56 Hours In Iceland - Sunday

We didn't have much time today, since Jason likes to be at the airport so early, we only got to spend the morning touring around (flight leaves at 3:30pm.) We headed north to Borgarnes to swim at the public pool (outside, heated with geothermal technology, large pools or soak in one of three different hot tubs of different temperatures, all with amazing views of mountains and the ocean.) This little trip also let us see more of the west-coast, and experience a pretty impressive traffic tunnel under a fjord.

Here are a few more shots from my phone:

Our Last Selfie In Iceland

Hafnarfjall Mountain behind Jason

I seem to be struggling to keep the horizon straight.

Jason And Good View Of Hafnarfjall Mountain

Seawall/Shore at Borgarfjörður Seawall/Shore in Borgarnes

A bit better with the horizon in this one.

A Different Type Of Anniversary

A year ago today, Steph left her engineering job to focus all her attention on her business Stephanie Beach Photography. It was a very brave thing to do, I was very excited for her at the time. Everything is going well, she keeps exceeding her goals and is producing beautiful work - she is also much happier. Congratulations Steph, I am very proud of you.

The Lost Summer

I ran across a video on Facebook called 25 Years of Summer Songs and all of them brought brief flashes of life back to me, except one. It was so strange to recognize each one, remember the song, reflect on my time during that year and then be confronted by a blank. It was jarring but I assumed it was probably an American list and that song wasn't popular here.

Then I thought about the year - 2004. I don't know if I would say it was the worst summer that I have had but it was a rough one: staying in Ottawa after my first year at Carleton in Engineering, to take summer courses. Working at a minimum wage job across the city that took over an hour and half on transit to get to. Dealing with a long distance serious relationship. Not many friends around because so many people return to their hometowns during that first university summer. However, that minimum wage job was at Extreme Pita, so that is full-time radio listening and I am surprised that the song didn't stick in my mind from that.

The song, Burn by Usher, seems to be pretty universally agreed to be the main song for the summer of 2004. While I recognize other songs from that same album, that one just isn't in my memory. I don't totally agree with all the picks each year, in 2001 I can remember Drops of Jupiter being a major summer song, but that might have just been personal experience. I might not be big on music but songs are still often a serious memory link.

University Is A Fight

---------- from Facebook

A very accurate three-part comic about life in university, grad school, and the workplace. I like the idea that post-secondary education is a daunting battle/fight - I totally felt that, especially in Engineering and during my Masters.

CHECK OUT the "Truth About College and Getting a Job" by Oliver Coakley from Insert Life Here

A List Of Random Updates

- I banged my leg into a radiator at Rrunuv Bayit and now have a goose egg on my thigh

- Two has decided it is fun to turn my bedroom into a big game of Minesweeper by climbing up on my bookshelf, pulling the push pins out of my bulletin board, and then scattering them all over the floor

- Kristen's recent birthday somehow meant two carrot cakes, one with nuts and, later on, one without

- My parents and grandparents were supposed to be spending the next two months in France by my grandpa hurt himself so they are spending a bit more time in England while he heals

- I joined a new/different gym closer to work

- Dave is in Toronto for a couple of weeks doing a waste audit for work but we are on opposite schedules so won't be able to hang out very much

- Thus far, I have been to one restaurant for Winterlicious this year and it was amazing

Steph's Many Hats

Steph got to be on TV the other day - she (or her hat) got caught on camera while she was on location as both as a participant in an awesome engineering project and as a journalistic photographer.In Ottawa on Friday, they started tearing down the South Side of Lansdowne Stadium. The company that Steph works for, as an environmental engineer, is involved with the project. One of the senior principals of the company requested that she come on-site to take some photos for them. CTV was part of the media who were also covering the event. So during the news for a split second you can see a white hard hat behind Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson (see red circle) and that is Steph! She was too short to get seen. However, I am very excited for her professionally - both as an engineer involved in this interesting endeavor and as a professional photographer attending a media event. Congrats Steph!!

