Life of a UW Math Student

Sin City DVD: Round 1

2005-08-16T19:10:00.000-04:00

Ever since I saw Sin City around four months ago , I couldn't get it out of my head. Its basic stories which outline the primative needs of men (aggression, breasts, and violence) along with its stunning visuals make it one of my favourite movies of all time.

I've been looking forward to the DVD ever since I left the theatre. When I heard it would be released August 16th, I marked that day in my calendar. All fucking summer I've been looking forward to this day.

Head down to HMV after work and what do I see? A barebones DVD package for 25 bucks. What the fuck is that shit?!?!?! There is a like one small featurette. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed... on top of which it was expensive as hell.

I went home and researched a bit on prices since I really want a copy and found out that they pulled a LOTR on this shit. There is a huge featured-packed set being released in December. It's a good thing I didn't buy the movie since I would've regretted it with the whole Special Edition coming out later.

What the fuck are the studios thinking? How much are they gonna extort from customers? Dimension Films has lost my DVD business for at least the next year, well not counting Sin City SE. They should've at least let it be know that the SE is coming out later this year so the people that didn't know wouldn't get fucked and they would've at least had a choice on whether to buy or wait.

Sucks to be me

2005-08-07T19:20:00.000-04:00

So there was this Ericsson boat cruise today... I couldn't make it down as I had to attend a funeral of sorts, so I'm at home listening to Big Wreck.

I was actually looking forward to this for a while! I even bought this freaking pimped shirt for the occassion, but alas... it's now hanging in my closet looking good. Oh well, that's life.

2005-08-04T10:31:00.000-04:00

I swear to God I'm going to pistol whip the next sportswriter who brings up the time Jason Giambi said sorry over and over without mention what he's apolgizing for.

Thanks guys, we get it. He used to use steriods. Fucking idiots.

/"Hey Farva! What's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy stuff on the wall and the mozzarella sticks?"
//"You mean Shenanigans?"
///"ooooooooooooooooooooooooo" *offers pistol*

Edit (08/04/2005 @ 8:39PM):
After making this post, I couldn't get Super Troopers out of my head. I just had to go down to Best Buy and pick up the DVD. I got a pretty decent deal: 2 movies (Super Troopers and Office Space) for 30 bucks. Score!

Plane crash

2005-08-02T21:09:00.000-04:00

Aside from being in LA during the riots, I don't think I've ever been so close to a disaster as I was to the plane crash today. Ericsson's located less than a kilometer from where the crash occured and right when it happened, our power went off and then back on again. I didn't know that a plane crashed until one of my buddies told me about it.

As we started going home, we saw black smoke rising from the wreckage. Not wanting to miss out on a historical event, we got to the spot direct across the highway from the crash. We climbed a fence and stood on the 401 railing to try to get a better view of what was going on. All we could see was smoke. I sorta wish I had a camera; would've taking a picture of me holding a cigarette and blowing out all that black smoke. Hey, at least my ticket to hell is first class!

BTW, I threw up my fall schedule. The class in white, CM 352, is a class I'm surveying. I was actually supposed to take it this term, but I decided to do Intro to ODE before doing Computational ODEs.

2 months to the day...

2005-07-31T21:05:00.000-04:00

...since my last post. I have no idea why I neglect you guys so much, but I know that you love it; been checking my visitor logs periodically and y'all keep coming back. I'm like the abusive husband you think you can change, but baby, it's not gonna happen anytime soon.

I think this has been my longest delay, which is sorta shocking since I wrote a reasonable amount last summer. It's not like I'm busy, so maybe that's why... just a lack of material, but that hasn't stopped me before. What to talk about, what to about?

DE Class
As I mentioned in my Nazi Google post, I'm took Financial Accounting distance ed through Laurier. Stupidest move I ever made. For one thing, I'm lazy as hell and have like no motivation to study, espeically for something as boring as accounting. Secondly, WLU screwed up my registration, which (along with my laziness) caused me to access the course website a good month after the class had started.

Since my prof had set things up so that we read a chapter a week, I was four chapters behind the rest of my class with the midterm a week and a half away. I somehow got out of writing the midterm and got myself a 100% weighted final, thinking that my ability to thrive in pressure would get me working. So another month passes without me doing any sort of work, just procrastinating as much as one could.

Finally, I realized that it was crunch time and polished off my textbook in 3 weeks and killed myself to learn the material as best as I could. Considering the material was accounting, which is one of those things that you really can't do too much of in a day, I thought it was pretty good. I spent the last week mostly procrastinating and learning how to do the main types of questions.

My exam was Friday and I think I did pretty good. I guess all that hard work did pay off. If it doesn't, I'll be very pissed as it's Laurier, and I should be ruining that shit. All I know is that I won't be doing stupid stuff like taking course during coop anymore, well at least until next winter. BRING IT ON MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING!!!

Work
Work sucks, so what else is new? I just wished I had something interesting to do so I could actually look forward to coming into work everyday. I'm so gonna find my own job for the winter, or be picky as I was in first year... Only have 3 more terms, can't be stuck with stuff I hate. I really need to narrow my choices to find a backup career.

Only good thing about work, I've gotten good at pool by playing during lunch and we have a boat cruise next Sunday. Woo woo!

School
I heard that the Math Faculty is now giving 5 freebie credits; basically, you can drop 5 marks from your transcript. The catch? It's only for classes taken after September 2004. This was brought as a result of all the frosh last year that either failed or were on probation after 1A; I've heard that the number was close to 40% of last year's incoming class. I brought this up before, but I overestimated these people; I said they might be capable, but obviously I was proven wrong.

Anyways, it's not really fair to us upper year students as we had to learn from our mistakes and bring up our marks from first year. These frosh are lucky enough to learn from their mistakes and have their marks discarded. Idiots shouldn't get a break for being idiots, it's not fair to the rest of us. Either make the discarding of marks retroactive, or don't do it at all and raise the admission standards. I'm gonna be doing something about this once I get back to campus. FIGHT THE POWER!

I picked my classes for next term a little while ago (view schedule). I'm going to be taking:
- ACTSC 371: Corporate Finace I
- AMATH 250: Intro to Differential Equations
- CHEM 120: Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter
- CM 361: Computational Statistics and Data Analysis
- MATH 239: Introduction to Combinatorics

Since I'm living close to campus and have no classes 2 days a week, I'm gonna hopefully get my act together and study. Well, at least for all the 300-level classes as the Grad school I want to go to only looks at 3rd and 4th year.

Concerts
Being in Mississauga, I can really hit too much up as there is no way to get back home until the next morning, but I'm doing what I can.

I went to Live 8 in Barrie on July 2nd. It was awesome, even though I totally disagree with the whole end poverty now business, well not the idea, but the way they are doing it. I rather not give my money to corrupt leaders, but I digress. The experience was incredible and something I'll never forget...

We got to Barrie and as soon as we got out of the car, we heard Tom Cochrane starting the show. By the time we got inside, we only missed Cochrane, Sam Roberts, and a bit of Bryan Adams. As the day wore on, we inched our way closer to the front... and then Motley Crue came on and people started going crazy. I was pushed from like wherever the hell I was to basically 5 rows back in like a song and a half. From there it was incredible, but it sorta sucked since the view wasn't as good! I have pictures which I might throw up later on.

I have tickets to Green Day next Friday and the Foo Fighters (floor seats!!) the day after that. I'm so pumped to see Jimmy Eat World (opening for Green Day) and the Dave Grohl (who I've loved since I heard Everlong done acoustically on the Howard Stern show). I can't wait!!!

Waterloo Life
As I'm pretty insocial and don't like to make friends, I've gone back to Waterloo like 6 times during this term. Wow, I sound pathetic! Oh well, it was good times. I'm gonna miss everybody that's gonna be going away on coop next term, but you know what that means? ROAD TRIP!!!

My Mission to Get into Shape
In the past 2-3 weeks, I've gotten up a bit earlier than usual and started running 3-4 times a week. I've started to feel great about myself and now that my exam is done, I'm gonna try to even hit up the gym. I want to run a marathon next Spring and am gonna train my ass off for it.

Book Reading
I really wanted to read a lot this summer to sorta extend beyond my horizon. I've tried to accomplish that, but haven't really done too much. So far I've finished off...
- Financial Accounting: A User's Perspective. Very well written thriller, but the plot isn't very interesting.
- The World According to Garp - Really has no plot, but it's hilarious
- The Restuarant at the End of the Universe - Funny, but not as good as the first part of the series
- Contact - VERY dry, but explores some interesting themes like Science vs Religion
- The Vegas Book - I dunno how many times I've read it, but I can't get enough
- Moneyball - I actually picked this up yesterday and polished it off in a day. It's a hell of a read and interesting as hell.
- Phil Helmuth's Texas Hold'em - I'm actually in the middle of this book. It's horribly written, but I really wasn't expecting a lot.

It's nowhere near as much as I'd like, but it's a good start. I still have a month to add to this total, to add to the total I will. Barbarians at the Gate & Bringing down the House are next on my to read list

Wannabe Intellectual

2005-05-31T19:42:00.000-04:00

I've been reading a lot this coop term, well by reading a lot I mean I read on the bus and at the end it turns out to be a fair amount.

Deep Throat was Mark Felt... who would've thunk it? Now, who actually cares? I'm just disappointed that it wasn't Jimmy James from TV's NewsRadio. This is turning into that episode where everybody thought Mr. James was DB Cooper, but were mistaken when Adam West revealed he was the legendary skyjacker.

Off to watch NewsRadio on DVD, I go.

Working Life

2005-05-12T18:57:00.000-04:00

Almost done my first month of co-op at Ericsson and I still haven't posted an updated. Am I busy? Hell no. Am I lazy? You got it!

So working at Ericsson is great, well except for the actual work part. The people, environment, and perks make my mundane job seem a lot better.

Since I'm not from Mississauga, I'm living with friends of relatives. I get room and board for a pretty decent price so it's pretty good. I'm in a pimped out condo (there is a freaking bowling alley in the lobby), but I'm living with 70 year-old people so it's not as great as it could be.

