Thursday, September 15, 2011

Electrotonus

e•lec•tro•to•nus (noun)
the event that is described as the diffusion of an electrical charge that permeates the fibre of a nerve cell that has been depolarizsed.
Origin: Neo-latin (electro = electric, tonus = tention)

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It sounds like you have pretty great flat mates! I remember hearing about everyone except Mr. Business; I'm glad that you found so many great guys to room with this year. I remember you telling me about the asian guy; I'm glad that you'll at least be eating well this year, instead of that god-forsaken caf food. You can expect me to judge you on your cooking skill when the year is over ;P

School is starting to pick up on my end; I'm taking 19 credits this term, which is more than I've ever taken at once before, which is a lot, but at the same time, two of them are relatively easy arts courses (PHIL 120: Introduction to Logic and Critical Analysis and ASIA 100: Introduction to Early South and East Asia i.e. India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Korea) and another is STAT 200, which should be relatively easy because I did a ton a stats in my Analytical Chem course last year, but on the other hand I'm also taking PHYL 303: Honours Physiology Lab and the pure Biochem lecture and lab, so this could either be a really, really dreadful term, or a manageable one.

On the social side of life, things are both going well and not well at the same time. The BBQ was absolutely fantastic; it was a lot of fun, and we had a good time. The problems that I was having before are now completely resolved as well (the two of us had decided about 1.5 weeks earlier that we both needed a breather from each other, and so during the party everything was like before again, and after everyone else had left, we sat down and had a quiet chat together. We didn't talk about anything that had happened between us, but we did talk about some serious things, and when I asked about how things were going, I got some rather personal answers back; nothing too detailed, but personal/private enough to reassure me that I am as trusted as I was before. The fact that I am as trusted as I was before restores my own trust in our friendship, and everything is back to the way they were before the whole mess, for which I am glad. Everything is forgiven, and it's all in the past now).

On the other hand, because school has started again, I once again find myself plunged into a state of emotional neutrality, which is a such a contrast for how this summer has been. My life went from an emotional chaos to an emotional desert in a matter of days, and it's taking a while to adjust; this sense of detachment is especially hard after the humongous sense of belonging, love, and family I had over the summer with everyone. Even though we all hung out on Saturday, by Tuesday evening I was already feeling very lonely, and I so desperately wanted to hand out with the Twins, or you, or Froless Soul Boy, or my Old Wrinkly Wifey. The week just seems to have dragged on, and I just can't wait to see people this weekend.

I'm also struggling a little bit with the future. The last three years, this summer especially, has taught me just how dependent I am on my friends for my happiness and well being. I can't imagine life without you guys, and it's really freaking me out because in two years' time, I have to leave this city to complete my graduate studies at a different University. I think I would be able to survive a two years Masters degree, but I don't think I could handle being away for any longer than that. I love you all so much, I can't bear to be away from you all, and I especially don't want to miss out on this part of our lives. I'm trying to work out a way for me to get into the career that I want without having to be away for long periods of time. I'm thinking about the different options that are open to me, and I'm having trouble making a decision. I know that I don't really have to make one for another year or so, and I acknowledge the fact that there are many, many variable that I am unable to account for at the moment, but I still think it's important to think about these things anyways. These things are sometimes so polemical. I'll just keep praying about it and keep my heart open to the possibilities.

Regardless, I don't want to bother you too much with my rantings; sometimes I feel like I'm always just talking about myself and I fear that I am being selfish or inconsiderate.

I hope things are going well out at TWU! I can see that you are having fun writing for the Mars Hill and are excited to be back on campus. What courses are you taking this year? Any interesting electives? Your mini library in the hall made me giggle a bit; perhaps I may be able to contribute a tome or two.

I better get back to my work; I have to do some last minute prep for my Honours Physio lab this afternoon.
Take care and chat soon,
Tim

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Polemical

po•lem•i•cal (adjective)
of, relating to, or involving strongly critical, controversial, or disputatious writing or speech

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Tim, I'm glad to hear you're putting all that behind you. It shows both wisdom and courage to be able to set aside the past to focus on what's ahead. We can't change the past, but we have control over how it affects the present.

Actually, I think I said that before. Oh well.

Anyway, I hope you have a great semester and meet some real cool people in all your classes! I know you will rock it because you're a genius. You have brain power that makes mere uneducated mortals crap themselves in awe!

So, I thought I would just give you an update on my first few weeks at TWU, now that I'm living in an apartment now!

