• Grand Canyon
• Bryce Canyon
• Zion National Park
• Valley of Fire

Hey, I'm getting better.  Less than 50 photos in each set.  Out of a total of 2.12 gigs of photos, that's not bad at all.  I guess the next time I get bored enough, I'll go back and add in a couple more shots..

Damn, has it been a year already??  Hehe, it's so much less exciting living in Waterloo, but somehow I manage..

(And yes, I've found a new use for this blog, posting photo links!  How useless, but at least I can avoid mass ICQing everyone.)

We finally had our post-convocation get-together Thursday night, at Esther's place.  It's all rather silly, really:

• Five of us drove to North York (Finch Subway Station) from Waterloo
• Five of us came from other points in the GTA (Downtown TO, Mississauga, Etobicoke, Richmond Hill)
• Only one who lived in the area was Esther, and Michael, but he doesn't count
• It was a work night

But then, people just like to complain when they don't lift a finger to help plan in the first place.  We could have done it in Waterloo, but who can host it?  Not I, my place lacks furnishing and entertainment.  Jerry practicularly lives in a retirement complex.  Why can't we do it on a Friday?  Esther (and her house) won't be avaliable, and again we run out of places to host it.  My house in Brampton?  Perhaps, but I've never entertained parties at my place before, my house tends to make people with weak immune systems sick.  Plus we don't have flushing toilets..

Besides, Esther offered a great guided tour of her house.  Dry sauna in the bathroom??  That's just sick.

The fact that it is likely that particular group of people will never be at the same place, at the same gathering, ever again, is sort of depressing.

Oh almost forgot the best part!  We got back to Waterloo at 2 AM... we left at like 11:30!  We started off circling area, going from one highway entrance to another, and finally got on the 401 close to Yorkdale Mall.  Then came the lane closures close to the 427, down to one lane, with a stalled truck right before the merge.  Damn, if it had broken down in the one lane road, we would have been screwed since both sides of the lane were surrounded by those cement blocks.  They also reduced 401 down to one lane at Milton (yes.. again!!), but by then, it was after 1 and there was no congestion at all.

Now what to on Canada's Day?  Roadtrip!!

Yes yes, that's what everyone's been blogging about for the past few days.  Five years gone, money gone, all I got is this stupid paper, blah blah blah.  Perhaps it's because I pass by the University on the way to work every morning, or that I can see Dana Porter from my bedroom window, the realization that I'm never going back to school there has not sunk in yet.  Or maybe it has, I just haven't acknowledged it yet.  It seems too much like another coop term for my liking.

So yes, convocation was last Saturday, with the mathies in the morning at 10 am and the engineers at 2 pm.  I attended both.  The afternoon one was more disorganized than the morning one, prolly due to the extra mathies hanging around.  But the majority of the mathies also stayed until the very end of the ceremony, after getting their hood.  The engineers, on the other hand, all seemed to have left.  I think it's because the engineers have more social bonds with one another, and took what is probably the last opportunity to see some people to get out and socialize.  Mathies, on the other hand, tend to only know a small network of friends, and so have less motivation to hang around.

I didn't know UW had a mace..

Slowly settling into new home in Waterloo.  I thought that once school's done, I'll have tons of free time.  Not so.  I've had no free time since moving in on the 5th.  It's work all day, then running errands, making dinner, cleaning, and oops, it's 11:30 and time for bed.  Hopefully once everything is settled and bought and furnished, I will be able to relax.  Man, it was never this bad during school terms!

New place stinks of fresh paint and Ikea furniture.  Did anyone else get the free $20 gift card from Ikea in the mail?  Starting to think we were the only one, or perhaps people just tossed it as junk mail without opening it.  Suckers!

Uploaded another album of photos from the new place.

Uploaded from a couple of photos from Hawaii, from my unsorted collection.  Haven't gotten photos from everyone yet, and I haven't even bother categorizing my own collection.  Hence, didn't even label most of the photos.  Whatever, once I'm settled into new apartment in Waterloo, and I have some free time, will upload the highlights to ImageStation, with informative captions and full story, I promise!

It's really hot this weekend at home.  Didn't think it was this bad all week in Waterloo.  Dare I hope that it's actually cooler there?

Convocation is next week, followed by Father's Day on Sunday.  I guess I'll be home for another weekend.  Blah to my free time!

Work's ok.  Sadly lacking in other female co-workers though.  Sigh.

Gah!  I half squished a giant ant thing an hour ago with a sandal, and then left the shoe in the bathroom to run a quick errand before I flush it, and forgot about it.  The poor thing is still alive!!  It's an ant!  But why do I feel so guilty??

Didn't realize that Washington has such a distinct smell (of nature, evergreen trees, etc) until I came back and rediscovered it.  Pretty much indulged in all the West Coast-only food places, such as IHOP, Dick's Burgers, and Cheesecake Factory.  It was good to walk around the old MS campus again.

Hotel parking fee sucks.  Hotel internet fees sucks.  Really high gas prices sucks.  BC prices are over a dollar.  For the first time in my life, the dollar value for gas was higher than the litre amount.

Whistler still has decent skiing for May.  Their spring conditions are still magnitudes better than Ontario hills.  Blah!

Also got to stay in a hotel room decorated entirely in Ikea furniture and accessory, but without the matching decor.

So tomorrow's the flight to the West Coast, will be there until May 5th, and then it's off to Hawaii on May 8th.  I think I've printed out half a ream's worth of maps and stuff, and this trip is just a week long!  Perhaps I'm over-doing things a bit with the planning, but it sure beats wandering around lost.

Going to have to leave the Hawaii planning up to Lairon and KD.  It's really not so much the lack of confidence in their abilities, but more about me wanting to decide where to go and where to stay and what to do, that's making me want to plan the Hawaii trip during the West Coast trip.  But I don't think Michael's gonna let me.. Hmmm...

Blah, have to wake up early tomorrow to go to the bank, since I got there at 4 today, and it closes at 4.  Sheesh!

Gah, so Seattle trip's more or less sorted out.  Flight's booked, hotels are more less booked, good thing too since we're flying on Tuesday.  Once more, Priceline was our friend.  I wonder how end of April skiing at Whistler is going to be like.  And actually going on a tour of Boeing, and Museum of Flight, places I didn't manage to visit in the eight months I was there..

Hawaii trip is also coming along.  We've decided on which islands we want to visit, and for how long, and hopefully Travelcuts can arrange some cheap flights for us.  Going to Oahu, Big Hawaii Island, Maui and Kauai.

Definately going to check out a Lu-au feast thing, traditional dancing, buffet...open bars.  Yup, something for everyone..

Housing is still iffy right now.  Our first choice is taking forever to get back to us.  Really need to get this sorted out by the end of this week.

Tomorrow is the last day of exams.  The poor souls who are stuck with an exam on the last day would finally be done.  The house party last night lasted until 7 am, I hear...  Card games can go a long way I guess.

And so officially concludes another major stage of my life, and in fact, the major change from academics to the professional world.  Five years’ gone, and everything is one big blur.  I had no idea what I expected five years ago, but I think I’ve made the right decision in coming to Waterloo.  I also think CS was the right program for me, even though I seem to know more engineers than mathies.  (And it’s not like I had the marks to get into Engineering in the first place!)

Co-op is probably the best thing I got out of the school, though it has good and bad points.  Good in how it really prepared me for life outside school.  Bad in that it made it dislike school.  Like, school was like a burden, since you only spend four months on it at a time, so you basically get stuck in the mentally of getting it over with, and you don’t care about school or the subjects much anymore.

Back in first year, I had no expectations at all, or imagined where I would be when I gradate.  Frankly, even four months ago, I had no idea this is where I will end up.  I live my life going with the flow, and taking the opportunities given to me, adjusting my goals and directions as I go along based on the current path, instead of working towards a specific destination.  Given time, I am very thorough at analyzing my current situation, but I am horrible at future planning.  With a life philosophy like mine, there is little point in creating definite goals, as whatever direction I was originally heading in can spontaneously change.

Coming into this program, I never imagined I would be working in the States.  But I took the opportunity as given, going with it and preparing myself for working at Microsoft full-time.  Then came the Hotmail term, where I learned many valuable lessons, and the value of the social aspects of life, if you will.  Then the flow tells me that MS is not for me right now, so I re-evaluate my situation and priorities accordingly.

The past month was another grilling process of self-evaluation, to seriously consider what I want out of life, my career, my goals.  It’s funny how I never thought about these topics in great details, and it’s not until I’m confronted with these questions in an interview that I lack any clear ideas in this area, which is pretty ridiculous considering how I was deep in the process of job hunting.  How can I really search for a job without understanding what I expect from it?  Indeed, interviewing has become some self-realization exercise for me or something.  I also realized that any decision can be justified in some way, which is good enough for me.

Then other opportunities presented themselves.  MS wanted to fly me back for another try at SDET.  My old Exchange manager changed groups and was looking for new members.  I got two offers in one day, one in Waterloo and one back home, in Mississauga.  And then I got on-campus interviews with Google for a dev position.  I was forced to make some difficult decisions.  We'll know shortly if they were the right ones.

But what really boggles my mind is how quickly things can change in such a short time, and how even the tiniest circumstances can make such large differences.  If MS made an offer during my last term, I would have taken it.  If my old Exchange group had headcount, I would have gone there.  If I hadn’t gotten sick right after Hong Kong, and was all miserable when doing my Graphics assignment, I would not have considered dropping Graphics.  Or if I was unable to switch into UI, I would have definitely been in a different situation than I am now.  If I had to stick with Graphics this term, I would have no spare time whatsoever, for job search, for activities (and activities has such interesting consequences)… And I would have probably ended up on the West Coast, instead of turning down free trips to Redmond and Mountain View because I’ve signed myself up for another few years at Waterloo.

Hehe, what have I gotten myself into indeed!

It's probably not a good idea to be maintaining two blogs, but it's all the same right now since I've been neglecting both.  March already, then it's April and freedom.  Nothing new on that front.  No job, barely looking.  Work in States?  Work in Canada?  Big company?  Little company?  No work and become a hermit?  I am sort of fond of the last option...

Went to Vermont for skiing last weekend, four days road trip to Killington, to make full use of our reading two days.  Unfortunately, our reading week also coincide with the American President's week, or as the kids call it, "Winter Break".  So everything was more expensive than it should have been.  I got new boots.  Better upload some photos to justify this entry.

So all the engineers got their iron rings last week.  I want one!  I heard rumours that live chickens were released, but haven't heard anything about it since...