Let's see, what else is new?
- I've gone back to Waterloo once, it was ok. I'm gonna go back this weekend for a friend's brithday and then I'm gonna go home on Sunday to relax.
- I haven't started my DE class, been very lazy. I'm regretting it though since this Financial Accounting stuff seems sorta hard. I'll start this weekend for sure, psh, yeah right!
- I can't find the shoes I want anywhere. I think I might just settle for some Nike Shox I saw on sale... but I don't wanna! Go, go Reebok Pumps 2.0.
- I bought the Scrubs Season One dvd this week, been watching it. I can't believe I forgot how funny Season 1 was.

I gotta get a more exciting life. Meh, back to Scrubs.

Oh shit, I forgot the most important thing. I finally found out what works for my hair. I gotta wet it down, throw some wax in there, style it however I want, blow dry it in place (the key step imo), towel dry and we're good to go.

Off to hell one step at a time

2005-04-21T16:45:00.000-04:00

In the spirt of Google's holiday logos and being disappointed they didn't do something for Hitler's birthday (which was yesterday), I made a picture to commerate the day...

So another year of school done. Thank god for that. All my exams went ok, none went really bad or really good. My last exam, Comp Math, was fucking deadly. It required extensive knowledge of 2D Fast Fourier Transforms, a topic we spent no time on in class... damn not having Calculus 4 knowledge!

So I finally got my contract from Ericsson. I'm making $560/week. I'm thinking about asking for more, but I don't know how I can bring it up.

I went clothes shopping today. I found this incredible dark, but not too dark, blue Perry Ellis shirt at the Bay for only 40 bucks. It caught my eye as I entered the store, and I was all over it. I need more pants. Best part of coop: buying new clothes!

I found a place to stay in Mississauga. I'm living with an old couple, I gets a room and board for $500/month. This, along with my $20 weekly bus pass are like my only expenses. I plan on saving at least 2 weeks salary every month.

Speaking of the bus, I think I'm gonna get either a PSP, personal video player, or a Game Boy advance (just for Mario Kart Super Circuit!!) to make the half an hour go faster. Hopefully I can find a Game Boy SP NES edition, if not... I'll settle for something else.

I got into BUS 227W: Financial Accounting over Distance Ed at Laurier. Should be good since well, I dunno... I'll be bored and will have something to do. I hear there are online quizzes/tests. Thank god for knowing a bunch of Math/Accounting folk.

Random info... my BT Azureus stats - Upload: 331.12GB. Download: 99.00GB. Ratio: 3.34. DAMN!

I love the new MSN Messenger what you're listen to feature. If only they could stream music... oh well! At least I know what people listen to... no surprising revelations so far.

I set up my schedule for next term... so far it looks like I'll have Tuesday and Thursday off. This will be great!

My ass is just about ready to be dry fucked

2005-04-16T03:42:00.000-04:00

I really underestimated my CS class and I'm gonna pay for it in 5 hours. I can't seem to memorize all this shit, it's like somehow all the skills I picked up in high school science (aka memorizing everything) have disappeared. Hopefully I can get over a 72 on the final to guarantee my 80 in the course.

The DC Club. Hilarious account of people of the Davis Centre Library... Hair Girl is so well done that I'm speechless. Props.

It's not like DC has all the fun... Those stories about the Dana Porter library are actually turning out to be true.

I was in DP today sitting at the single cubicles with some asian guy ahead of me and my buddy behind me. The guy in front of me blew this nasty fart, 'twas silent yet deadly; it got so bad that I had to get up and walk away from the area for a while to let the fart dissipate. I signalled to my friend to come with me and told him to just go back to his desk and say: "'Jim', damn that's nasty!" Right after he said that and I replied that it wasn't me, the guy in front of us packed up his stuff and left. JOKES!

I'm so fucked for my Stats exam on Tuesday and my CM exam on Wednesday that it's not even funny.

Back to work I go. ~~Tomorrow~~ Today will be a very LONG day.

In the midst of it all

2005-04-12T22:56:00.000-04:00

In the past 2 days I've written the Calculus III final and the Act Sci final. I did very good on both, well except for a couple of questions on each which I fucked up. I guess that should downgrade my status to just okay.

My mom is starting a new habit of calling me after my exams and asking how they went. Awwwwwwwww! Coincidently, my mom paid my tuition for this term. Guess I better pull off a decent average, lest she asks for her money back. I keed, I keed. She doesn't care how I do, just that I give it my best and either become an MD or marry a nice brown girl that is an MD.

I've gotten no work done today. I'm gonna regret this come next week. I'm gonna get my ass back on track starting tomorrow. Hell hath no fury like Jim Steele scorned. If I do decent-to-good on my next 3 finals, I might be able to swing a Comp Stats job through my mom. How sweet would that be?

During this term I went through journey to find what I wanted to do. I changed programs, reseached different areas, talked to a bunch of people, and tried some things (mostly writing, I've had a couple of decent ideas rattling around in the back of my mind that I'm trying to flesh out and maybe get published). I never thought I would stumble onto what I wanted to do while I was studying for Calculus. During my affair with Newton's bastard child last week, I finally decided that I'm gonna stop fighting what I am and just learn to accept it.

The way I see it is: how many people can look at notes from a multivariable Calculus class made for Mathematicans and actually understand what's going on? Ok, there are quite a bit, but how many can say they sorta enjoyed it? Exactly. Being able to do math is a skill and I can't seem to find anything else I'm good at, so why fight it?

Finals week is upon me

2005-04-10T03:21:00.000-04:00

I've got the Calculus III final in less than 30 hours. I'm still not anywhere close to being done studying. Good news, I understand Calc for the first time in my life; I can see applications: so much so, that I'm thinking about taking Calculus IV. Bad news, I am going way too slow!!

I called Ericsson last week and I was told that I start work on the 25th. That leaves like 4-5 days for me to chill after exams. I still haven't found a place to live!!! I better get on that.

I need new shoes or sandals. I'm thinking about getting the Reebok 3D Roddick Trainers, but I can't find any online stores in Canada that have them. Guess I'll have to be gouged by whatever retail store I can find them at. If I can't find any, I'm thinking about spurgling on either the Reebok Pump 2.0 (in black) or the Jordan XX Trainer (also in black). If anything, I'll get me a nice pair of Docs...

Shit, it's almost 3:30... off to bed. G'nite.

The week before finals week

2005-04-05T10:03:00.000-04:00

Last week I picked up the Hunter S Thompson memorial issue of Rolling Stone. All the editorials were insightful, except for Johnny Depp's, which was a bit disappointing. You would think after living in Hunter's basement, something would've rubbed off on him.

I can't wait until finals are over so I can finally sit down and work my way through the Good Doctor's anthology, starting and ending with "the Vegas book", which is possibly my favourite book after Catch-22 and Fight Club. Wait, that doesn't sound right, it sounds like I'm gonna read only 1 book. What I'm gonna do is read "the Vegas book" and then read anything else I can get my hands on and then read "the Vegas book" once more before coming back for school.

The Tar Heels won the NCAA Championship last night. Bastards! Duke fucked up my bracket and prevented me from winning the pool. UCLA's taking it in 2 years. Mark my words.

Final exams are around the corner:
- Calculus next Monday
- Act Sci next Tuesday
- CS that Saturday
- Stats the Tuesday after next
- CM the day after that

I'm trying to focus all my efforts during the next 6 days towards Calc, but I haven't started yet. =/ From the looks of it, I'll have one day to study for Act Sci, but I'm not too worried. We are allowed a formula sheet and everything else is just intuition, which I think I've developed really well this term. It helps to have a good prof and also to read a book that isn't horrible.

I'm least worried about my CS final since its a class for CS minors and that just means that the final will be easy. Stats isn't looking too bad, I'm only like 6 chapters behind in my readings, but I haven't done any questions yet. I know what I'll be doing for a week. CM has got me freaked out. It's gonna be my hardest exam bar none and there's like no way to study for it. We'll be given 7-9 proofs with 3 hours to figure them out; its gonna get messy.

Google Maps has had Satellite images. Very, very cool. I'd throw up a link to the Math building's satellite shot, but the satellite image is not available. Singular Value Decomposition, represent!!!

I downloaded the Kaiser Chiefs' CD, Employment. I'm loving it. It's very catchy, especially I Predict a Riot. I have no idea of how popular these guys are since I only listen to Q107, The Hawk, and Power 97, but I haven't heard anybody talking about them so I think I'm a bit ahead of the curve. I think I might have to go buy this CD...

I got my place subletted yesterday. I didn't really try to find a person since I don't want my friends to live with a jackass, like I have to this term, but some guy contacted me... Seems like a very cool guy. On top of which, I'm only losing a hundred bucks each month. I'm happy now.

Sin City

2005-04-02T03:09:00.000-05:00

I saw Sin City today and WOW... just WOW!!!

I can't wait until the summer so I can afford to buy the graphic novels.

Peak Oil

2005-03-31T23:05:00.000-05:00

I was on Fark trying to get my daily dose of 'It's not news, it's Fark' and I saw a story about Goldman Sachs forcasting oil could sell at a high of of $105/barrel.

I checked out the comments on Fark and everybody's talking about this peak oil stuff. Curious, I decide to get to the bottom of it and damn, I wish I hadn't. It's very alarming shit.

Googling lead me to here and here.

Basically, Peak Oil is saying that the World's Oil Production follows a bell curve shape and we are currently at the peak (or have past it) and production will start to decrease (or it already has). This is scary since everything in the world is very dependent on oil production.

You know all those people touting alternative forms of energy? Well, according to the peakists, those alternatives aren't very practical (either not transportable or they produce less energy than what they take to make). Some of these alternative solutions also have a Hubbert Peak on a key requirement, therefore using an alternative form of energy would only delay the inevitable: society's collapse. It sounds like a long term Project Mayhem mission: the complete and utter destruction of society, sooner or later.

