David Spears

My friend David Spears passed away this past Sunday. For those of you who don't know his story, he was in a car wreck a little over 3 years ago which caused him to spend a number of months in intensive care and then to be wheelchair bound. He has been in and out of the hospital and therapy since and last week was once again admitted to the hospital with seizures. He went to be with the Lord on Sunday afternoon and the funeral was held today. My deepest condoleces go to the family that he leaves behind him. I only wish I could have made it down to be there with y'all in this time of sorrow.
Please pray with me for his family, who have spent so much of the last 3 years of their lives taking care of David, as they go through this difficult time.

Love and prayer
Dave Westy

4 hours. That was my sleep time last night. 5 hours the night before and 6 or less every other night this week. Do you think that is why I'm tired? Coffee is my friend folks. Work has been going ok. Its not very exciting stuff and I don't think I"ll be learning much this semester, but I'm getting some pretty long hours and making money so I guess I shouldn't complain. But then again I'm tired and grumpy so I can use that as an excuse. I pretty much stand around and do nothing all day long except write a few things down and keep an eye on the work to make sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to do. Rather boring...Especially if there is no one around to talk to or its raining and I'm standing there getting wet or when I only get 4 hours of sleep and almost fall asleep standing up. On a positive note: Coffee is my friend.

hmmm...What else is going on in my life? Not too much actually. I get home from work, make supper check my emails talk for a while and then go to bed. The place I am staying at is working out very well. My landlord is Ryan Kidd and he is a great guy to be renting from. The atmosphere here is very good although the food my Chinese roommate like to cook sometimes doesn't exactly smell like food, but overall I am having a really good experience so far.

you'll have to excuse any errors or idiocies (yes that is a word ...I was excited for a minute there cause I thought I invented a new word) wow that was mean...I can't believe I just said that about myself, but anyways, I'm going to claim that they are due to sleep deprivation although you probably won't believe me. So since this post seems to be getting progressively worse and I don't seem to have anything to say I'll just stop talking and bid you all a fond adieu.

Bed Time!
Dave Westy

Long time no see

Its been a while since I've had a good internet connection and a lot has happened since then. My little old Escort blew its head. Yes I agree...That wasn't a very nice to do, but it did it anyways. Tim and I tried to fix it:








But it was a piece of junk. So I bought a new car instead. A Mazda 626:

Its got a lot of kms but hopefully if I drive carefully it will last me a while. *cough* it does peel though *cough* I don't know how I know that.

Of course buying a new car means that I had to pay for it somehow and so I spend the last week and a half working for my dad on the new machine shed he's putting up.

this picture is actually from before when they were putting up the rafters. I was working on getting the steel on the roof, but I don't have any pictures of that. Notice the usual Westerveld care for safety. All of us have safety harnesses and we don't ever do things in a way that isn't prescribed but the book. Oh well, nobody's died (yet) so I guess its ok.

I also started my new co-op job at DCS in Markham so right now I am unpacking all my stuff and trying to get settled in here and bemoaning my fate. I have to leave for work at 6:15 tomorrow morning. Yes you heard that right 6:15. 6:15 folks. That Sucks. I don't like getting up that early. At all. Sigh. Well I guess I'll get back to my unpacking and try to get to bed on time.

Enjoy sleeping in
Dave Westy

DONE!

DOOOOOONE!!!!!!!! Exams are over! I'm done for the term. No more studying, no more I tell you, no more. One more term done and gone, Now its time for me to go party before the realities of a broke student with a broken car sink in. Woooo hooo. I'm done!

Dave Westy

2 more done

Organic is done!!!!!!!! so is Heat Transfer now. 3 down...2 left. I'm over the hump people. I can see the light at the end of tunnel, but I have an exam in 17 hours, so back to the books.

Dave Westy

One away

One Exam done....Organic tomorrow!!!!!

Death

Last night I found out that a girl I used to work with at Staples was killed in a car accident over the weekend. Little Sherri and I did our training together and used to hang out and joke around all the time. She was so much fun to be around and so full of vitality and life that its hard to even get my mind around the fact that she is gone. It truly was a tragedy and has made me stop and think about death. Death is not part of the natural order of things, it is something that has come upon us as a result of sin in this world, but it is nevertheless a very real thing and this accident reminds us once again that we really have no idea when we will go. She was on her way to work on minute and dead the next.

It truly is sobering to think about. What will happen to us when we die? I'm sure each and every one of us would like to think that we will go to heaven or some place like it, but Jesus tells us in John 3:16-20 that only those who believe in him will spend an eternity in heaven with him. I would like to encourage each and every one of you to think about that for a minute. There are a lot of things in life that are important but what are they compared to eternity? What do the 70 or 80 years that you'll spend on this earth mean compared to an infinite number of years spent in eternity? Take a few minutes today to think about the most important thing that you can think about; your eternal future. God sent his son Jesus Christ down to earth so that you and I could be saved from our sins and spend an eternity with Him in heaven. He also promises that if you believe in him you will be saved. What does that mean to you? Are you one of His? Take a minute to answer that question, it could be the most important question you ever ask yourself.

Dave Westy

Classes are over

I finished up my last day of classes for the term yesterday and now the stuDYING begins. In preparation for my studying I went through all the assignments that I have back to figure out which course I need to focus on. I aim for an 80% average on my courses and based on that I calculated how much I need to get on each final:

Course:	Current Mark	Mark Necessary on Final for 80%
Advanced Math	85.8	74.3
Organic Chemistry	55.7	90.4
Heat Transfer	93.2	71.2
Materials	86.3	73.8
Thermodynamics	76.5	82.3

So there you have it folks...Who thinks I need to spend a bit of time studying for organic? Maybe a better calculation for that is what grade I need to pass the course (47.6% in case you were wondering) Anyways, back to the books

Dave Westy

Wal Mart: good or bad?

A lot of people have problems with Wal-Mart, but really it has a been a great thing for us. I mean who doesn't want the same thing for half to price? its cutthroat competition but that is how the economy becomes more productive. Wal-Mart has made many companies much more effiecient and so has greatly increased the amount of productivity that the same number of people can have which means plain and simple that we are now richer in terms of real wealth then we were before Wal-Mart came along. you can read more about it in this Pro Wal-Mart article. I thought it was an excellent article. Hope you enjoy it.

Dave Westy

He Lives

Yes I am still alive believe it or not and to prove it I've added a few things to my blog. Sometimes people ask me what I listen to and I never quite know what to say cause I listen to pretty much everything and I don't even know how to classify my listening. But thankfully for all those who wonder (including me) there is a cool website: Last.fm that can help out with this. basically it keeps track of all the songs I play on my computer and then generates a nifty little weekly chart of my favorite arists of the week which you can see on the sidebar if you scroll down a bit. Of course you can also go to my profile and see more details. Well thats my bit for the night. I'm off to bed. Blessings to all.

Dave Westy

Canada Day

So, for the long weekend I went up to Ottawa to visit my cousin who is doing a work term up there. I had me a blast of time. We went up Friday and after fighting a bit of traffic got there and hung out for the night at Brian's (amazingly clean....I was almost guilt-tripped into cleaning up my apartment - Almost) apartment. We also went roller-blading on the bike path along the Ottawa river which is a beautiful trail. On Saturday we went to parliament hill to join in the festivities there, and toured the Mint and the War museum. The number of people there is impossible to describe, but I'll just say that there was so many it was pretty much impossible to move at times. The fireworks were pretty awesome too.
On Sunday we went to the Reformed Presbyterian Church (Ottawa in the morning and Russell in the afternoon) and caught up on some needed sleep. Then on Monday after stocking up on cheap French beer and touring Riduea Hall, which has some of the most beautiful grounds I've ever seen (I must say Ottawa is a very beautiful city), we headed back home. We got stuck in traffic but a few backroads later and we were home in reasonable time. I wish one of us had been smart enough to bring a camera, but hey even genius's forget stuff like that sometimes, so sorry, no pictures :(

Dave Westy

Birthday

June 27. Its just another day on the calendar. But you see there is also something about this day. Its the day I entered the world. For better or worse there I was and now here I am 21ish years later still screaming and causing a ruckus every chance I get. The nice thing is I get free incoming calls on my cell phone so y'all better call and wish me a happy birthday! (519) 496-0512. Oh and you know what the best part of my birthday is? I have a midterm on Wednesday, which means I get to spend the day studying. What a treat!!! I'm so excited.
Hope you are all having a wonderful day.

