together. I came up with a theory today though. I think I need to feel independent and in charge of my life in order to feel that I'm living. I certainly don't feel that way when I'm living under someone else's roof.

Oh, story! One day at home, I was looking at this picture frame on the wall, filled with a bunch of paper clippings. At the top, it says "30 Years of Memories" - it was a gift from my sisters and me for my parents on their 30th wedding anniversary. Anyways, the clippings have memories on them. After reading for awhile, I noticed a theme. A couple of my memories had to do with Mom tricking me! When I was little and my ears were dirty, I never wanted my mother to clean them. So she would tell me that I had raccoons in my ears, and she had to get them out. Worked like a charm every time. How stupid was I? The other memory was from my sister Paulette's first day of school. You see, I am the youngest, so growing up, I had to watch my sisters go off to school everyday and be left with Mom. Jeanne was the first to go, and if I had been older I'm sure I would have been very very upset, because I was just in love with her. She took care of me and played with me all the time. But when I was a bit older, Paulette went to school, leaving me with no one to play with. So I went on a hunger strike. Yes, I refused to eat. And I was like 2. So my Mother, being the cunning lady that she is, made a sandwich "for herself," set it up in front of her rocking chair in the living room, and told me not to dare touch it because she was "very hungry." She then left the room and waited until she heard me giggling, at which point she came back to find that I had devoured "her" sandwich, just as she planned.

I've started reading the Harry Potter books. So far I'm about two thirds through The Philosopher's Stone. This comes just after I saw The Prisoner of Azkaban movie twice. Once on opening night, and again a few days later. It's so great. I wish I was a brilliant boy wizard. If you've seen the movie, you have to read this parody that Amy told me about. It'll have you rolling on the floor.

I guess that's all the news I have for now. Quite awhile ago, I took some online quizzes. Here are the results:

You're The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

by C.S. Lewis

You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed
quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it
seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic
struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal
that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christian
theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust
in zoo animals.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

You're Madagascar!

Lots of people don't really know anything about you, making you
buried treasure of the rarest kind.  You love nature, and could get lost in it
whenever possible.  You're remote and exotic, and the few people who know you
value whatever they share with you a great deal.  For some reason, you really
like the word "lemur".
Take
the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid