Back in September I wrote a little web application for Matt Campbell, a good friend of mine and the brain behind Iggy Nation, a youth supporters web site for Michael Ignatieff's bid to become the next leader of the Liberal Party.

This application let supporters of "Iggy" enter their postal code, a picture of themselves, and some personal info, and the application geocoded their address, resized their photo, and added them to a Google Map. The end result now is a flurry of red balloons across the country as people add their faces in support of his campaign.

Sometime in the last day or two, the 100th supporter added their face to the Iggy Nation map. There's only three weeks left in the leadership campaign... I'm hoping it breaks at least 200.

10 down, 3 to go. This semester is almost over and I couldn't be happier. I've had a serious loss of motivation these past two weeks, but I think I've turned the corner.

Any way you look at it, this semester has been tough on myself, and Elizabeth especially, with the trip to the QEH in late September and all. There were a lot of times in the time since that both of us expressed our discontent for whatever reason.. school, work, life in general, etc. I suggested that we reward ourselves with a bit of a tour around Montreal/Ottawa/Toronto over the Christmas break, as sort of a light at the end of the tunnel for both of us.

Well Elizabeth's parents grabbed a hold of the idea, and I must have the best girlfriend's family ever, because Dave and Marlene are flying all of us to Ottawa to celebrate Christmas this year! There are a lot of Cairns's around Ottawa, and they usually don't get to spent the holidays with them, so it will be exciting for everybody. That, and I love Ottawa. I fly back on Christmas morning.

Plans for New Years Eve could include a quick trip to Montreal. That just leaves me wondering... when will I get skiing this year?? I missed out last year.

Its back to business... literally.

My feelings on going back to UPEI are mixed, but overall I would say I am glad to have started again. It is weird, though... I am really in only 1 normal course appropriate to my year of studies, Cost Accounting 400 something. That starts on Monday. The rest are as follows:

• Physics 211
• Calculus 251 (2nd time around)
• Bus 486 Managing Business Transitions (web)
• Bus 371 Entrepreneurship

Having finished most of years 1-3 of Business and 1-2 of Engineering, my current standing should be 4th-year business, 3rd year engineering, but I am in no 3rd year engineering courses and only 1 4th year business course that happens in person. No wonder I feel like I don't know anybody in my classes!

Made the big return to the Wave this week. I think I've eaten there 3 times already and yeah had a couple drinks too. And I lost my red Mountain Equipment Co-op jacket at the Trews concert. Grreat. Welcome Back. I predict that I will be spending less time at The Wave now that I no longer get the perks of being on the wave staff.

I'm happy to be doing some new things this fall that will hopefully keep me on a steadier track than working the late shifts at the wave and breaking bones.

Coming up:

• playing hockey
• working pt at Island Petroleum
• lots of Radio@UPEI and Panther Radio
• media passes
• vip areas

Not coming up:

• working at the wave
• sitting on student union council
• breaking more kneecaps (hopefully)

Thomas... I wonder what that guy is up to now.

If anybody has been around me during the last 7 months you'll know that I befriended an international exchange student to the School of Business named Thomas Vignal. He was from Paris, France, and was on PEI for the 6 months up until early July.

I was asked a couple days before he flew in if I would like to be his International Student Buddy. It wasn't meant to be a huge commitment, just pick him up from the airport, make sure he has everything he needs, and hang out with him once and a while. No big deal. I didn't take long to decide.. I was going to do it. Being an exchange student myself a couple years back, I knew what it meant to have somebody you could call on. To someone who has just moved overseas and knows nearly nobody in the entire country, it means a lot.

Well as any of my friends or people Thomas met could tell you, Thomas was quite the guy to have around. The first thing Matt O'Halloran and I saw as we picked him up from the Charlottetown Airport on New Years Eve was the man-purse. Yikes, we thought. How long is this guy gonna last around here? Well we put a beer in his hand that from that point on there was no worries. I can remember quite a few stares from people at The Wave the night he flew in, but Thomas fit in better then we could have expected, and made many friends, all while wearing the man-purse.

Thomas was a great friend to have around, and a constant source of entertainment. His english was not bad at all, but he was constantly mis-pronouncing words as I'm sure I would do if in his place. It wasn't long before we got him involved with the Radio, and he got us dancing to his favorite house music almost on a daily basis at one point. Thomas and I also ventured to Vancouver in May to visit his Aunt, and him, Mitch MacKenzie and myself made it down to New York City for a little visit in June. Lots of great times.

The last I heard from Thomas lately was when he sent me a picture of him sporting a Radio@UPEI t-shirt on the route of the Tour de France. Look out for a Tour de France podcast from DJ Thomas very soon.

The International Student Buddy Program, run by my friend Heather Jones, needs buddies for the fall. I can't promise that every exchange student will be as much of an adventure as Thomas, but its a worthwhile experience and I would encourage anybody to give it a try. Everybody could use an extra friend, right?

To volunteer, get in touch with Heather Jones at buddy@upeisu.com.