I've moved in with three real real cool dudes who, in Vonerdculary tradition, shall remain nameless. I will refer to them by their majors. I'm living with Mr. Human Kinetics who I knew from my dorm last year. He's a fun guy with great taste in music and an even greater sense of humour. He's currently working as the Trainer on the Spartans soccer team, so he's always at practices, ready to jump in to save the day if anyone gets hurt. He also has this thing that looks like it's covered in marshmallows that he uses to give massages to the team.



He gave me one and it hurt like a female dog, but I felt SOOOOOO good afterwards! It was crazy!

Anyways, down the hall in the apartment, we have Mr. International Studies and Mr. Business. Mr. IS was my RA from last year and he's a super cool dude. Together, we have assembled one of the greatest libraries known to man (that is placed next to a bathroom). It's such a cool experience to go to the bathroom and be greeted by my old friends Lewis, Tennyson, Austen, and Norton . . . Anthology of Literature. Also Nietzsche is there.

Mr. IS is also dating B's RA from last year, who is now the CF for B's building, while B is now RA in 4/5U while the RA turned CF GF is now living in F. All initializations aside, the bottom line is: B and this other girl now have weekly meetings together and afterward they are going to come over to our place for late dinner/snacks. I'm really excited!

Mr. Business only moved in a few days ago, but he's really cool! Apparently, he was in my brother's dorm three years ago when S was an RA and the first thing he said to me was that I looked like my brother, without even knowing we were related. He's from China in a town I know I will butcher the spelling of here. He's brought a whole bunch of awesome Asian food and he and I now have a deal where he cooks amazing Asian meals so long as I do the dishes. This is a pretty cool deal, except that I will have few opportunities to actually learn how to cook some sweet Chinese food.

So yeah, that's my apartment full of some cool guys!

Have a great week Tim!

I hope you guys had fun at the last weekend at The Wright's before school really starts!

See ya!

-Clayton

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Germination

ger•min•a•tion (noun)
to begin/commence growth and/or development; to come into existence, to begin
Origin: Latin (germinatus = to sprout/begin)

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back! The Vonerdculary returns for its second year after a long summer haitus! Clay and I decided that since we started this to keep in touch during school, and since we were both home for the summer months, continuing the blog would be rather redundant, seeing as we would be seeing each other all summer long.

Here we are at the beginning of yet another September, the beginning of yet another long school year, fraught with learning, exams, and more grueling work. It's time for part three, my friends!

Clay, to be honest, I was a little hesitant going into this September because of how stressful this summer has been, and I wasn't sure how I was going to fare this term with all of that weighing down on me, but in the past few days, I've just sort of said "You know what, this is ridiculous; I really just could not care less anymore." and I'm just not going to think about it anymore because it's going to cause more harm than good.

So being on Campus for orientation stuff today was rather refreshing, and I'm rather exciting to go back. Of course, I'm not looking forwards to the stress or the exams and stuff, but I'm excited to be learning again, to be exercising my brain, to be thinking about important things and issues; no more of this frivolous personal drama. I'm tired of waiting, because frankly at this point in our lives, we should all me mature young adults; I strongly believe that high school is the time of a person's life in which one should be doing their soul-searching; discovering who you are, who you've been, and who you want to be. It's the time of life when you're supposed to get to know yourself and the people around you.

It's just frustrating to know that there is one among us who did not do this in high school, and as a consequence, there are now high school-esque problems permeating our group when there really should be none at this point in our lives. Emotional immaturity at this age is intolerable, but unfortunately many people in this day in age go through their teens and enter their twenties without ever doing what they're supposed to do, and they go their entire lives with the emotion/mental maturity of a ten year old. I'm very disappointed that one of our friends has turned out to be one of these people.

Regardless, there is not much that we can do at this point, so there really is no point in my fretting over something I have very little control over, so whatever. At this point in time, I'm just going to try to be pleasant and wait and see what happens. Hopefully, the person in question takes this time to do the soul searching that should have been done several years ago, and if that happens, I will be very happy to resume where we have left off. If not, I'm just going to have to wait a bit longer.

The truth of the matter is that the events that occurred over the summer have been a gross betrayal of my trust, and if things are ever going to go back to normal, that trust needs to be earned back, and you are familiar with the extent to which my trust issues extend, so you very well know that it won't be easy. I mean, it's not like we're starting from scratch, because regardless of how I feel now, I can't deny that we've been friends for a very long time and that friendship has been a big part of my life. Because of that, I owe this friendship a second chance, in the name of our past; honestly, if it weren't for our past history, I wouldn't have given it a second chance in the first place.

Anyways, that's my little rant for today. I hope you are well out at Trinity, and that everything is going well. Good luck with your courses and commitments this term!

I can't wait to hear from you! Say Hi to B for me!
Tim.