Dave Westy
(yes. I'm old now)

Countdown

I've once again added my coundown til exams are over onto the sidebar -->
so that you can see how much longer I have until freedom :)

Marriage

I think its the year of weddings. I have already attended 4 weddings this year and had invites to two more that I couldn't make it to. I just attended my cousin Anita's wedding this past Friday and it was wonderful to see them express their vows to each other. It seems like everybody is getting married but have you ever wondered why? There are some in the world today that decry the very idea of marriage. They see it as being 'old fashioned' or 'out of date' but is this really the case? Were these four weddings just a chance for a bunch of people to get dressed up and tell each other they were in love in front of a group of people, and then have some good food and go on with their lives, or is there something more to marriage? Is it just something we do cause 'hey that's the way its done' or do we have a deeper reason for doing it?

You already know I'm going to say it; What does the bible have to say on this issue? It is the ultimate standard so let's take a look at a few of the reasons it gives.

1) Marriage is a creation ordinance. Genesis 2:18 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." and then vs. 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. The union of a man and a woman is something that God sees as an essential part of his creation. It is fascinating to note that as you read through Genesis 1 God looks at his creation and says that it is good over and over again, but when he looks at man by himself he say that it is not good. Therefore marriage is more than just a good thing; it is a necessary thing. God's creation is incomplete without marriage.

2) Marriage is ordained by God. Mark 10:9 Jesus says "...What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." This passage is mainly dealing with divorce, but it holds an important principle for marriage; marriage is a union that God makes. Persons that are married are joined to each other by God. This means that the vows made in the wedding ceremony are not just promises to love each other, they are vows before God and therefore are in some sense spiritual. The marriage ceremony is not merely an agreement between two people it is a union the God makes.

3) The Marriage union is a picture of the union between Christ and His church. Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her One of the reasons God created us as relational beings, is so that through our relationships we could get a slight view of how relationships with God work. We would not be able to understand what it means to have God as our Father if we did not see and experience relationships between Fathers and their children, and so we would not be able to wrap our minds around the union between Christ and his church if we did not see and experience the marriage relationship. It is true that this picture of marriage (just like all our other relationships) is tainted by our sin, but it still gives us a basis to start from in our understanding of Christ's love for his church.

For these three reasons, that God ordains marriage, that he did so from the beginning of the world before there was any sin, and that it helps us to better understand God, I would say that marriage is a good thing. These weddings I've gone to are not old fashioned out of date parties, but are essential and necessary for the continuity and improvement of our society.

Dave Westy
(hmm...time to get married?)

Oilers

Oilers just won tonight 4-3....short handed goal in overtime. What a game folks. It was so good it pulled me from my studies so I better get back to the books. What a game!!

Exams

Ok. So first of all moo. I got my final exam schedule yesterday and it is the worst possible exam schedule.

Aug 1 9:00-11:30 - Thermodynamics 60% final
Aug 2 9:00-11:30 - Organic Chemistry 70% final
Aug 3 12:30-3:00 - Heat Transfer 60% final
Aug 4 9:00-11:30 - Materials 50% final
Aug 11 9:00-11:30 - Advanced Math 50% final

Now that you have seen it in all its ugliness let me explain to you just how DISGUSTINGLY HORRIBLE this schedule is. First of all my Advanced Math final will probably be my easiest one and so I don't need a whole week to study for it, and then I also need more than a day to study for all my other exams. I can't learn the whole course in 1 day.....it takes 2 days to do that! And also the first day of exams is July 31 so its not like I have tons of time to study for all my courses before hand. So yes this exam schedule is utterly RIDICULOUS. I mean it is summer term for Pete's sake; there are way less student on campus so scheduling exams with a day inbetween them should be no problem. sheeesh. I guess they just don't get....I learn by cramming. If I don't have cram time I don't know how to do well. waaaaaaahhh.

My one hope is that we may still be able to change a couple of the exams. Well, I'm going to go feel sorry for myself for a while and if you happen to see the registrar at UWaterloo tell her I'm not happy.