And Where Am I?

Pathetic Public Self Pity Poetry

Lost in an electronic sea of equivalence.
Searching for superficial standards.
Caught in a current of digital comparisons.

Teri's teaching.
Kristen signed her contract, continuing her career.
High school peers are posting pictures of new puppies.

Taylor is tying the knot.
ERin has already had an anniversary.
A person in my program is friends with a restaurant proprietor.

Dave does testing for demolitions.
Steph travels to the States to attended engineering seminars.
Countless friends own cars.

Mike is managing his second mortgage.
Jenn's new position means prosperity and potential for promotion.
A bunch of friends are boasting about beautiful babies.

Working against the worry of imaginary worth.
Facebook makes me feel like a failure.
Lonely and looking for a life.

--- C.Sweeton, 2010

Guest Writer - How I Know Chris - Steph

From Stephanie Beach, writer of The Great Abyss
Photos by Stephanie Beach Photography:

Over the Years

As most of our friends know, I met Chris in the Fall of 2003. We lived together in residence and were both starting engineering, me environmental and her mechanical. But this post isn’t about how we met, as to be honest, it isn’t that interesting since it was a pretty typical beginning to a friendship. This is a collection of photos of Chris.
Pretty much since the day I first met Chris, I have been taken her photo. Either for memories or more recently for photography assignments, she is always eager to get in front of the lens. And since she is a wonderful and inventive model, I am always happy to shoot her.

My Poetic Friends

By JennB
To convocate is quite a feat,
Six years in the making for Chris.
She started as an engineer
But finished in worded bliss.

English is by far the better degree,
And to what we owe this poem.
But she made good friends on the other side
Like Steph and Dave and that guy from Rome

She’s lived all over the Glebe Lite,
In Le Manoir and Die Hohle.
Brought trusty Binx along with her,
And in his room her boyfriend had a pole.

Hummus will never be the same for us
And you so don't live downtown.
The K in Karleton stands for Kwality
I can see your labia through your gown.

This afternoon was about academic success
We hope you had a super day.
We also hope you've waxed your legs
Cause we're going to Mooney's Bay!

By Kate
There once was a girl named Christine
Who's culinary skills were obscene!
When faced with the oven
She did not feel the lovin'
And she'd default to a can of green beans.

(Note: Everything said in these poems is true, they know me so well.)

Geek Girls Unite Award

Heather gave me another blog forward-chain-award thing. This time it was a Geek Girls Unite Award which she won and then awarded to three people including... The Chris from Always Standing, who plays WOW, among other geeky things... Heather is proud of her geek status, myself not as much so. Mind you, while I hate e-mail forwards, the blog ones are pretty cool, so I'm going to try to befriend my geeky side at the moment.

So Here I Am!

Geek Girls Unite

List ten geeky facts about yourself

Pass this award onto your favorite female geeks

Ten geeky facts about me...

1. WoW - I play World of Warcraft. Come on, world's most-subscribed MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) people! I think it is awesome and so much fun, but definitely geeky.

2. Settlers - I love all games, especially card and boardgames. My favorite being Settlers Of Catan, which is a strategy game similar to Risk. It is a bit complex and very geeky, always hard to find people who will play with me.

3. Trivia - I love trivia, both in question or random fact form. Useless facts are super interesting and fun for me, which I guess is geeky. I also really enjoy Jeopardy.

4. Engineering - While I didn't stay in it, I did start my university career in Mechanical Engineering so I enjoy and have a basic understanding of advanced math and science.

5. Reading - I have always loved to read. I learnt at a very young age and have been reading ever since. This is what lead to English after Engineering fell through. I carry a book in my purse at all time.

6. XCKD - I enjoy a few online comics, my favourite being xkcd. I also regularly read Penny Arcade and Ctrl+Alt+Del.

7. Glasses - I wear glasses. I own contacts but rarely wear them, only putting them in once or twice a month for special occasions.

