Bad Dreams Continue

I had the worst of my bad dreams not too long ago. I dreamt that I was riding on the bus and got something stuck in my throat that was making it hard to breath. I couldn’t talk more than a mumble and people thought I had some kind of mental defect. They kept me held down on my back so I couldn’t roll over and try to cough up whatever was in my throat. It was the most annoying dream I’ve had in a long time.
In other news, I arrived in my new location fine. The city has changed quite a bit. At the moment, the plan is to take my sweet time finding a job. Tomorrow, I’m getting my resume reviewed. No rush to do things at the moment. I haven’t forgotten this being a planning year. It feels almost too soon to start doing all this stuff.
I’ve been wanting to start a science website. One that’s science for all ages, not just kids. Grown ups get curious too and sometimes it’s nice to know a little more than just reitterating signs in a museum display. I did a little polarized light thing that I should probably write up a little thing about. Though what I really need is a template, then I can really get rolling. There’s already a bit of brain storming going on about things that I can explain, or demonstrate. I found an old pair of 3d glasses in the basement, the polarized kind and used it as a filter to cut glare for photographing a turtle, that’ll probably be my next write up.
Anyway, sleep is required.

The Grand Dismantlement

It’s my last full day in Ottawa and it’s time to take everything apart. I’m filled with emotions right now. Not really sure where I’m going or why. I feel so lost and leaving here is a bit of a bitter sweet afair. Emptying my room always makes me feel depressed. Anyway, I’ve got to dismantle my computer.

Today’s Rough dream

The only thing that I really remember well about today’s dream is doign a lot of wlaking and my right foot was hurting. Later on, I noticed that there was some monsterous blister covering pretty much the whole sole of my foot and there was quite a lot of dirt built up under the skin. I decided that the best thing to do was cut the loose skin and wash the area clean. That’s pretty much the only thing that I remember well about my dream. My feet are fine, I the dreams are getting annoying.

Rough dreams

I’m not sure why, but I’ve been having a lot of bad dreams lately. Sometimes it’ll be something that has already occurred except there’ll be something that keeps it from happening the way it did. Other times, things will go well up to a point and the dream will repeat over and over again. Yesterday, I dreamt that something was keeping me from my last exam. During the dream, I was all worried graduting on time. Of course, I did make it to all my exams and I shall be graduting with distinction once the paper work settles. I’ve forgotten what happened in the dream the day before that.
Today was an interesting dream. It starts with cooking supper. The kitchen is occupied so I conjure up something neat to prepare and go out to get a few last minute ingredients. So off I went, some people follow along. It turns into a walk along a beach and along comes a stair case built next to a steep water fall. The last section of the stairs is a little sloped and more of a ramp. It takes a few times and a running start. Eventually the path leads to a house at the top and I relax for a bit with a few friends. We head out to a shopping mall. The stores are closting and this is about where I get the feeling that I should try to do something to change the outcome. During the first round, I stuck with them and the stores closed. An alarm sounds and there is hysteria as demons start attacking. The second time, I was watching a little more closely and noticed some lady runs off with a TV. The third time, I split off from the group and stay with the lady. When the alarm sounds, there’s no more demons, just people running. I chase after her and see an employee going after her as well. There’s a small flat pannel TV in her bag but when she’s stopped she pulls a cheap portable CRT from her shirt and looses herself in the crowd. Very cleaver.
This sort of stuff has been going on for quite a few days now and I wish it would stop. Bad dreams have been getting really annoying.

“Pennies cost money to make. The price of copper has shot up over the years and what do you think pennies are made of?”