I don't really know what to make of it. I use to just ignore this problem because I didn't think it was very serious, but now that I know it's the real thing, I've moved from not caring to being on the fence between caring or not. For one thing, if all these alternatives will not work, why would researchers keep spending their time on these solutions. Wouldn't it be more productive to try and find a solution whose energy they could actually harness instead of working with a faulty medium?!?!

What the hell do I know anyways. I just know that human ingeniuty is a remarkable thing and also that it's more of a problem for my kids than me. BOOYA! Oh yeah, and it appears a lot of Chemical Engineers will be screwed.

One of the worst days ever...

2005-03-31T20:38:00.000-05:00

I was in the computer lab today minding my own business and some guy who saw my Thornley shirt came up to me and asked, "Did you go to the Thornley show at Laurier last night?!?!" I fucking flipped when I heard that. I guess I should check the forums more often.

I rode my bike to class for the first time since like January. Damn, I'm a hurting unit. I'm so freaking sore and my ass hurts because somebody stole my gel seat... fuckers!

In my CS 230 class, we talked about processors and how they are programmed with their circuitry, microprograms, and other various shit. It sounded really cool, top that with the fact that I'm a great assembly programmer and I could've been a great Computer Engineer... I only wish I had researched what I wanted to do more in high school.

Only good thing about today was that I wrote an assembly program (in DLX; it's like MIPS, but easier) that worked perfectly the first time I ran it. BOOYA! It wasn't that hard, just had to convert a decimal number to hex and then print it... but assembly is so fucked up that even the simpliest programs need to be debugged for a while.

I will now cry myself to sleep because I missed Thornley last nite.

2005-03-30T17:59:00.000-05:00

Did ya know that Terri Schiavo had a blog? Yeah I know, I'm going to hell...

My Favourite Links (or how to waste time during co-op)

2005-03-27T01:45:00.000-05:00

I should've done this a long time ago, but better late than never. I'm leaving out blogs since I just am.

Every Video Game - play old school video games through IE without downloading ROMs or Emulators. Perfect for work/university.

Bartlet 4 America - West Wing fansite. The Character Guide is pretty cool... well for West Wing-ies.

IMDb - Entertainment industry database. Everybody knows about it, but that doesn't stop it from being great.

All Music - IMDb for music.

Bash.org - IRC quotes. I wouldn't have gotten through my first co-op term without it.

ESPN Page 2 - Got me through lunch at work.

MSN Gossip - I'm a gossip whore.

MSN Web Messenger - great layout, almost as good as the real thing.

TWoP - Miss your favourite TV show last nite? Get the recap from here.

Tucker Max - Very entertaining stories. Might not be safe to view at job workplaces.

If you are really bored, I'm sure you can Google something interesting. If you need help to narrow your search, check out Google Features which will help you find exactly what you are looking for.

Bored

2005-03-26T15:43:00.000-05:00

I'm so freaking bored right now.

The new Audioslave single, Be Yourself, has finally grown on me after a couple of weeks and around 15 listens. Can't wait until the new CD gets leaked online so I can download it. Don't worry, I'll buy it the day it comes out as well.

I made an Excel sheet that computes my marks going into the final exams. Wow, I'm like failing Stat 231. Oh well... 80% weighted final what!?!?!

I know that I should be doing Stats right now, but I hate it so much! Most. Boring. Class. Ever.

During this year's professor evaluations, my comments have included "lose your accent", "buy another shirt", and "make your tests harder" (this is because our final will rape the class as our average is like 80 going into the final). Only class I haven't commented in is the one where the professor would know who I am since there are like only 3 students in that course. Stupid CM 271.

Meh, back to watching the West Wing. I think I'm gonna start at Season 1 and try to finish all the episodes upto the season finale of the current season (#6) before April 6th, when the season finale airs. Should be a fun couple of weeks.

Youth Communist League

2005-03-24T21:05:00.000-05:00

I've been seeing flyers advertising a Youth Communist League all over campus. You can't miss them: they are printed on very eye catching red (SHOCKED?!?!!?) paper.

The flyers are everywhere, I know because I spent a few minutes ripping quite a few of them down. Fucking commies.

I wish I had kept one to throw up here, but whatever. I might go looking for one sometimes later. So yeah, these posters advertise a Youth Communist League that is democratically selected. Like WTF?!?!

I thought all positive communist sediment died. I think I'm gonna go to the meeting and heckle those fucking hacks. Communism? What the fuck are they thinking?!!?

In other news, the American version of The Office premiered today. I'm liking what I'm seeing.

The Ring Part III

2005-03-23T22:52:00.000-05:00

My good buddy (aka the only person I know in Waterloo after this whole stream change fiasco) lives with this crazy 44 year old guy (who is subletting from his old roommate).

From what I've heard, the guy used to be very involved in drugs and booze... well he's still involved in booze since he carries beer around in a water bottle, but I digress.

So this guy gives my buddy a video that he made. Right when he got it, he came to my place. We threw it in the VCR and lo and behold... it was fucking insane. Coupled with the fact that my boy lives with the guy, it fucking scared the shit out of us.

It's a video of him at a park just filming stuff interspliced with footage from Fire Birds. I don't really know how to describe it, it's creepy as hell. Like he kept zooming in on people and then zooming out to the scenary. I have no idea what the fuck is going on, but I do know that I will be sleeping with the lights on.

flips head up a bit What up?

2005-03-22T18:19:00.000-05:00

Say this is you.

Say this is your friend.

Suppose you see each other in a situation like above.

If you acknowledge your friend first, you'd move your head up and after seeing this, he'd move his head down (like in the diagrama below).

Say the situation was reversed and your friend saw you first, he'd give a 'wut up nod' going up and you'd acknowledge it with a nod going down(as shown in diagram below).

I brought this topic up a couple of weeks ago talking to a friend and it was weird how we couldn't explain why we did it, we just did.

So for the past two weeks I've been watching people on campus and off (not in the creepy I'm in your bushes touching myself while watching you through your bedroom/bathroom window... well unless your name is ****** *****, I haven't been watching you like that) and it seems like most guys follow a format as shown above.

I tried to mix it up and created a blocked plan with me as the greeter. I initiated with a nod down and shockingly enough, I got a nod up in response, 5 out of 6 times with a 95% confidence interval.

What the fuck is going on!?!?! Even when I mix it up, why do they not follow in kind? Somebody should research this imo.

2005-03-19T13:32:00.000-05:00

Damnit, now I want a Duck Tape wallet so I can be all hipster like.

*Looks at wallet* Damn nigga, you be all fat and shit. I gots to get a thin wallet...

Twice in one week, WTF?!?!?!?

2005-03-18T18:11:00.000-05:00

Let's see how long I can go before I run out of material.

I started reading Liar's Poker this week. It's a very informative book about the bond market in the 80s. I wish I started reading books about what I wanted to do in high school, it could've helped me avoid math like the plague.

Sen has taken my idea of doing a breakdown of the people in Math (the page which I have since taken down) and run with it. I think I'm most like a Skeptical Mathie, but there is no category that I really fit into. Maybe I'll think of what I am and send Sen some shit to update his page...

This term is really fucked up. I'm doing great in half my classes and horrible in the other half. I really wish I become more consistent like I was last term.

I hate Waterloo. I want to do something tonite and there's nothing going on!

Title?

2005-03-15T18:40:00.000-05:00

I've been having a lot of fibre lately so my posting will become more regular. BOOYA!

So, this whole being in Math/Biz thing is sorta cool...
- I don't sound like a nerd when people ask me what program I'm in [well nobody's asked me yet, but I've played the scenario out in my head a few dozen times]
- I get to take Laurier classes [trying to get into BUS 227W (Financial Accounting) over DE in the summer
- I'm lined up for artsie CS classes like CS 330, CS 338, and CS 432 which will hook me up with a CS minor. BOOYA!

On the school front, I've been busy as beaver trying to catchup, study for midterms, do assignments, and start studying for the Calc 3 final.

My CM 271 class is really getting to me since we are doing shit that is covered in Calc 4 with computational methods. I have no actually background so I'm fucked, but I should get used to this since I'll be taking Computational Ordinary Differential Equations before Ordinary Differential Equations. Best thing about CM 271, my prof gave me and my bud an extra day to finish the assignment since we've been so busy for the past week.

I still haven't got my contract from Ericsson. I wonder how much I'm gonna make... Right now I'm contemplating negotiating my salary after I see it no matter how much it is. I should be paid like it's my 3rd coop term.

Random thought... my cell phone has no good features, I hope Ericsson can cut me a deal on kickass phone.

Changed programs... gasp

2005-03-11T22:24:00.000-05:00

I was feeling a little bored today so I got out and changed my program from Computational Mathematics to Math/Business - Finance Option.

Don't get too excited now... I fully intend to switch back; I only changed to save money on tuition. Hell, I don't even plan on taking any of my new program requirements (well, I might squeeze in a WLU class if I have time); I'll be continuing with my Comp Math classes.

When I applied to Comp Math out of high school, I was presented with information that said how it was a first year entry program only. Well, that turned out to be total bullshit. You can change into any program (well, just about; few exceptions) until before 3A, as long as you have met all the requirements.

My advice to everybody, get into Honours Math, save money, do good enough to get into what you want to do. Since I didn't know this before, I threw 4 grand down the fucking drain...

2005-03-04T22:14:00.000-05:00

Jealous?
[edit: I have also scored a ticket to the Monday show... that's right bitches, twice the fun :D]

Also, for those wondering, I will be spending my summer co-op term working at Ericsson Canada as a Junior Materials Planner.

Decisions, decisions...

2005-02-19T19:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was co-op ranking day, i.e. all coop students had a chance to find out how the employeers they had interviews with ranked them. You either got an Offer (they want you for the job), a Rank (employer want somebody else, but if they (and all the people ahead of you) decline, the employer wants you next), or Not Ranked (the employer does not want to hire you). Last year I did not have an opportunity to get an interview during intial phase so this was a new experience for me and I was pretty excited to see how I was ranked.

