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23 days to go. After reflecting upon the virtues of getting proper amounts of sleep and not eating takeout Chinese or Pita Factory twice a day, I've decided that my approach to this month has to change. From now on, I'll be experimenting with a strict 11-7 sleep schedule. I've also stocked up on snacks of the apples-and-carrots variety, and I took some time aside last night to concoct container-loads of pasta e fagioli and salad. I'll also try to set some time aside in my daily breaks for exercise.

The hypothesis is that, if applied correctly, this will increase my general alertness and productivity. As a side effect, it will likely contribute to a more psychologically-balanced state. This seems obvious; I'd wager, however, that most students faced with crushing workloads panic and go the graveyard-shift route, a path which I had been following up until last night.

So - 23 days to go, and may each be better than the last!

Rise and Shine

6:40 am - a record unmatched in the three months and change since I rolled off a plane from Tokyo directly into the flesh-piercing depths of the infamous Ottawa winter, only to greet the then-prolonged night at the sprightly hour of 4 am. This is not really impressive by any means - back in high school (a suitably Germanic name for it) I would routinely hoist myself from betwixt my covers ragdoll-physics style around 6:30 am to make the train for band practice.

Also a first for this term: pre-work training. I've started adding weight to my squats and situps, and am adding one-legged calf raises and pistols to my routine - as far as bodyweight exercises go, the unbalanced motions are spectacular for both strength and stability.

And now for something completely different: I made a trip over to Value Village this weekend to pick up some garb such as might befit one with a taste for the piratical. I'll explain later - say, about a week from now - in lurid detail both visual and prosaic. I will remark, however, that it has proven nigh impossible to source a tricorn in Ottawa, whereas a quick perusal of the Kensington-Chinatown stretch back in Toronto would effortlessly net me my sought-after accoutrements. Oh well.

Bric-A-Brac, Post-Weekend Style

Decided to try waking up earlier this week. Today: 7:20 am after one false start at 7:07 am. (Yes, I really do set my alarm clock for times like this - my favourite time is 8:08.)

Sugar is wonderful, maple sugar all the more so. I had the inimitable pleasure of visiting a sugar bush on Saturday along with the rest of my office; turns out the uncle of one of our programmer-analysts runs the operation, now in its 27th season of business. Nothing like maple sugar, maple syrup, and maple taffy in one day to mount a buffer overflow attack on your sweet taste buds.

Just found this cool animation off a link posted in a tweet from an ex-coworker; as explained on the video page, it uses data from this site. My $.02: I think all public services, utilities, etc. should be releasing data APIs for the general public to hack on. They could even release the data under a GPL-ish licence that requires any resulting apps to be made publicly available. They could even go one step further - simply hold an online vote to pick the top apps, then host them free of charge on their website. Help us to help you...

Edit: I forgot to post links to the sugar bush photos! Here they are. Additionally, here's some more pics as taken by coworker Boxing Chen and uploaded by the owner, Pierre Joanis.