Happy Spring, everyone! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past couple days, and I've been feeling rather good the past little while. I haven't been out to enjoy it much, but I hope to start getting out a bit more in the near future. I will certainly need to get out on my bike lots. I'm a bit out of practice, and in just under a month I'm doing the Becel Ride for Heart. I'll be riding 50 km on Sunday, June 5th to raise money for the Heart and Stroke foundation. They close down the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway for us to ride on, so it's going to be exciting, because those highways are normally off-limits for cyclists. If any one is so inclined, you can actually sponsor me online. I'm doing well. So far I've raised $250!

So my mood is improving as of late for a few reasons. For starters, I recently finished up my semester at school. My exams went okay. There were no stellar performances on my part, but that was to be expected, because I really didn't put much into my studying. At this point, marks don't really matter much to me. As long as I pass I'll be satisfied. (Though good ones still do get me excited - remember that ray traced image from last post? I got full marks on the programming portion of that assignment.) In one course, my term project was basically a disaster, but the professor (who also happens to be my supervisor) suggested that we just turn the project into an investigation into some software we'd been using. So my partner and I pulled a couple of near all-nighters completing a poster and a project report for the course. It's all over now, and I think we'll have done okay. I'm also finished (I think) with my TA duties for the semester, unless I get called in to help with marking the final exam.

Another reason for my lifted spirits lately is that I have so much to look forward to this spring. There's the Ride for Heart, which I already mentioned. Around the same time, Chris is coming up to Toronto for a visit. Now, there is a special reason for his visit. On June 7th, we're going (along with my friend Dave as well) to see Alanis Morissette in concert! She's playing at the Hummingbird Centre for her Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour. I've been a fan of hers for so long, yet I've never seen her in concert. So it's going to be great. I fear I may get a bit emotional. Opening for Alanis will be Jason Mraz, another crooner I quite enjoy. I should also mention that in November I'm going with Dave to see Jann Arden at Massey Hall. That will be another great concert to look forward to. (Dave is a huge "Fann," and he's actually going to see her twice when she's in town.) I'm not usually much of a concert goer, but by that point I'll have seen Scissor Sisters, Alanis, and Jann in concert! Woot!

But the fun does not stop there! I've been planning a trip home to PEI, and so the current plan is to travel back with Chris. If all works out, we'll stop in Moncton to visit with Bride for a couple days. I have a few things planned for while I'm at home as well. My high school friends Louis and Kim are getting married. I'm still figuring out who I'm going to take as my date, but hopefully I'll figure something out because they're trying to keep the wedding small, and consequently if I don't bring a date, I'm not going to know many people there. Another activity planned for my time at home is a family trip to Rainbow Valley, an amusement park in Cavendish. This is the last season it will be open because the owners have decided to retire and sell the land to the government, which plans to sell off the amusement equipment and put in some recreation trails. This is very sad. Everyone from PEI has wonderful childhood memories from Rainbow Valley. Every spring, schools have year-end field trips to the park. It's such a great tradition, and I don't know what they'll do from now on to replace it. I mean, there are other parks, but to me they don't have the sense of wonder and magic that Rainbow Valley does. Anyways, I'm glad that I'll get one last chance to enjoy it.

I don't have my travel arrangements made yet, but I hope to get that done soon. I should be home for about two weeks, and I'll probably be back in Toronto for the last weekend of Pride. The arrangements depend on a few things. I've applied for a summer TAship, so I kind of have to make sure that it's okay for me to be away at that time. (My heart is set on this trip though, so I can't imagine me changing much about it because of a TAship.) It also depends on when Bride has time off of work. I'm sure it will all work out though. I kind of wish I could be home longer, but as it stands, I've decided to keep going with this school stuff. So that means I've got responsibilities.

I have been taking it easy for the weekend, but now it's time to start tackling this whole "thesis" thing. My plan is to do some reading and poking around here and there to find a thesis topic. If I can get that done before I take my little vacation, that will be awesome. Then I'll be ready to dive in to my background reading and get this thing rolling. Something I'd also like to do is read a few of my classmates' theses, because I've never actually read one before. All I see are conference papers mostly. It seems like a month is a long time to pin down a topic, but it really is going to be a difficult thing to do. I'm unsure how large a masters project has to be, for one thing. Another problem is that sometimes in computer science it's hard to know if your idea makes sense until you actually try it. But you can't just try it, because doing so would probably take months of programming. Hopefully my supervisor will be able to help me with this, but I'd like to come up with a few of my own ideas before we meet to discuss a thesis topic specifically.

Although I've been feeling better lately, I did feel somewhat alone this weekend. Ainsley just headed to PEI for the summer last week. It also happened that my friend Erik left for Sudbury for a week on Friday. So I just lounged around and did some chores around the house... nothing too strenuous. Tonight I watched Saved!, which Luke had rented. I must say it is an awesome movie. It's very funny, and I must say that Jena Malone and Mandy Moore are both excellent actors. Oh, I also made a pretty big to-do list this weekend, and I did some work on this site. You'll notice there are some new photos posted, and there are more to come. In addition, I have a ton of ideas for things I want to do with this site, as well as a long list of topics to write about. So that's all for now (it's getting late!) but I'll have more soon.