Winter Driving in Columbus

Winter driving in Columbus is a hazardous affair. They really have no clue about snow removal in this city. Last snow storm 5 hours after it had finish a major highway still hadn't been plowed. Unlike at home they have salters and plows but they don't seem to have plows that salt or salters that plow. When they do plow it seems to be one plow just pushing the snow back and forth between two lanes, they don't work in teams like they do at home.

But the most dangerous thing is the people driving. Last storm 80% of the cars on the road that I saw didn't have their back window clean. Of those 80% I'd say about 30% of those only used their wipers to clean their windshield. Didn't bother to clean their side windows.

We are expecting ice this evening so I'm going home and staying home after class. Friends of mine who live in my building have a nice view of an intersection and any time there is a storm they sit and watch for accidents. So tonight I'll bring the popcorn.

Quick Update

Girls team played Colorado on the weekend we lost both games. Have two exams tomorrow Math and Spanish, been studying. Too cold to go out and take pictures. Saw Marley and Me on friday, it was good but they seem to leave out a lot of the good stories that are in the book. Running to Math lecture.

Back to work

So I picked up a job with the web department of the Office of Research. It's a student posistion that is 15-20 hours a week, updating websites. Should be nice and easy.

Went to the Blue Jackets game last night, a friend got a bunch of free tickets and considering I live around the corner from the arena it only made sense to go. Jackets won 4-3

Going to try and take some pictures this weekend.

Week 2

So week 2 begins. And it started early. I am an assistant coach for the OSU Women's Club Hockey team. http://www.osuwomensclubhockey.org and we have 6am practices every Monday. So it was pretty hard to keep my eyes open in Spanish class. Nothing much to report for the weekend, except we got our storage space so the condo is a bit less clutered.

Saturday was a pretty crappy day with freezing rain so didn't do to much. Got lunch at the north market which is a smaller version of the St. Lawerence Market in Toronto. There is a really good pasta place there.

Once we get a nice day I plan on taking some pictures of my area and of OSU to share.

The Do Over

Well week 1 of school is almost over and I think it went pretty well. I only ended up in one wrong classroom but I'm saying its not my fault. My schedule said room 0040 so I went to the building and I see rooms 004 and 040 right beside each other. I figured ok well my sheduled class has 2 zeros on it so I'll go to that one. I was early and was just sitting there when I heard someone ask someone else what class this was and it was Stats and not geography so I left and went to the 040. Apparently all classrooms have an invisible 0 in front of them which shows on your schedule but not on the room itself.

So I'll quickly recap everything that has happened since I left on boxing day. So after packing up and saying goodbyes I headed to the border. I get to the border figuring I'll be there about 2 hours. After a brief panic that they won't let me in due to missing paperwork. I'm on my way (2.5 hours later).

So on Saturday I moved into the condo I share with my Uncle. The old tenants still have stuff in the storage room so our living room is piled with stuff and our balcony is taken up with hockey equipment.

On Monday I headed to OSU for check-in, I checked-in was told come back later for an immigration session. So I come back for the immigration session. Basically it stated that I have to maintain 12 credit hours and can work at the school for 20 hours a week.

Wednesday I get to pick my classes, so I come back on Wednesday to meet with my advisor to pick my classes. (note most students picked their classes in November.) In order for me to start taking science classes next quarter I had to get into Math148. Well of course all the Math 148s are full so I get put on a waiting list. Long story short I ended up getting into my math class, (thanks to a good tip from a friend) which is good because the class I was put in to maintain 12 credit hours would have driven me nuts.

So my schedule is as follows
Spanish Monday to Friday 8:30 to 9:18
Math Monday to Thursday 10:30 to 11:18
Geography Mon, Wed, Fri 12:30 to 1:48

Classes are going well, just need to play catch up in math as it's been 14 years since I've used it.

Off to do Spanish Homework

Driving the bus to Hell

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Eigth Level of Hell - the Malebolge!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Extreme
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Extreme
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Extreme
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Extreme
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very High

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

Who needs Sea World?

dolphin-1
Originally uploaded by rogotron

I just came back from a great vacation in florida. While on a boat cruise by Le Barge (located at Marina Jacks) in Sarasota bay, a local bottlenose dolphin decided to put on a bit of a show. I was able to snap off a few photos of this event. And a friend of mine got it on video. If you listen carefully you can hear the captain of the boat being all excited. He had never seen anything like this.