Right when my alarm rang on Friday morning at 7, I got up and went to my computer. This is quite unusual for me as I always hit the snooze at least 3 times and run out the door without breakfast, but I really wanted to see if I was employeed. Logging into Jobmine, I was a little shocked... I had 2 offers and 2 not ranks.

I knew for sure that I would get at least 2 not ranks since I totally blew one interview and wasn't qualified for the other job I interviewed for, but getting 2 offers surprised me. The offers are for Techincal Writer for UW and Junior Materials Planner for Ericsson. I was pleasently surprised at the Ericsson one since I wasn't that strong in that one at the start, but I guess I was wrong...

So for the past 2 days I've been trying to figure out which job would be better for me in an all-around sense. I've made a pros and cons list, talked to a bunch of people, and just thought about it. I still haven't made up my mind, but right now I'm leaning towards Ericsson since it's got more of a name recognition thing going on. If it wasn't for the hassle of housing in Mississauga and subletting my place here, the choice would be a lot easier for me. I'll keep y'all posted on what I decide.

Props to Adam for giving me the low down on Ericsson (he had the same job last summer).

That time of the month... for me to make a post, yo!

2005-02-12T11:32:00.000-05:00

Google Maps is the win. Any thing that you can use as a guide to find loose women near Waterloo is a winner imo. Although the directions it gives to go from my house in Waterloo to my house back home are very wrong indeed. Like I can cut at least 30 minutes from the directions displayed. I can't wait until this is out of beta. Graph theory rules, yo!

Coop has made me a believer. After getting only 1 interview all of first year, I have already surpassed that mark ~2 weeks into the interview part of initial phase. I had my first interview yesterday and it went ok. I got a few more interviews coming up next week, but I'm not really qualified for jackshit. Whatever, I'm gonna get practice and that's all I really want.

I love my CM class, I can barely understand what is going on, but it's great. On the otherside of the coin, I hate my CS class. I can't wait till this term is over and I'm done my final pure-CS class forever!!!

Back into the groove

2005-01-19T18:36:00.000-05:00

I now remember why I hated co-op. It takes so much time to get your stuff ready and at the end you basically amount to nothing, all the jobs you want are the ones you aren't good enough for. I don't know if I should be staying in co-op since I'm probably gonna get my Master's right out of school. It's all gonna depend on how good my job is this summer.

Thornley's coming to Cambridge on Feburary 10th. I'm gonna go with some guy from my old res. Should be great times.

I cannot stand Combinatorics. It's so freaking hard. I've been staring at my assignment and I have no idea where to start. When I get frustrated, I do some of my Act Sci assignment. Before I knew it, I finished my Act Sci assignment that's due next Wednesday, but I haven't even done 1 question for my Combinatorics assignment due Friday.

I'm starting to enjoy my Comp Math class. The stuff we are doing seems so much more relevant than anything I've done up until now. Our assignment that was due today was possibly the hardest assignment I've ever done and I had a good time just trying to figure it out.

Also, going back to my resolutions... Not even 20 days into 2005, I've burnt some bridges. These 2 chicks I know are mad at me, one of them won't even acknowledge me. And this is why I am me.

2005-01-08T20:24:00.000-05:00

I'm sick of studying so I'm taking a break. Studying on a Saturday night, I hate UW. Well I hate myself because I could easily be doing something, but I choose to be a hero and write exams in Janurary.

My classes this term are as follows:

ACTSC 231 (Mathematics of Finance) with Prof. Keith Freeland - I've already had some of this class before so I'm bored out of my mind right now. I'm so happy that this class has assignments and midterms instead of weekly quizzes. There's nothing I hate more than studying every week; I love the whole studying once or twice (or thrice as it appears is the case in this class: 2 midterms and a final) a term in order to get a fairly decent grade. The prof has great notes, he actually writes down theory instead of explaining it with questions like the last guy I had. I'm not gonna underestimate this class as I'm well aware that although the material is easy, the questions can be tricky.
CM 271 (Introduction to Computational Mathematics) with Prof. George Labahn - My prof's been away on vacation so we've had Prof. Hans De Sterck for the first two classes. So far the class has been really, really boring. Hopefully things pick up or I'll be changing my program to either Actuarial Science or Biology/Chemistry and then become a FCAS/FSA or a doctor (like every other brown person).
CS 230 (Introduction to Computers and Computer Systems) with Prof. Christopher K. Ingram - This is hopefully my last pure CS class. We have to learn how to use UNIX and we talk about computer hardware shit, it's so fucking boring. The prof is really good as he explains everything like we are very stupid. I appreciate being talked down to, and no that wasn't sarcasm. I like it when CS is explained like it was something very foreign because most of this stuff comes hard to me.
MATH 239 (Introduction to Combinatorics) with Prof. Michael Andrew La Croix - I've heard many, many bad things about this class... I've been dreading it for a while, but I have to take it for my CM degree. Only thing great about this class is that the work doesn't start for another 2 weeks so I can ignore this class for at least that long. My prof is a grad student, from what I can gather, and he seems like he really loves this shit and because of this, he explains concepts really well.
STAT 231 (Statistics) with Prof. Winston H Cherry - My first real Stats class. The prof really seems to love teaching this material so he makes the class milding interesting, which is as good as this can get because the material is really boring and also I have the class at 8:30. I've heard this is the most failed class by Math faculty students so I'm sorta scared.

Marks, FUCK YEA!

2005-01-04T22:15:00.000-05:00

I have finished* with an average >=80% after getting an unexpectedly decent mark in Linear Algebra II. They (appropriately) linearly transformed that exam, made it out of 88 instead of 100.

* I still have to write the Calculus III final. Calc is my weakest subject but I'm gonna try to prepare as much as I can and hopefully keep my 80.

Resolution

2005-01-01T14:19:00.000-05:00

So it's that time of year again, when everybody sets goals they won't even come close to achieving. So in the spirit of unrealistic expectations, my goals for 2005 are as follows (in no particular order of expected failure)...

Make it to all my classes on time. This is no easy task as I have 8:30 classes everyday next term and I live a half hour walk away from campus. My side-resolution is to eat breakfast everyday.
Get an average >= 80%. Also, side-resolution is to get >= 87% in CM 271 because if I'm not even good at what I want to do, why am I in it to begin with?
Get a coop job that I enjoy and can be proud of.
Pass the SOA/CAS exams P and FM
Burn as few bridges as I can with the people around me. By the end of the year, this is guaranteed to be broken.
Find a way to move out of the friend zone with this girl I like.
Start working out again. I went from being in decent shape in the summer to being me again, after I got back to da loo.

End of Term catchup

2004-12-25T16:35:00.000-05:00

Damn this term went by fast; it feels like I just started. I should've really spent more time with people that I'll never see again due the whole stream switch.

I've got two marks back so far, STAT 230 and CS 234; so far my average is over 80, I have no idea how. Especially in Stats, I had 60 going into the final and crammed for 2-3 days before the final. Algebra will lower the average for sure, but hopefully not by too much. I also had to defer my Calc III exam as I was sick the days leading up to as well as the day of, still have no idea when I'm writing it, or if I can write it.

I have my CSC part II test on January 12th so I decided to stay in Waterloo to study. Possibly the stupidest thing I've done since I'm bored out of my mind and not studying.

I'm starting to worry about co-op since I got fucked last time. I just hope I can score a few interviews and go from there.

Shaq vs Kobe has disappointed me. I'll always be a Lakers fan (have been ever since I was like 5 years old and moved to Santa Monica, CA), but I can't stand Kobe so I have no idea who I should cheer for.

So yeah, I have decided to try and score an Act Sci minor. I think I'm gonna write two SOA exams in the next sitting (especially after I surprised myself with my Probability mark). I have no idea what my program is, I'm making it up as I go. Computational Act Sci, anybody?

-isms or "How to Make a Long Post Really Fast Because I Don't Have To Worry About Introducing Things and Having Smooth Transitions Between Events"

2004-11-07T01:19:00.000-05:00

"Everybody keeps talking about this so-called Blogging Paradox. I've never really suffered from that problem since interesting things never happen to me. My absence can be attributed to my laziness."

"I talked to the Comp Math advisor around 3 weeks back. From the conversation we had, I came to the conclusion that I don't need to take Calculus 4 since my job will be more applying theory than knowing it very well. So I dropped Calc 4 from my schedule next term and because I couldn't think of a class that I would want to take in the Winter, I dropped Act Sci 231 this term. I am now enrolled in Act Sci 231 (Mathematics of Finance) next term, but I am still surveying the class this term."

"The OC started again and all is well in the world."

"I've slept like 20 hours in the past day and a half. My plan of having a STATurday fell through due to my drowsiness."

"My midterms have been going, umm... average. I have scored the average on all my midterms, except CS which I haven't got back yet. My predicition is another average result."

"I'm been making the transition this term into studying. By making the transition, I mean that I'm setting myself up to start doing actual work in 3A, which is ironically when the grad schools I'm thinking of applying to will start looking at my marks. My motto: "don't do anything unless you need to" has worked for me so far and there's no reason that it can't get me through another quarter of my life."

"This term is like the first term ever that I have hung out with people that are of the same race as me (i.e. south asian). It's weird because circumstances have always put me around white people, but this is the first time I'm actually making a conscious choice to be around brown people."

"I hate weekends when one of my good buddies goes home because I do absolutely nothing, socially or academically."

"Bush won and all is right in this world. Hopefully this can somehow be translated into a McCain nomination in '08, but I doubt it since he's old as fuck."

"Nex is starting to worry me. It doesn't seem as though he likes the cock, but rather doesn't like the cunt. He sounds happy though..."

To the interest of noone, but me...

2004-10-17T11:12:00.000-04:00

I drank with Heramb last night, yes "The Heramb"... We rock-paper-scissored for Kashmir (he's Indian and I'm Pakistani) and I won. Other than that, a very bad night. Meh, time to start studying for my Hell week.

To all wondering, Heramb is an Imprint Featured Columnist and UW Campus Legend.

