Blog Archives: December, 2004
Pictures from Europe
Glenn and I at the top of the Schilthorn I may not be travelling as much as I used to, but that shouldn’t prevent you, my dear readers, from seeing the far-off sights of Europe! After an extraordinarily brief 5-month delay, my photos from my trip with Glenn are now online. We wrote about our journeys last July and August, detailing our exploits in England, Switzerland, Vienna, Bratislava, and Prague. 
Ready to go mining But only a few pictures from England were posted. Now you can see us climbing the Schilthorn in Switzerland, visiting palaces in Vienna, tracking through a mine in Bratislava, and touring Prague. And you can go back to see our bike trip in England.
Have a studious holiday!
No, you’re not reading that wrong: I’m wishing you a studious holiday, not necessarily a happy, joyful, relaxing, or non-studious holiday. Because I’m going to have a studious holiday. My last exam was on Monday. Tuesday I went to see a Barenaked Ladies concert in Toronto at the ACC and had a great time, but my holiday jubilation was cut short: I had a paper due today at noon that I had to finish. Which I did. So I’m sure you’re thinking, dear reader, that I can relax and enjoy the holidays. But no: I have another paper due on January 4. Which just happens to be the day school starts again for the winter term. Yippee!
Perhaps I’ll take tomorrow off from working on school work, and maybe you should do the same; so Merry Christmas to you and yours. Eat turkey or pyrogies, sing songs around the piano and cuddle up around the fireplace. Enjoy the holidays!
MEF $2,000,000
MEF cake Today’s edition of the University of Waterloo Daily Bulletin is carrying a photo and blurb from an event last week I organized: the student-run Math Endowment Fund reaching $2,000,000 in principal. 
MEF with 80% more Stebila I’m currently on the Board of Directors of MEF (my only committee involvement these days!) and was the Director of the fund a few years ago; vigilant readers will remember this picture from back in the day.
Start of the end
Today is the beginning of the last day of classes, even though the last day of classes doesn’t end until Monday. (Today I have my last Tuesday/Thursday class, and then next Monday will be my last M/W/F class.) Although it will be nice to be done classes, there are lots of projects left to be done and that will take up a lot of time. One project isn’t due until January 4, so no holiday for Douglas.
I spent last weekend at home in Windsor visiting my parents. On Sunday I dropped my parents off at a party in London (Ontario) before continuing on to Waterloo. The party was for friends of the family celebrating both a birthday and a wedding anniversary: she was celebrating her 90th birthday and they were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary; wonderful! My parents and I also went shopping in the States to get me a brand new 60GB iPod photo. But, Douglas, I’m sure you’re saying, you’ve already got a nice iPod, you don’t need another one. And right you would be, were it not for the conditions under which my previous iPod was purchased. Have a seat, and let me tell you a story. Just over 23 months ago, my parents got me an iPod for Christmas. When they purchased the iPod from CompUSA in Detroit, they were also talked into getting a 2-year extended warranty for about $60 more. But this was no ordinary extended warranty: “bring it back in 2 years and we’ll replace it for a new one” was the gist of it. And in that gist, there was no proviso about the device being broken: “just bring it back to get a new one”. So we thought, what the heck, why not? If it really was too good to be true, we’re not out too much money. So now, just under two years later, we went back to see if we could indeed trade my old iPod in for a new one. And much to our surprise, we actually could! The full price of my old iPod was applied to the purchase of a new one, and for an extra $100 I could get a 60GB iPod photo instead of a 40GB one. Brand new. A useful extended warranty? Who’d've thunk it?