Package for whomever (or Finders Keepers)

So last week I sent a package out to my nephew for a late birthday present (ya I know I'm a bad Uncle but that's a different post). I sent the package out via FedEx through work because it would get there quickly, or so I thought. I shipped the package out on Monday and on Wednesday it said it was released at the residence (meaning the left it on the porch) Well that is issue one, because on a FedEx Waybill there is a section that says if you wish this package to be left without a signature sign here. I didn't sign this area! A few days go by and I haven't heard from my brother or sister-in-law. So I call and leave a message asking if they had received the package. They call me back and say no they haven't.

The following Monday I email FedEx to find out what happened. I get an answer on Tuesday, turns out the package was delivered to number 258 instead of 241. It was left on the porch. If FedEx had just left a package pick up notice like they were suppose to then the neighbours wouldn't have gotten the package.

The package arrived last Wednesday, that means for 6 days these people have had this package. Why they didn't walk the 1/2 block to give it to my nephew I don't know. Maybe this person isn't capable of leaving the house. Then why didn't they call FedEx and let them know of the mistake? Some people just suck I guess. But wait what if they didn't look at the address on the box. Well the personalized note on the inside might have tipped em off that it wasn't for them.

So kudos to finding out where they screwed up. I get a phone call saying they've found the package have talked to the people and are going to pick it up and deliver it to the right house and get this "if no one is home to receive the package they will release it". Ummm hell no you won't. As they have already screwed up and "mis-delivered" as they call it, and the fact that they weren't suppose to leave it in the first place there is no way I'm letting them away with it again.

I call customer service, I explain to the woman who answers the phone, what's going on and give her the tracking number. She puts me on hold and says she is going to talk to the person who is handling my case, why she didn't just transfer me I don't know. So she tells me it's been found and will be delivered and will be released. I say it's not suppose to be released I didn't authorize it's release. She then asks me if I'm going to be home, I say I'm the shipper and I didn't approve release. She then tells me it's up to the driver to release it because it doesn't have a declared value. Strike two! Yes it does have a declared value and no it's not up to the driver it's up to me as the shipper. I then ask her what the purpose of the release section on the way bill is for? At this point the woman is starting to get angry at me. She then tells me if no one is home they will have to go to the depot and pick up the package. (Well duuuuh) I just respond "I know, that is what I want!". She says "Fine, I will call and tell them not to release it." I said thank you.

She just hung up.

Giant wall art

While surfing the web I came across this interesting program. http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/
The program allows you to take an image and format it to be printed on many pieces of paper to create wall sized art.
How cool is that?

The gallery page needs a bit of work, it's hard to see the images people have done, but you get the idea.
http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/gallery.gas

So I'm going to cover a wall with the following image just in case some pesky coyote starts chasing me then I can run down the tunnel to escape but if he tries, he will either run into the wall or get nailed by a train.

Of course I'll have to print it at work when no one is looking.

JPG magazine is holding a contest for the coolest rasterbator photo. Rules state you must have taken the original photo that you rasterbate. Check it out http://www.jpgmag.com/themes/19

What's in a name?

I use squirrelsoup as my online moniker for almost everything I do. Often people ask me "squirrelsoup? where the hell did you come up with that?". So I am now going to explain where squirrelsoup came from. Many years ago when my great grandmother was living in Poland during the second World War, there was often a shortage on food, especially meat. So people had to make due with what they had around them. One thing my grandmothers family would have was, yes you guessed it squirrel soup. My Grandmother brought this recipe over with her from Poland, but here the squirrel was replaced with salted pork. Below you can find the original recipe.


2 Cut up squirrels
¼ cup Chopped onion
3 tablespoon Margarine
½ cup Diced celery
½ cup Diced potatoes
1 teaspoon Salt
½ cup Sliced carrots
⅛ teaspoon Pepper
3 tablespoon Flour
3 cup Water
¼ cup Water

Brown the pieces in the bottom of a pan with margarine. Then cover with 3 cups water. Season only with salt and pepper so as to maintain the distinctive natural flavor. Simmer 1 hour. Add onion, celery and carrots.

Thicken with a smooth paste of flour and 1/4 cup water. Cook an additional 15 minutes.

If you believe this story then I have a bridge to sell you. I just thought of the name one day and it made me laugh.

It's a start

Ya I know this place is a mess but I'm re-decorating. So for my first post I'm just going to start with a funny video. This is Brendan Shanahan making fun of the Ottawa Senator's players who always do interviews on exercise bikes.