-isms

2004-10-11T01:58:00.000-04:00

"Red Bull is finally available legally in Ontario! You can pick it up at the convenience store in University Plaza (Farah Food or some shit). Try it with a double shot of Vodka and thank me later."

"I have been trying to program in Java for my CS 234 assignment due in a little while. It's sad how I forgot all the CS 134 core concepts and, well, Java itself. I've spent most of the day relearning Java and have almost finished my Graph ADT implementation (using Adjacency List, for those wondering)"

"I've been pretty productive this weekend. I've caught up in Calculus, but haven't had the time to do any examples (so basically, I'm theoretically caught up... har har har). Now, I just have to understand what's going on in Lin Alg II so I can get a good start on my assignment today (damn you Wolkowicz for being so incomprehensible!) therefore leaving me with time to study for my Stats quiz all day Tuesday."

"I can't wait until this term is over so I can finally start my program (in my 4th term nonetheless)..."

"I'm coaching all my friends for their interviews that take place this week. I wonder if there's a way I can write that on my resume..."

Blurbs and what-nots

2004-10-07T23:44:00.000-04:00

I am starting to hate my rommates. Due to this, I'm spending more and more time away from home. I've been at the DP and DC libraries, in MC, and mostly just hanging with friends trying to avoid going back to my house. I should really go back to my hometown one weekend or something to get away from these fucking people. (I knew what I was getting into when I made my mind up to live with these guys, but I have mostly seen their bad qualities since we all moved in. It's like they practiced all summer on how to annoy me. I really wish I got a place with my best friend in Science; we are so different, yet similar, that we get along so well. In a way I'm happy that I'm not living with him because you never know what could happen...)

I'm actually doing most of my assignments by myself this year. I feel great everytime I finish a question because I am able to do something that I wouldn't have even attempted last year. Sure my marks on assignments are shit, but I'm sorta learning I guess.

I have never really appreciated the beauty and power of Math until this year. Doing shit myself has got me reading my text and I dunno... it's pretty cool how this stuff is actually useful.

I decided on my courses for next term: AMATH 231 (Calculus 4), CM 271 (Introduction to Computational Mathematics), CS 230 (Introduction to Computers and Computer Systems), STAT 231 (Statistics), and MATH 239 (Introduction to Combinatorics). I'm trying to get rid of all my Math prerequisites early so I can start taking Comp Math courses quicker.

I dunno what it is about 2nd year, but time is flying and I seem to be having a lot more fun without drinking as much. As a result, I'm more sociable when I drink and I can actually put together coherent sentences to pick up women insteading of drunkenly ramabling. It's great being the one getting numbers while my friends are acting like fools. I dunno if I'm feeling more confident and going up to more women after this past summer, but the opposite sex is treating me a lot better than they did last year.

All my friends are getting co-op interviews. This is great because I have been helping most of them with their resumes. Take that CECS, I have just made you my bitch.

Class Schedule

2004-10-01T23:00:00.000-04:00

I'm at home doing nothing on a Friday night. You know you're in UW when...

So yeah, 2nd year has been good so far. I've met a lot of people in Math, which is something I didn't think I would do. Shockingly enough, there are attractive girls in Math. Where the fuck were they last year? Maybe I'm just getting more and more desperate.

My classes this term are as follows:

Math 235 (Linear Algebra II) with Prof. Henry Wolkowicz - Interesting, but at the same time not. I love Algebra, but the I don't like the way the prof teaches; he uses the projector (FOR A FUCKING MATH CLASS!!!) and tries too hard to relate everything back to MatLab. He's associated with Comp Math, C&O department so I guess I better start liking his teaching methods b/c I know I'll have him for 3rd year classes, knowing my luck. If it wasn't for the amazing textbook, Linear Algebra and Its Applications by the great David C. Lay, I'd fail this class fo shizzle.
Math 237 (Calculus III) with Prof. Serge D'Alessio - Material is interesting and the prof is great. I'm gonna fuck this class up b/c I'm a moron that doesn't know any Calc I and II concepts so there is no way I can apply those concepts to higher dimensions. Oh well, whatever.
CS 234 (Data Types and Structures) with Prof. John May - A continuation of CS 134. Graph theory is very interesting, but other than that, this class sucks. After having Tompa for 134, I have no tolerance for bad CS profs. May is pushing the limits...
ACTSC 231 (Mathematics of Finance) with Prof. Robert L. Brown - Very 'interest'-ing material. Quiz every Monday worth 4% of my mark, I don't like that. Great prof, but he doesn't do enough theory, just jumps into examples and explains theory through different examples.
STAT 230 (Probability) with Prof. Riley Metzger - Material sucks. I hate Stats. The prof is good, but he doesn't do any hard examples in class.

Very large workload, and wouldn't you know it... I'm behind.

2004-09-22T23:35:00.000-04:00

I'm alive...

Coop Term 1... completed

2004-08-28T15:36:00.000-04:00

I'm finished my first coop term yesterday. I scored an Excellent rating for my performance, and a Very Good on my work report. Go me...

Wall Street Scandals

2004-08-19T17:17:00.000-04:00

Pretty interesting stuff; love how everything is connected. Good way to spend a day at work.

Random Events Part 3

2004-08-18T20:25:00.000-04:00

It was raining a little while ago; I love that smell of rain and dirt. I even got up from my work report (Note: currently at 0 words) to smell out the window. Smells almost as good as gasoline.

Why can't the people in my res that play their music loud, play something good (like me)? Damn selfish bastards. I hate Indian music so much!!!

Starting my work term report has been pretty grueling so far. Why am I lazy?!?! I should just get it out of the way. Bleh. Here's hoping to beat some guy who spent hours upon hours on it. I'll start my research tomorrow and then work on it all day Friday. :)

Don't you love that when you are listening to a song and you notice a part you never noticed before? It's almost as fun as the adventure of eating a Kinder egg!

LOL. Good times. I'm looking through Jones Soda labels that my friends and I submitted last year during the final week of high school. We filled a locker with shaving cream and sent pictures of it. I dunno how those (priceless) pics weren't selected to be on the bottle!!! Wow, time really flies. I just remember that particular prank like it was just mere days ago.

Why can't I find Jones Soda anywhere? It's not like I've been looking, but I've has been in a few convenience stores over the past year and I can't find Jones anywhere. I used to go through withdrawls from not having that amazingly great Green Apple Soda. *drools*

I've spent around 3 hours writing this post... I keep going away to do other things. Sad thing is I'm still at 0 words for my work term report.

All my friends are being stupid or lazy. None of them wants to go (read: drive me) to Cambridge on September 1st to catch the Thornley show; they either don't want to go for some strange reason or are moving to Waterloo after September 1st. I'm still trying to get people from my hometown to go (read: drive me). Why are people useless? It's at times like this that I really wish I had my G2.

I'm throwing it out there... if anybody wants to drive me to the Thornley show in Cambridge on Sept 1st, lemme know. I'll split the gas and pay for half of your ticket (tickets are $19-23). Plus, you'll get to met me and that in itself is priceless.

Top 5 lists

2004-08-14T13:36:00.000-04:00

In the spirt of High Fidelity, I'll be posting top 5 lists periodically... mostly because I'm running out of other content to throw up. My life is very boring.

My Top 5 Most Listened to Bands from February 20th to Now
Based on the number of times I've heard songs by the artist
5. Soundgarden

What can I say? I love Cornell. I've been mostly listening to Superunknown with a bit of Badmotorfinger every now and then.

4. Big Wreck

My all-time favourite band. If I listen to BW, I go through their entire discography (all two CDs; In Loving Memory Of... and The Pleasure and The Greed), inserting their unreleased stuff when it seem appropriate (mostly the song "Ill Advice"). Check out this fine band and thank me later.

3. Alter Bridge

Since their debut CD, One Day Remains, was released on Tuesday, I've been going through it like mad. I've racked up 15-16 spins in 5 days. I'm loving Tremonti's style (guitar masturbation with his foot on the wah wah) and Myles Kennedy's voice. Although some of the guitar licks are recycled, this is a solid CD that I can't get enough of (well at least this week). Note: I know this could be Creed, but it doesn't have Stapp so it makes everything a lot better

2. Velvet Revolver

Contraband is one of the best and most varied rock CDs of the past 5 years. There is basically something for everybody on this album; only CD I have where people in my res, upon hearing it blasting from room, asked me either to turn it up or the name of the band/song.

1. Thornley

Is anybody really suprised by this selection? I've been listening to Thornley's debut, Come Again, since it was released back in mid-May. This is the only CD I have on my MiniDisc player so I've averaged at least spin a day since I got the CD.

Random Events part 2

2004-08-11T17:07:00.000-04:00

I'm getting swamped at work these days. It's more of a problem with the amount of work being given to me than my slacking and having it pile up. I hate having deadlines to meet. Now because of all this extra work I'm doing (which will look great on the resume), I will have to do my work term report on my own time. That's just great... Sad thing is that with the amount of free time I had at work during the middle part of the term, I could have finished my report and then some.

I am offically in Stream 4 and will be changing over with two straight study terms beginning in the Fall of this year. I'll end up having one less work term and one more study term. Meaning I can take a few courses that I wouldn't have been able to take before. Also means that I will have to get OSAP for another year and build up my debt.

I strained my neck while working out yesterday and I'm a hurting unit. That's what I get for not really working on my neck all summer.

A year after the first graduating class is admitted, the Comp Math program is having it's first event, a "Welcome to Campus" get-to-know-people-in-or-affiliated-with-the-program reception on September 13. I'll finally meet somebody from my program. That's so sad that I've been here for a year and haven't met one person in Comp Math... well it's not that sad since I really don't socialize with people from my faculty (nothing against them, I just never got to know anybody since it takes me a little while to open up to people. It was easier to do it with the people in my res since I saw them all the time).

With the upcoming stream change I will have to find a new group of math friends to copy assignments off and also seek out a new group of drinking buddies; unless my worlds collide and I start drinking with the Mathies... Next thing you know, I'll be involved in MathSoc and living in Comfy. Well anything could happen...

