Awesome Weekend

Hello friends... sorry, again, about the lack of posting.

First, there was nothing. Then there was beer. And then Grum chugged that beer within 4 seconds, in honour of Andrew's and Joe's birthdays. Although Joe wasn't there.

I only did this once on Friday, but I still drank a hell of a lot. It started after "FATS" (Friday Afternoon Talk Series), which was a really good talk about the Permian-Triassic extinction (the largest known, during which 95% of species became extinct). We (about a dozen grads) went to the Grad Lounge for drinks and dinner at about 5:30, and it was good fun. At 6:30-ish I left to grab a quick shower at home and change, and then headed downtown to an Irish pub called "McCools", where Andrew (geo buddy from UNB days, whose birthday we were celebrating), Will (friend of his), and a friend of their's Leslie had been eating. After a couple of pints we headed to Rich's house (another new friend) for more beer, and drinking games, at which I had my boddington's (which is great stuff), and Andrew got really hammered on gin and tonics. Then we went down the street with a bunch of the other people who were at Rich's place, to a bar called [something beginning with 'T']-house. I want to say "Taphouse" but that's not it. Anyway, there I showed off my chugging talent, and everyone got thoroughly loaded. Andrew and Will especially, possibly since they had both recently split with their girlfriends. After leaving that place we went over the street to another bar called Molly Malone's, where we soon got kicked out because Will was mindlessly (but still deliberately) pushing glasses off the edge of the table and smashing them. He wasn't angry or anything, it just seemed like an interesting thing to do at the time... Being a good friend I helped Andrew home, and slept on his spare bed since the buses and c-train were no longer running, and I had no cash for a taxi. Saturday I wasn't too hungover (I was able to eat and keep down a huge greasy breakfast, which is unusual for me), but still tired and basically out of commission for the rest of the day. I watched bond movies on my computer (note: Timothy Dalton sucks as bond... he's too angry, not suave enough). I went to Will's place at about ten that night with all my skiing stuff, as we planned to leave at 6:30 for a ski hill 2.5 hrs drive to the south, called Castle Mountain.

The drive was clear, the day was beautiful. I have never seen snow like that back east.... even right after a serious snowfall. The problem back east is that the mountains aren't as tall or as steep, and they groom everything. This was the proper skiing through untouched snow... and I can honestly tell you it's very hard work. It puts a lot of strain on your legs, ankles, and back because you have to force yourself to turn in the deep soft snow. But it was the most awesome skiing I've ever done. Being unused to it I fell several times, but never badly since it's so soft. But the steepness meant that skis could fall down the hill a long way, despite their 'brakes'. For true powder skiing I need to get to one of these hills first thing in the morning after a big snowfall. Also I need my own skis, since the rentals were complete rubbish. They were heavy yet flappy, and the bindings were rubbish. Plus the edges were far from sharp, and they seriously needed waxing. The lack of speed didn't bother me so much, but the lack of good edges was quite concerning at times (eg when I failed to turn properly on the steepest slope I have ever skied, bar none). This, and their refusal to put the bindings any tighter than level 6, combined with my lack of experience with this stuff to cause my many falls.

Regardless it was an awesome day and I was super tired by the end of it. I slept solidly for like 11 hours last night. Pictures may be to come, but I fear my camera was (again) in the wrong focus mode for most of the day. I've done this way too many times. Another particularly bad time was the day shaggz and I went biking in Tuscany. I lost like 15 pics of tuscan countryside.

Was on the probe this morning, looking at muscovite. It took three hours to properly calibrate the machine, and pick our points to run. Then we found out that it was likely (due to very high Na in the muscovite) that the mineral was altered and would be useless for geothermobarometry.

Bah! Oh well. I have grand plans to purchase an xbox tonight, but I may chicken out at the last minute, when standing before it in best buy. They have a pretty good deal on the old ones; $200 gets you the machine, 2 controllers, and 2 games. One of which may be Forza Motorsport, which is presently my motivation for getting the system. I've tried out demos of most racing games available for pc, and the best physics models still can't reach the level of Forza. One more to try later today before going out is Need for Speed Most Wanted. I tried it in a game store a few weeks back but found the simulation totally unrealistic. With any luck there are different levels of driving realism (I found this to be the case in a rally game I got in January).

Sorry about the long post. I will endeavour to get back into the habit of writing more often, that way I can keep the length down.

Cheers!