8. Museums - I absolutely love museums, of any variety. I can stay in a museum from open to close, the only thing slowing me down would be sore feet. I love to read everything in every display. I like to learn.

9. Russia - I have a thing for Russia and will be going on a big trip to visit it. Seeing Russia has been a dream of mine for more than 15 years. This might not be a geeky thing but it is strange.

10. Blog - I blog. Lastly, I figure that blogging is pretty geeky and I have been writing Always Standing for years now, posting regularly.

Pass this award onto your favorite female geeks...

Bloggers

1. Steph writer of The Great Abyss

--Engineer who has way to many personal Excel sheets

2. Anne writer of Four Litre Chocolate Milk

--Geographer who can rock The 80's look

3. Erin writer of Always A Mess

--Neopets Addict who has a thing for Anime

Honourable Mentions

1. Teri

--Who I'm sure does math for fun

2. ERin

--Who is both a geographer and Trekkie

3. JennD

--Who is big into the video games

Power

The Future of Farming
Wind Turbine at The Erie Shores Wind Farm near Long Point, Ontario.
By Christine Sweeton

Near my cottage is a wind farm. It isn't like the ones I have seen in the UK, which are fields solely dedicated to wind turbines in neat rows, but instead the windmills are dispersed over 25 kilometres of shoreline, scattered within farmers fields. Driving through it is an amazing and inspiring experience. I think they are beautiful!!

Sci Fi Course

I had my first Science Fiction class today. This is a course that I have been trying to take for the last four years. It is sometimes not offered and when it is it never fit in my schedule. Finally I was able to take it compressed this summer (July-Aug Semester). I am so excited, the reading list is incredible and will be so much fun. The class is really varied too, it has people from all disciplines including 3 or 4 engineers. The prof is a former T.A. of mine who should be pretty good. When I showed up in class there was already a group of people I knew from my previous summer course so we all started talking. Then my MComm Friend who was thinking about taking it showed up which was super exciting because I love taking classes with her. Also, we are reading Science Fiction novels and short stories. This course is going to rock!

The Eng Guide To Cats

While my engineering days are slipping further and further into the past, I still find my self drawn to the industry. Specifically the humour, it is just my type of humour. Even more than ever before I am loving and keeping up with XKCD and Penny-Arcade comics. Also, as always, I'm in constant search of people who will play Settlers with me. I wish I could abandon these parts of my life and fully embrace the 'Artsy' I am now, but that really doesn't appear to be the case. Ottawa Erin sent me the following video, saying that I would love it. Well, of course she is right, it is awesome and hilarious. I wonder if she sent it because of the cats or because of the amazing combination of engineering and cats.

Usually I don't post so many videos. I had a similar statement below about posting so many pictures. I do mean to write more! As an 'Artsy' I should be more of a writer. Mind you the previous posted video got no comments despite me writing about it as well. This one however is about cats and judging from how many people loved that old post about Cora, I think that this will be appreciated by all. Enjoy!

Flowcharts

I do love the flowchart humour, maybe it is a small leftover from my engineering days. There are tons of them. The Boy House used to have one on the fridge detailing, if you were Catholic, whether you could have sex. I wanted to have a huge post and just put as many good ones up as I could find, but four will do. Click on them to get a bigger picture. The first two are from xkcd and the later two are from an e-mail Ter sent me today at work. They both should have the title of 'What Goes Through Your Mind When The Opposite Sex Asks You To Have A Drink' (The last one is so horribly true. How do we all get so crazy? I'm definitely included in that.)

Back At It

I used to be the treasurer of the PDHS Students Council. I did it for the last 3 years of high school and it was alot of hard work. I was also involved in a number of other teams, clubs, groups, and committees. In university I started out small in terms of my extracurricular. I did a few volunteer shifts at Leo's, a student run shop in the engineering building. Then the next year I was a leader for Frosh Week, which was a ton of work, but just really for that one week. Soon after I joined the Carleton Cheerleaders which took the most time and effort of any other single activity I had done. Practice six nights a week is pretty intense. Since the cheerleaders I haven't really been involved at Carleton. Until today! I am now officially the Treasure of the Carleton Literary Society.