I d/led the Alter Bridge debut CD, One Day Remains (would've bought it if it was priced reasonably at say like 10 bucks instead of closer to 20... ). I was pretty skeptical since I hated Creed, but it's actually pretty good (mostly thanks to Myles Kennedy and his fine vocals; although he was better in the Mayfield Four... but that's another topic). If I was in Toronto, I'd check out Alter Bridge's show in October, but I'm not so whatever; I'm sure they'll come back next summer. Check out the song "In Loving Memory" by them... it gave me chills; Mark Tremonti wrote it about his mom. Also the Metallica inspired, "Watch Your Words" is great as well.

So yeah, Myles Kennedy was incredible with his old band, The Mayfield Four. Check out their CDs, Fallout and Second Skin. The first 5 songs of Fallout ("Shuddershell", "Suckerpunch", "Forfeit", "Always", and "No No One Nothing") are as good as any 5 opening tunes on any CD.

Cold blooded

2004-08-06T20:17:00.000-04:00

RIP Superfreak.

Random Events Update

2004-07-30T10:04:00.000-04:00

I just wrote the CSC part I exam this week so I've been a bit busy and couldn't update for a while. I think I did fairly well, hopefully good enough to pass (should get the results in ~2 weeks). It's weird, I studied a fair amount, but like 2 days before the exam I just stopped and couldn't force myself to do anything; it was like I was back in UW. Hopefully I can get over this not-studying-when-it-matters-phobia soon or else this will be another long term.

So yeah, I'm actually pretty excited to go back to UW. I think it's more to do with the fact that I'll see all my friends again than it has to do with the going back to school part. Also, I'm moving into a house with a couple of friends. That should be great times.

Thornley is coming to Cambridge on September 1st, unoffically for now but it's out there. I'm moving in on September 1st. My only friend with a car is turning 19 on September 4th-5th (not too sure). I just hope the bouncer won't be a total ass and argue over days.

My fall schedule is starting to look to me right about now. I was not made to work 8 to 4:30.

My co-op work report is coming along nicely. I have to email some guy to ask how the database is set up and then I can start BS-ing away.

Give this man the gold!

2004-07-14T13:57:00.000-04:00

Speed drinking, without the hangover

A product that promises to get people drunk 10 times faster without the punishment of a hangover ... created in a machine that mixes a shot of alcoholic spirit with oxygen, this creates a cloudy vapour and is inhaled through the mouth or nose.

The inventor has just taken his place in one of humankind's smartest men. Too bad the machine costs $3000. Might be worth that price for no hangover.

Meeting with my UW co-op supervisor: I had a meeting with my coop supervisor guy today and we chatted a bit about the work I did, how I liked it, and the work report I will have to write. We then got to talking about my next co-op term and I told him that I would most likely be having my next term in the summer. He said that finding employment in the summer is very hard and that I should try to find something myself. I'm so glad that my co-op fee is being put into great use by having me find my own jobs.

Wasting money

2004-07-14T11:32:00.000-04:00

Scans 'add value' to JobMine

A new service announced by UW Graphics and the co-op education department will allow students to impress employers with "high school marks, certificates, diplomas, awards and letters of recommendation" ... Students can take to Express Copy (in the Dana Porter Library) additional documents they would like to make available to potential employers. They will be scanned and posted on the web in PDF format with a secure URL. This URL can be given to employers or included in a student's resumé on JobMine.

Isn't the whole point of your resume to summarize all that stuff without having to "send it all in"? The only thing I see as being useful is the letter of recommendation, but imo the only time that should be used by employers is after the interview. Also, if the student really wanted to include all that stuff, it's not too hard to set up hosting and have images or links in the resume. Why is UW paying for student laziness while they talk about cutting costs?

HTML Resume update: I'm all geared up for JobMine and have made my resume template with Notepad (I should really get a decent HTML editor). It looks good on 800x600+, but needs work to look better at 640x480.

Personal reflection after a year

2004-07-11T15:39:00.000-04:00

Last year around this time, I started this blog. I was so excited to begin the first chapter in the rest of my life that I wanted to share it with the rest of the world. I would be getting an experience that would shape who I am and help me become what I want to be. I had goals and a plan on how to attain those goal.

A lot has changed in a year. My plan is shot to hell and there's nobody to blame except myself. I used my incredible work ethic not only to set me back a year, but also push me further back than I was a year ago. I wish I could get a fresh start, but in real life there are no such things. Now I'd have to work twice as hard in order to get anywhere near reaching my goals and we all know that ain't happening. I'll have to carve my own path, innovate if you will, to get anything done.

In a way this is good character building. I have learned there are moments in your life that test who you are and ultimately define you. As a person who usually takes pride in being the go-to-guy during crunch time, I sure as fuck blew it last year. Now it's just a time to reflect on what I did wrong, learn from my fuck ups in order to better realize those life defining moments before they occur.

[edit: Can I be any more concise? An entry that I could've easily stretched out to a couple of pages, I finish in 3 paragraphs. I wish I could write]

The hunt is on...

2004-06-29T12:56:00.000-04:00

Does anybody remember Jello Pudding Pops? Sure ya do... who doesn't remember those great Pudding Pops? As you probably know, Jello stopped making those tasty treats t-some time t-ago (T-note: t-alliteration t-rules). A few days ago, I was told by unidentified sources that Jello Pudding Pops were back in the freezers in stores everywhere; even in remote locations like Canada. I leapt that this great news as I would be able to taste my childhood once again.

That day, my mission became clear; to seek out where these pudding pops are being sold, buy them in large quantities, enjoy their delicious-ness, then take over the world. After much walking and searching every freezer in a 3 mile radius, I have yet to find one store that knows anything about Pudding Pop being re-released. It is a sad, sad week for humanity.

I desparately needed a Pudding Pop fix (yes I haven't had them for years, but the fact that Pudding Pops are still floating around had me show some symptoms of withrawl). I got to the state where I went so far as to make a pudding pop using the Jello recipe, but it wasn't the same.

If anybody knows where Pudding Pops are sold, could you please let me know?

Election Propaganda
Liberals got the minority government (155 seats were needed for the majority), no surprise there. Now what alliances will be made? I think since Martin has been trying to be more left than he is, he'll get the NDP support while the Conservatives and Bloc will oppose them. Looking at the seats:
Liberals + NDP = 154
Conservatives + Bloc = 153
Independent = 1

Hopefully this independent MP (a former member of the Canadian Alliance party) will join (or re-join) the Conservative party and give them and the Bloc the voting majority they need to have another election in less than a year.

Courses for the fall term

2004-06-22T21:31:00.000-04:00

I selected my courses for the fall term today. The process was as painless as possible since I was logged into Quest an hour before my enrollment appointment. I selected my courses and was in and out in like 5 minutes, which is a little faster than my usual time (heh heh). Hell, I found the process so easy that I even set up a friend's timetable since his connection was messed up.

View my schedule. ACTSC231 is my only elective this term. Yes, that's right, folks: I picked a math elective along with my 4 other math/CS classes.

This coming term will be killer, but I better get used to it; all my terms from here on in will have 5 math/CS courses.

Republican at heart

2004-06-19T22:12:00.000-04:00

I went out and voted early (won't be in my riding when the polls are open on Election day) for the Canadian federal elections today. FYI, I voted for Stephen Harper and his right-wing platform.

Vote Stephen Harper and welcome tax cuts and better accountability from our government.

Decisions, decisions

2004-06-19T15:21:00.000-04:00

My supervisor was installing some software on my computer yesterday and I was making some small talk with him. I asked if they were taking on another co-op student in the fall and if they had interviewed anybody yet. I really didn't mean to give an impression that I wanted to work there in the fall, but that's the message I sent out.

He asked me if I would like to stay on in the fall term as well. I was shocked by this since I wasn't expecting it. It's good to know that the work you are doing is appreciated, but I didn't known what to say to his offer. I explained that I was supposed to be the other stream so I didn't know if I would be able to switch so I would have to talk it over with my advisor. I just needed some time to think.

Pros
- $$$
- avoid school for another term
- switch streams painlessly
- would get some more time to finish my summer to do list

Cons
- housing for the fall
- rented a house in Waterloo already... if I knew I would be there for one term only, I would've subletted a place for that term
- wouldn't be able to take CM 271 until the fall term of 2005 (thus delaying the start of my major)
- wouldn't get to take any extra classes since my electives for my 8 required terms are already decided
- would have to pay income tax since I'd be over my deductible limit for the year

I have no idea of what I should do. If only I didn't rent a house in Waterloo already, things would've been much easier.

Mapping out the mundane

2004-06-18T10:30:00.000-04:00

In an effort to become more blog-like, I will try to talk more about my life.

I saw Shrek 2 on Tuesday with WatPubs... good movie. Just like the UW ratio suggests, there were 2 girls among like 10 guys. We went to a pub afterwards.

I went out with a friend on Wednesday. I expected it to be something it was not... now there is awkwardness.

On Sunday, I found the West Wing shared on the network. I had heard great things about the show, but I never had seen it before. I just gave one episode a try and now I'm hooked. I've seen one and half seasons in 5 days. Best. Show. Ever.

The UofT network is great; I gotta get a new hard drive. I'm looking at a Seagate 200GB, 8MB cache IDE drive or a Western Digital 200GB SATA drive. Why can't my refund get here sooner?

I'm so glad that Creed broke up because Alter Bridge is amazing. Myles Kennedy has been amazing since with the Mayfield Four; it's good that the world is finally noticing.

I'm going home for the weekend, hopefully I can get some studying done; I need to know enough from last year so I don't fail this year.

GMail (Google's 1GB email service) invitations were going at $50 on eBay less than a month ago; Google just increase the amount of invites and now they are barely a buck a piece on eBay. Ahh, the laws of supply and demand are amazing to watch in action. Side Note: I made around 50 bucks from selling GMail invites a month ago; the marketplace is fun to take advantage of.

If anybody wants a GMail invite, ask. I have more invites than I can shake a stick at (as soon as I use them all up, I get 5 more the next day).

