I’ve been avoiding doing this, but after taking an awesome shower with my new awesome showerhead, I’m rejuvinated and motivated. Showering is no longer a chore, hoorah.

(Several minutes after putting my clothes on.) Ok, the rejuvination wore off.

Umm, here are situations where public smoking irritates me:

On my way to school on a cold winter morning, I get out of the bus. The way from the stop to the class is via a thin sidewalk and a half-hour subway ride. With subzero temperatures, I struggle to breath the thin frozen air. My fellow commuters transform from a bunched up clump of coats, hats, gloves and bags, into an orderly single-file line to fit the thin sidewalk path to warm salvation. We walk over the padded snow, we breath in what little cold air allows itself to be sucked in, and we walk. Somebody lights up a cigarette, now breathing isn’t so pleasant anymore. To walk around the pesky smoker? I cannot; the path is too thin and enclosed in icy snow. To fall back away from the fetid fumes? I cannot; the lemmings behind me push on. I’m stuck trying not to breath the air that was once thin and cold but is now thick with that pungent sour smoke smell. I don’t like it.

On my way home on a cold winter night, I wait for the bus. At the Go Transit station, the bus is idling in front of the stop, scheduled to depart in ten minutes. I wait along-side of the bus, as do my fellow commuters, for the driver has not arrived yet. We’re in single-file again - these are the times when you appreciate your thorough kindergarten training in single-file queueing. The man behind me chatters away on his cellphone to his significant other. The line is long and the unspoken rule requires us to line up ahead of time to insure good seating. Unfortunately, the man behind me lights up a cigarette while chattering away on his cellphone. Also unfortunately, the wind is blowing his smoke in my direction. The people behind him are saved, but I and the couple people in front of me shuffle around, trying to avoid the stream of smoke eminating from his mouth. Ack, the smell. I don’t like it.

My exam schedule, for your convenience:

CSC363H1F  TUE 13 DEC  PM 2-5 (Computational Complexity and Computability)
CSC324H1F  THU 15 DEC  AM 9-12 (Principles of Programming Languages)
CSC343H1F  MON 19 DEC  AM 9-12 (Introduction to Databases)
CSC369H1F  TUE 20 DEC  EV 7-10 (Operating Systems)

When this is all over, school starts up again on January 9th. I’m not sure what I’m going to do until then.

Let’s go back in time about 14 years. I brought home some flowers that I picked from the park nearby (I do realize how flamboyant that sounds, and I don’t remember why I did it - my mother’s birthday perhaps?). Anyways, couple days later, all is well, and there is a big stench. I sniffed my toys, I sniffed my clothes, I sniffed the closet, I sniffed whatever could be sniffed, for the longest time I couldn’t figure out where this, very distinctive, stench came from.

Couple of days later, I stumbled upon the flowers and noticed that they were the ones that reeked! Crazy huh? So I got rid of them, and lived happily after.

A decade and a half later, I noticed this smell in my home again. Without a second thought, I knew it was the flowers. Amazing how we learn, isn’t it? Seems like something so trivial, yet so useful.

Update: Am I imagining things or did the font size on this site decrease?
Also, you can now add feeds into your GMail account, it’s fun!
Settings -> Web Clips -> Search by topic or url: shazow.net -> Add
Fantastic, isn’t it?