Dave Westy

Organic Chemistry

I have been studying for my Organic Chemistry midterm for the last 12 hours (with only an hour off) and so I about to go insane. Its time for a short break and so I thought I would share with you some of the brilliant suggestions that my prof. gave for doing well in this course:

- Remember the concepts learned in you previous Organic Course. Yup. I'm in trouble for this course!

- Try to understand the chemical reactions and concepts. Well actually I always try to make sure I don't understand anything I'm learning. Duh.

and then my personal favorite

- Learn to like Organic Chemistry. Learn to WHAT?!?!? NO. I refuse.

*sigh* Back to the studying. If only I could somehow like Organic, it might be a little easier :-(

Welcome Home!!

So I get back from and awesome weekend in the States only to find out that I have 4 assignments due by the end of the week, 4 interviews to go to by Friday, 2 volleyball games to play this week, 2 days worth of notes to catch up on and 3 midterms to study for next week. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! So I have made a commitment. Absolutely no TV until June 12th.

Back to Work!

Dave Westy

What a weekend

I just had one awesome weekend!!! After finishing up class on Thursday I left for the Van Eyk's by around noon. 12 hours of uneventful (and boring) driving later I arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina. Of course I stayed up chatting and catching up on the news with Re and Greg until about 3 in the morning. The next morning we got everything together and then headed down to South Carolina for Matt and Stacy's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. The Bride was simply stunning, the bridesmaids were all beautiful as were their dresses, and the men were all wearing suits so I guess they must have looked good too. Matt and Stacy know too many ministers and so we had to listen to three 'semons' but the messages and exhortations where all very good and well worth listening to so all in all it was one of the best wedding I've ever been too. The church was so full that some people had to stand in the back and the reception afterwards was great too. I got to meet all my Greenville friends again and it was sooooo good to see them.

After the wedding a bunch of us went over to the place we were staying at (thanks so much Vandoodewaards for letting us use your house!!) and visited for a few hours. Saturday we out for lunch with Thomas and then visited the Spears and Bob and made all the Greenville rounds. We visited with Mrs. Karr for a while until Steph got home and then we all headed back to the Vandood's place to watch a movie and hang out.

Sunday we went to Second Pres. For the morning, where Mr. Spears had a great sermon, and then to the new OPC church that is meeting at the Seminary for the evening service. We stopped by the Karr's on our way home and Mrs. Karr made us some food and of course we talked a lot and didn't leave until about 10. As we headed home we where making really good time until we had a very disturbing and traumatic experience. You can read all the gory details on Re's blog but the gist of it is that a young girl died on the road about 200 feet in front of us and we saw pretty much everything except the actual event. It was definantly one of the worst and most sobering events in my life. Remember to pray for her family and especially for those friends that were there and saw her die.

I had a safe trip back on Monday although I spent most of the trip wishing I didn't have to go back and I didn't even get a ticket although I saw 18 cops on the way. So that was my weekend in a nutshell. It was a funfilled and awesome weekend!!! I miss y'all down there!!!!!!!! Love y'all too!

Dave Westy

Yes I am Alive

Its been a while since I posted on here which of course means I've been pretty busy. School is starting to pick up and the assignments are coming, although no labs this terms means that the workload isn't too brutal. I'm playing volleyball again this term and so far we won our first two games! We just played tonight and it was probably one of the best games we've ever played. Very good playing from both teams and a close fought game made for good times.

I went home this past weekend and saw all my St. Thomas peeps. And speaking of St. Thomas, the St. Thomas Free Reformed Church is having a conference on June 9th and 10th. It starts at 7:30 and registration is from 7:12-7:27 :-P. Pete Vandoodewaard is speaking on "God the creator; The Doctrine of Creation and your Life" and Pete is a great guy. I also hear that there are lots of fun events planned for Saturday, so you should definantly go. It'll be a blast, and I better see you there ;-)

I'm heading down to South Carolina this Weekend for Stacy's wedding, and I am starting to get PUMPED. I can't wait to see y'all down there! Well, the homework is calling me so I better get back at it. Just wanted to let y'all know that I am still alive.
peace
Dave Westy

Fun times

What a fun weekend. The end of the first week of school and so it was time to have some fun. :-) On Friday night we did some stuff with the younger young people at the Colenbrander's. The events of the night involved getting dirty and somehow I ended being a team leader and having to participate instead of getting to run an event. That made for some crazy fun times.