An insult to me more than the university

2004-06-14T09:35:00.000-04:00

Deadline to say yes to Waterloo

minimum admission averages for ... co-op math "High 70s to low 80s"

High 70s to low 80s? That's our bottom cusp for the highly regarded co-op program in our 'world-renown' Math faculty? We shouldn't have to settle for high 70s, it's an insult to the faculty (the only math one in Canada, I might add) that they can't attracted the best and brightest who want to study math but have to settle for people that have high 70s. I'm not trying to say that these people aren't capable, because I'm not one to talk since I'm the most incompetent person out there, but all these people going into co-op... a co-op system that right now already is having enough problems trying to get students (including ones with averages above 80 in university) jobs.

As I've said before, they let too many fucking people into co-op. Also, god only knows that what the average for the regular math program is...

Congrats to all the people who got into coop. Thanks for helping to build the Tatham Centre!

Longing for old (it's like nostalgia without the stupid word )

2004-06-01T14:47:00.000-04:00

I never though I would say this, but I can't wait till I go back to school in September. Brrrrrrrrr; you guys feel that? That was hell freezing over. It's not school that I miss -- although I am looking forward to ACTSC231 (which sounds pretty cool) and the dreaded STAT230 class (which, knowing me, will be on my course schedule for the majority of my undergrad life) -- it's the people.

I miss all the people that I haven't seen this summer.
I miss the never-ending pointless conversations that dragged on until 2 in the morning with those said people.
I miss our drunken adventures.
I miss all the stupid things we did in order to meet girls wherever we went.
I miss just hanging out with my boys.
I miss complaining how life in Waterloo sucked even though it was/is the best time of our lives.
I miss bitching about how there was nothing to do on Friday and Saturday nights, even though we were always getting caught up in some crazy situation basically every week.
Basically, I miss my brothers!

I'm getting a lot of hits and emails from people that are being accepted into UW asking me about how I like it. I think what I just said says it all: I'm having the time of my life...

One more day...

2004-05-26T14:54:00.000-04:00

It's just a mere 30 hours until doors open for Thornley at the Mod Club!!!! I can't wait! I'll be going with two people from my old rez at UW.

I haven't been this excited for a concert since Big Wreck hit up Roy Thompson Hall like 3 years ago. I better enjoy it because it looks like this will be my only chance to catch Thornley this summer, unless I can somehow get to Guelph, London, or St. Catherines for the shows there...

[edit: May 26th - 3:53PM]
"Best part of work is getting emails announcing the free food in the break room! *runs off to load up on sandwiches and pop* Somebody's not going to the grocery store for another 2 days."

2004-05-26T07:37:00.000-04:00

Picture made by some guy on a forum after discussing what I was reading.

Some more -isms

2004-05-17T14:02:00.000-04:00

"Touching the LCD screen of laptop with an ocean blue desktop background is great fun! My finger is a water droplet!!!"

"Listening to people try to set up a three way call via speakphone is funny when that said person is pretty incompetent (well at 3 way calling at least)."

"I should really put some Vodka in my water bottle so I can at least have some fun at work."

[edit: May 18th - 10:20AM]
"One of the perks of my job is taking shit from everybody for the incompetence of the last guy who was here (I love him for making me look good to my superiors [the guy knew crap all about HTML and he lost a projector!], but hate him for me taking flak for stuff he didn't do or did wrong)."

[edit: May 19th - 9:37AM]
"I came to work early today because I had to set up a presentation a bit across town from where I work. So I come in, pick up the heavy equipment (a small laptop and a HUGE projector) and I lug it down to the destination. Upon arriving in the room, I was informed that the presenter was told that a projector was not available for today so she made overheads and did not bring the presentation on CD. Now I just made my trip for no reason, my back hurts a bit, and I'm very tired."

"My boss grew up with Phil Hartman (who brilliantly played Bill MacNeal on TV's NewsRadio). That is just so cool!"

[edit: May 25th - 2:44PM]
"I am so bored outta my mind; I wish there was something for me to do. I'm almost at the stage where I am going to bring my Calculus book to work and make my way through it."

When the last thing I want to do is work

2004-05-17T13:13:00.000-04:00

I've been searching the c:\ of the computer I'm on (i.e. the coop student's computer for the past many terms) and came across 4 (that's right: FOUR!!!) work term reports created by the past 2 coop students. Score, except wait!!! Each of the students seems like they were asked to come back! Even the last guy who wasn't very competent.

I sure as hell hope they don't ask me to come back. It's not like I hate the job, but I rather be doing something else. [break in thought: I just heard about a contest where the winning prize is Thornley performing at your house; how cool would that be? The answer: very.] Hopefully I can use the changing streams line in order to tell them that I would not be able to come back. Meh, I don't want to burn any bridges on my way out.

Also a few tips for you coop kiddies:
- E-Messenger.net is a nice alternative to MSN if you cannot install things on your computer
- Fark.com and Bash.org help in passing the day; as does UW Bulletin and the Thornley Board
- Googling is a nice way to make it look like you are working... as is typing up blog entries in Notepad

I'll keep this going once I figure out ways to access Hotmail

Coop Life

2004-05-14T09:22:00.000-04:00

First of all, I'm loving this new Blogger interface. Well, everything except the new Blogger link image that is at the bottom of this page.

Second of all, living in Toronto isn't as great as I thought it would be. I know like nobody here; and the people I know I can't communicate with because my internet and cell phone aren't activiated yet. I've been trying to meet the people on my floor at University College - Whitney Hall, but nobody's having any of that. They seem like they are all shut ins. I've talked to like 4 people, 2 of them involved the one word and that's it. I guess it should pick up once I have means to communicate with the outside world.

Thirdly, work is picking up a lot! I've been assigned to work on a website that is on "Minister-level priority" since the project is more than 2 months behind schedule. I also get to attend meetings concerning the educational system in Ontario and how to make it better; it's actually more interesting than it sounds since there are some very hot teachers that are in attendence. Another one of the random jobs I get to do is to evaluate the cost-efficiency of different computer programs. The only thing that sucks at work is not having anybody around my age to talk to; it gets really tiring to just talk to people about important things... I need useless conversation.

It will take all my strength to survive the four months I'm here if things keep going the way they are currently going.

2004-05-07T20:48:00.000-04:00

...and if people are reading today: Thornley's on Leno tonite. Watch!

Now back to packing and listening to Thornley (got it illegal but will buy when it comes out on Tuesday, you should too!)

First Day of Work

2004-05-03T21:53:00.000-04:00

Spot is reserved if I ever want to blog about my first day of work.

[edit: first day of work post below]

So I have my co-op at the Ministry of Education in the position of Technical Support. It was my first and only interview and I got the job the day of the interview. Basically my role is that of an IT guy for the floor I am on without actually doing IT work (union rules, etc) in which I do a variety of odd tasks like design web pages, manage databases, fix computer problems, and some other things that are not related to comptuers.

So the first day I got there, being from a fairly small city, entering downtown Toronto to start my first day was a bit different that what I was used to in my other jobs. It was a little bit intimidating as everything is just so big and crowded. I got there at 8:45 so I sat outside till 9:00 to have perfect timing when entering (ala Dave on his first day on Newsradio). Right when I got there, I had a list of work to do, all of which was from the previous term: I had to do what the guy before me didn't finish. So after I finished my first urgent assignment, I got the tour of the office and met everybody. After this I'm just starting the stuff that the guy before me didn't get done. Day ends.

A few notes:
- incompetent people make me look very good as I can do the work at a normal pace and comparatively I am relatively very quick
- even though I'm an IT guy, I cannot install anything on my computer without calling the actual IT department
- government jobs seem rather cushy
- being overloaded with a lot of little things add up to take away your whole time
- Toronto is huge!!!
- I'm glad my first co-op is easy so I get a good evaluation

So that's basically my day. Oh, I forgot to mention that I commute 2 hours every day in each direction to get to work. This is why I'm gonna be moving into the University of Toronto - University College residence on Monday at the earliest.

Other Notes: I got Thornley tickets, am trying to scrounge up Velvet Revolver Tickets, and will probably hit up Van Halen, maybe even Prince, and a few other bands. This is starting to look like a very good summer: living in downtown (which my parents are covering the payment of), making money, getting a bunch of stuff on my to do list done, and hitting up some great concerts.

On the School Front: My average is better than last term at 75.4. I think that's great for the amount of work I did (or didn't do). If I didn't fuck up Calc so bad, my average would've been half-way decent. It will be different in 2A!!! :p Actually it will start turning around in 2B when I actually have classes I want like Intro to Comp Math.

The best is yet to come

2004-04-29T16:24:00.000-04:00

Google files for an IPO. This is great news for the tech sector as it's gonna start reaching the stage of matured growth sooner than I thought. Meaning: I'm gonna be investing a chunk of my coop earnings into the market and will, hopefully, be able to pay for next my next term.

In other news, I'm bored outta my mind and can't wait to start work. Also, Thornley's gonna be at the Mod Club on May 27th... everybody should check it out! Speaking of mod, all I've really done during the break between finals and work is get back into the Mod scene by going through my yearly (The) Who and (The) Jam phase.

Moved Out of Res

2004-04-22T22:48:00.000-04:00

I've moved most of my stuff out of my single residence room. It's hitting me now and I'm pretty sad. I'm gonna miss everybody, especially my floor, but I guess it's good in the sense that the people I miss the most are the ones I will stay in contact with so I guess it's gonna be good in a way.

I'm not gonna think of it as moving out, but rather as weeding out your life long friends.

...because planning things out makes way too much sense

2004-04-22T11:09:00.000-04:00

UW co-op programs in Math have two different "streams" (unless you are in a specialized program like BBA/BMath or Math/Accounting), Stream 4 and Stream 8. Basically, Stream 4 is having a coop term every four months starting in the winter term of your first year and Stream 8 is having a coop term every fourth months starting in the spring term of you first year. Detailed sequencing for each is listed here.