Maybe I Do

I went to a panel discussion tonight called "So You Want To Be A Lawyer" and it did not reassure me that I could write the LSATs well, get into a law school, be successful in law school, or even be a good lawyer. I actually went to learn more about what a lawyer does but the focus seemed to be more on preparing for and writing the LSAT or preparing for and applying to law school. Obviously I'm interesting in knowing about those things but I'm more concerned with what being a lawyer is like, what sort of specific things do they spend the day doing, what types of skills are needed to be good in law, and what type of people enjoy this job. I don't feel any better informed on whether this is something I should pursue, actually I feel a little discouraged because my marks are probably too low. Stupid engineering ruining everything.

First Official All-Nighter

I have pulled all-nighters before but there were never truly real ones. When I was young, I would stay up at sleepovers all night, but always returned home in the morning to fall asleep for the rest of the day. When staying up for other assignments, especially in Engineering, I often spent all night working on an project, report, essay, or lab that was due the next day. Usually I would get a least an hour of sleep in there somewhere, or I would work all night, go to hand in the assignment, then go straight home to make up the missed night sleep. Not this time, this time it is an official one. I woke up at 7:00am yesterday and came to work. I worked all day and ran home (the little 2k run I talked about in my previous post.) Then with the help of a lot of coffee, I then spend all night working on an essay, finishing up at 6:30am this morning. I came into work early and will spend the day here before heading to a 3 hour night class this evening, where I will hand in the aforementioned essay. While I would love to go straight home after class and crawl right into bed, I must pack for my trip, which means I won't be to bed any earlier than 11pm. I did it and the essay is done but I never ever want to do it again.

Iron Rings

It is hard to pick when to officially and publicly congratulate Steph and Dave on finishing their undergraduate programs, Bachelors of Engineering. Their convocation won't be until the spring, the diplomas will be given out in the new year and they finish school in a few weeks. Last week they were given their Iron Rings when they participated in The Ritual Calling of an Engineer. The pair are already wearing them on the little fingers of their working hands. So congratulations to Steph for her BEng in Environmental Engineering and Dave for his BEng in Aerospace. I know first hand how hard engineering is, I'm so proud of both of you!

Black Days

Today is 'Black Friday', named as the busiest day for shopping in The United States. I had been disturbed by the use of 'Black' for this day, as it tends to be reserved for more serious things. People then explained to me that it was called 'Black Friday' because it was when stores moved from 'the red' into 'the black', implying that they run at a loss before this date. Turns out this is a misconception and it was named 'Black Friday' because of it's busy and hectic nature back in the mid-seventies. I don't think it deserves this title at all. Black days should hold true meaning. Black days of the week should and do stem from massacres, riots, specific events of war, or terrible economic events. The most well-known would be Black Tuesday, in reference to the October 29th stock-market crash in 1929 that led to the Great Depression. The initial crash occurred a few days before, on the 24th, that day is referred to as Black Thursday. For me though, 'Black Friday', referrers to February 20, 1959, the day that Prime Minister Diefenbaker announced that the Avro Arrow project was cancelled. Named this by Avro plant workers, 60,000 of who were laid off because of this cancellation. At the time Avro was the third largest employer in Canada. After this many engineers and technicians left Canada to work in the U.S. starting what is known as the 'brain drain'. The announcement day for the end of the Avro Arrow is still considered the darkest day for Canadian engineering.

Tech Question

I'm fairly dumb when it comes to computers, surprisingly not the reason I left engineering though. I have been trying to watch Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip over The CTV Broadband Network, Ter would be proud that I'm keeping my loyalty to the show. The broadband is being slow, not even ridiculous dial-up slow, but odd 30 seconds of show and then buffering for 10 before starting again. Why is this happening? What can I do to make it better? Any ideas?