The first event involved a bunch of stuff like leapfrogging and walking across 2 by 4's with your whole team. Crazy stuff, but no one got hurt so there's not much to tell you about there. Then it was the mud slide climb where we had to get our whole team on top of an eight foot hight structure by going up a mud covered sheet of plywood. I was bosting everybody up and managed to get a scrape on my head as well as a nice big one on my arm and bruised elbow. Now that game was worth writing about :-D. then the last game involved finding fake eggs in a pool full of mud, and I'll make this short and sweet. I got thrown in said pool of mud. I got really dirty and I didn't have a change of clothes with me. it was AWESOME. :-P

Saturday I went to Canada's Wonderland for the first time!!!! Lots of fun there but there was alot of people so we didn't get on too many rides, but hey, half the fun is waiting in line. Saturday night we went to hear the AOC (All Ontario Choir) Finale. Got to see a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a while and listen to some good music. So that's what I've been doing with my life. but now its back to the books.

Good to be back

Well, I'm all moved in and back into the school schedule. I went grocery shopping and spent over a $100 stocking up on all the essentials like chips and pop and pizza and the odd bit of healthy food. Speaking of healthy food I've been eating great since I got here. Supper yesterday was a half a bag of Fries, a couple of greasy burgers and a half a tub of yogurt. Man I love being a student :-)

Seriously though, its going pretty good so far. Most of my profs are pretty good although I don't know if I'm going to be able to survive my Organic Chem class. I must make sure I don't bring a rope to class with me cause if I had one today I wouldn't be writing this right now. :-p I hope things improve cause if they don't I might just be learning everything from the textbook. Ah well, the joys of being a student.

I better get back to putting off doing homework although thankfully I don't have much to put off this week. Just a little bit of reading and some touching up on my work report. Peace.

Back to the books

I'm done, I'm done, I'm done!! work term is over. It was a pretty good term although it could have been a bit more stimulating, but now its all over. Back to the books for me. School starts Monday, so hopefully my mind hasn't seized up over the last four months. I might need to give it a little kick start and get the rust out of it.
"ok Dave...what is the first law of thermodynamics?"
"ummm....isn't it about stuff that can do stuff and not other stuff?"

Oh darn....I'm in trouble. Well, I better pack up my belongings so I can get moved back into my apartment and start studying. Enjoy your summer!!!

They've done it!!!

I need to get myself one of these

In the space of 176 years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself 242 miles. That is an average of a trifle over 1-1/3 miles a year. Therefore any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upward of 1,300,00 miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing rod. And by the same token any person can see that 742 years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only 1-3/4 miles long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together…There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesome returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

That, my friends, is why I like science :-D

Bout that time again ain't it?

So I guess its time to let y'all what I been up to lately. After all I'm working for the government which means I get a four day weekend (good Friday and Easter Monday) Not bad at all. Got to sleep in Friday, and then when to church and after the service we had a soup dinner at the church. Friday night a bunch of us got together and played some pool and stuff and when for a walk in the foggy woods. Oh so spooky.
Saturday was another good long sleep-in and Saturday afternoon we went for a hike. Of course Pete and I got there late so we walked around for an hour trying to find everybody else. We finally met a couple of people and after wandering around with them for another hour, we finally managed to catch up with everybody else. That night we went to watch the Hamilton Bulldogs play their final game of the season (we got in free too, courtesy of Pizza-Pizza!) They even had a semi-steaker (upper-body male nudity you know) who came running out on the ice and then flopped down and slid on his belly. Plus there was the crazy drunk people who where trying to get everybody to do the wave, and couple of really good fights.....and even a bit of hockey. not a bad night at all.
Sunday we went to do some singing for the old folks at a local long term care home, and after church we went and played some beach volleyball. A couple of use decided that plain old volleyball is just boring so we started diving for every single ball. I discovered something new. Sand doesn't taste good...and it sucks when it goes up your nose. We also had a Sudoku compition. I've never done that game before but I think I'm addicted now.
Ahh yes, all in all a good weekend. Well I'm pretty busy doing nothing right now so I'm going to go back to it. y'all enjoy yourselves now.