I hear strange things on talk radio every day. This is another of them. There was a discussion on the usefulness of a penny and whether or not it should be eliminated from circulation. The host and callers decided that the penny was useful, but it was costing quite a bit of money to make, more than they’re worth. It was also mentioned that the price of copper has been going up and the host retorically asked what pennies were made of expecting us to see some kind of link between copper prices and the price of producing a penny.
Of course, I had a slightly different reaction. I immediately jumped up and said, “Zinc.” According the the US mint american pennies are 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. It took a bit of poking around to find what the canadian penny was made of. According to a CBC article, “The new [pennies] are 94 per cent steel, 1.5 per cent nickel and 4.5 per cent copper.” There’s very little copper in these. Now that the composition of the penny has been established, does the price of copper have any more of an impact on the cost of producing a penny than the price of energy, the cost of labour or depreciation of the manufacturing equipment.

Scared of Change

There are so many big changes coming up in my life right now. I’m really not sure how to react to all of it. I’m done school, I’m starting work, I’m moving and it’s been highly recommended that I buy some property once I get to Calgary. Housing prices have really been going up in calgary lately. Though I’ve been told for years that it should be going down any time now. It’s a mater of the older generations selling off their property to help fund their retirement. That doesn’t change the fact that I still need to live somewhere though. I was kind of thinking of sticking to my parent’s place for a while though. The next generation, my generation is also staying with their parents for longer. I guess many of them expect housing prices to go down too.
As for other stuff, I changed my resume a bit, added a few things. I now mention all my lovely work dabling in robotics as a hobby. Is what I’ve done useful to any degree? Not really, but it shows that unlike other grads in my program, I don’t run around lost when it’s time to hook the hydrualics up to a digital electrical computer. I’m gunning for a job in the tar sands. Some of the things I’ve learnt about defining the problem might come in handy there. I’m not going to try to marginalize my skills but my primary area of expertise is mechanical stuff. I can appreciate the whole thing, but I would feel very uncomfortable sizing an actuator, hooking it up, building the controller board and coding it to perform the required task. It’s a rather huge task.

To Do List for the Day

My day got off to a late start. Last night someone told me that I really should relax a bit more. I’m not really sure what to do to relax. The trouble is, that I haven’t really done much recreation in a while and all sorts of things are keeping me from doing things that I want to. I’ve been meaning to go down the canal since I got here, that isn’t going to happen because getting a boat means that I have to move it back to calgary. Things also cost more here due to taxes. So I’m not about to get a little inflatable to drift for a while. Though I’m really impressed by those people who build from one sheet of plywood and wind up with a miniture that’ll carry themselves and pretty much nothing else. One day I’ll give that a try and probably wind up augmenting my design with outriggers a sail and maybe a fiber glass coating.
I don’t really want to go shopping since there isn’t really anything I need and I’m getting rid of stuff anyway. Well maybe I could use a crank up flash light and a stapleless stapler. Those are the only things I can think of getting before leaving here. For what it’s worth, I just hate the term retail therapy.
To a certain extent, pretty much everythign I do right now is something that I’m doing for myself. Cleaning up now, means things will be less hectic when I move and so on. There are few things I do that I can’t be happy about down the line.
I suppose my to do list for the day consists of:
getting food
getting a photo of the foxbar
picking up the last few things I want from Ottawa
get my resume online and have a look at a few jobs out there.
start cleaning up my room

The Value of Money

I’ve had a rather full day today. Started by helping people move for four hours. Got $40 from it. Then I went to a BBQ for a while and when I came back, a couple approached me and told me about how they were from out of town then had a daughter in the hospital. A charity had paid for some of their expenses but the transportation broke down. They told me that they had about $30 and it would cost about $70 to do the trip by cab. Money is nice, but at the moment, I think I’ve got more than I need so I gave them the $40.
The rest of the way home, I was thinking, once the paperwork for my new degree is done, I’ll be making over twice as much money. With a little luck, I shouldn’t have to worry about my personal finances again.
Also, I’ve got to figure out what makes me happy. A while ago, I learnt that having money isn’t going to make me happy. I was told that it should be treated as an engineering material. View it as something that binds projects together and has a scarcity resulting in a desire to optimize its use. Eventually what I do with the money should bring some happiness. In my experience happiness can occur with very little money, but it always takes some.