Since I need to get some prerequisites out of the way, I thought I'd go the route of taking Distance Education this summer to get a much needed course while I'm not really doing anything. To figure out which courses I need, I had to make a schedule of what classes I would take in each of my terms here, which lead me to find a problem: my program is meant for people in Stream 4 and I am currently in Stream 8. The conflict presents itself in 4A and 4B when I would not be able to take all the courses I need in order to get my degree in the required 4 and 2/3 years. I think that could be a small problem imo.

I went and saw my academic advisor and he said that he didn't even know that this was a problem until 2 months ago when he traced course selection and saw that Stream 8 CMers would have conflict problems later on. His suggestion was to either go to Stream 4 or have the faculty try to work with me and maybe figure something out later on.

Since it's easier to change streams than have the faculty accomodate me, I'm going into Stream 4 hopefully by having 2 straight study terms in the fall and winter of next year. The result is one less work term and one extra study term (which I love because it allows me to take courses I would not normally take). Winner: me because I am basically gonna be going at the same pace as the regular students (i.e. one not in co-op) for at least a year so I'll be a term ahead of all Stream 4 people. Sweet!

The only problem is that I signed my year long lease thinking I'd be around for the summer term, but now in order not to lose any money subletting my room: I will need to find a job in Waterloo.

This just in...

2004-04-20T17:24:00.000-04:00

I have to switch to Stream 4 starting next year meaning I'll have two straight study terms yet again.

More on this later, probably around Thursday.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

2004-04-20T05:17:00.000-04:00

I have a Macroeconomics final today worth 50% of my mark and I've been up all night just talking with two friends about absolutely nothing. Damn I waste a lot of time. I've done absolutely no studying and I'm so fucked. Why don't I ever learn my lesson!?!?

Some funny stories were passed around like chasing a guy with half shaved head around like you're gonna beat him up, cold coffee spill at Tim Horton's, filling a guy's room with newspaper, and some talk about first year in general.

After we were done talking, one of the guys goes into his room and finds that it had been toilet papered courtesy some of his friends. Just priceless.

Come Again...

2004-04-14T13:23:00.000-04:00

Thornley has released their debut album in the form of an e-card. WOOT!!!

This will hold up till May 11th, when I'll be first in line to get their CD.

2004-04-14T10:26:00.000-04:00

I got raped on my Calculus II final and I can't connect to SuprNova because ResNet is out to get people who download.

Yesterday/Today was/is not my day.

I am in the process of selling out

2004-04-10T23:19:00.000-04:00

Check out Velvet Revolver - Slither. Finally, after so long there's something new from Slash. CD's coming out June 8th. Can't wait for it.

Also, check out Thornley's debut, Come Again, on May 11th. Damn I so regret not going to the Nickelback show in Kitchener on February 14th to see Thornley except not really since it's a Nickelback show. :P

The Bachelor

2004-04-08T19:05:00.000-04:00

Three years after swearing off reality shows because of how obsessive I got from them (i.e. I scheduled my week around Survivor Austrailia in grade 11), I'm hooked on the Bachelor.

I never thought I'd watch it but since I was bored yesterday (read: needing to procrastinate studying for Business) and the hockey games were basically done with Detroit and Boston having unsurmountable leads, the guys from my building changed the channel and we got our Bachelor on.

During the rose ceremony (he gives roses to the women he wants to keep around) when the guy didn't give the flower to the stunning brunette or cute student, we were all yelling at the TV. Seconds later people came in and are like: "who scored" (most likely referring to the hockey game), but we're like: "it's the Bachelor, that dumbass didn't pick the hot chicks..." It was jokes.

Ahhh, damn ABC... now I'm hooked.

Searches

2004-04-06T23:25:00.000-04:00

Sometimes when I get bored, or just want to put off work a little longer, I look at my site logs. It's really weird/funny to see the ways people get to this site, by which I mean the searches people conduct that bring up my site as the result.

I'll just post a few of them:
- "i hate integrals". Why do you care if anybody else hates integrals?
- life of a math student - how is my site not the #1 result?!?!
- life experience of math personality
- jim mccutcheon WLU - I dunno how my site is #2, but it is. Also, it's sorta hard to get to Jim's site when he just uses Laura Allan's.

Final Exam Update:
I had Algebra today and I killed it. It was pretty easy and if you combine that with my studying quite a bit, you'll end up with my first 80+ Math mark in university. Cross your fingers for me.

Salary Disclosure 2003

2004-03-31T09:55:00.000-05:00

The University of Waterloo released a list this morning of all employees that were plaid more than $100 000 during 2003, in accordance with the Ontario's Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act.

Interesting...

Meet with Advisor

2004-03-29T22:32:00.000-05:00

I met with my advisor again (the first time I just wanted to know what I was getting myself into), but this time I actually had a few academic related questions.

I had gone through the UW Undergrad Calendar and selected courses that seemed interesting to take and would help me get a finance related job. I also made a note of pre-requisites so I made sure I didn't miss anything. After that, I had a list of courses 2 pages long. I went to my advisor to ask which ones he felt were needed and which ones could be skipped over

He basically told me that the faculty was very lenient with the 3 application classes I need. Also, since in Comp Math you choose 4 out of 5 subject areas, he told me which ones would be applicable in my area of specialization. Also, I got more insight on how to use Computational Mathematics out in the real world, especially in finance. Plus, all of you non-Comp Math people (I don't like the term, CMers) can thank us for the additions to the Linear Algebra 1 course (MATH 136) in the form of interpolating functions, floating point, and basically all the supplimentary stuff (eat it bitches).

So basically, I have a list of every single course I will be taking in university (except for my 3 application classes which I haven't settled on). I love being so organized.

I'm just posting because it gives me a reason not to do work... now that it's done, I'll be listening to some Buckethead, chilling, and starting my CS assignment.

BTW, I forgot to submit two posts (1, 2), but they're here now so whatever. Enjoy if you're into that kind of stuff.

Name That Tune

2004-03-22T19:54:00.000-05:00

One of my friends found out that there was a Name That Tune competition happening in MC so we got a team of 4 people from our floor together to try and win that thing. The event was today and it was pure jokes.

First of all, it was run by the biggest fucking CSer who didn't know anything about music at all (ex. putting Blind Melon's No Rain in the 80s category). Lino Dimasi, the MathSoc President, humped a chair (yes, you read right, a chair!!!!) for a good 10-20 seconds; it was disturbing. I'm sorry, but anything else I tell you will pale in comparison to that.

My team finished last, very proudly. We knew a lot of the songs, but we were late in "buzzing in." Oh well, it was pretty fun to see what kind of people give the Math faculty it's reputation.

Good Times

2004-03-19T18:38:00.000-05:00

As I look back, I notice that my life is full of regret. I regret not trying harder in high school to get to my first choice of university. I regret not going after [her] when we had this amazing connection just because... I regret not having... I gotta stop this, I'm getting too personal. So even this year, my life is full of regret. Although most of what I wish I can take back is academic, there are a few regrets that aren't as much so. I regret not persuing what I want for stupid reasons, but my biggest regret is not getting to know more people better than I could have.

Yesterday I bonded with a guy from my floor that I just got to know pretty well in the recent weeks. We just started talking and it's weird to say that a person so much like me was on my floor the whole time and we barely even knew each other. Best moment of the night: We brought out our high school year books, listened to Vitamin C - Graduation, and just exchanged great memories. Pure jokes. Things like that make me realize that I'm gonna miss my floor so much after this year.

Back to the lighter side of my residence news, somebody ripped down all the exits signs on our floor after a St. Paddy's day bash. It wasn't anybody on the floor, nobody knows who did it, but we have to pay. Fucking UW can kiss my ass if they think I'm gonna pay for something I didn't do.

Fire Alarm at 3

2004-03-12T03:34:00.000-05:00

Some fucking idiot was messing around with the fire extinguisher on the 3rd floor of my building and set off the fire alarm. Good times, except for the waking up at 3 and going outside part.

Funniest moment of the night: My don playing bad cop and getting in all our faces; was just priceless to watch. She wants somebody to tell her who did it or else! (hahahahaha) I'm thinking of slipping a piece of paper under her door saying, "I did it."

Strangest moment of the night: A guy walking out in just his boxer-briefs, well he was drunk and he's huge so it's all good... probably just showing off.

Most Questionable moment of the night: Getting back a DVD from a guy on my floor and on the way back hearing loud laughter from the double room at the end of the hall; followed by muffled talking. I dunno?!?!

Aside: I had a dream in which I used my Comp Math powers (which I haven't even begun to acquire) to create a compression format that is both lossless and small in file size. Yeah, it's embarrassing to say the least, but a man can dream about audio perfection can't he?
[/Wannabe Audiophile... I just don't have good speakers, but my headphones are amazing]

Update: It's almost 4 and my don is on my floor questioning the said double room, or so I think (I don't wanna peer outside). I think it's time for a well scheduled bathroom break.

Update: It's 4:44 right now and there's a lot of shit that went down tonite. Half of it is so damn great that I was laughing for 10 minutes; the other half is disgusting. Also got my floor to agree to slipping a note under the door proclaiming that each one of us did it.

2004-03-12T02:07:00.000-05:00

I've been so bored for the past couple of days that I found out which audio compression my ears prefer (it's Ogg Vorbis BTW). So I spent most of the day re-ripping all the CDs I could to -q 5 in Vorbis (~160kbps) compared to 192kbps in MP3 and the sound quality is so much better!

Now I can blast my music very loud and have my crappy speakers sound good at higher volumes.

Co-op works (or: My rage against the CECS has dissipated)

2004-03-11T17:07:00.000-05:00

Record number have jobs; but 200 don't

Gives us an employment rate of 95.41% for the winter term. All this says to me is that UW lets too many fucking people into co-op.

Summer To Do List...

2004-03-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

I'm all about the To Do List. I've even got a program that creates a calendar, on my desktop, with all the stuff I need to do. I'm very organized, yet also very lazy, so it basically serves me the purpose of a handy procrastination list.

Since I got a summer job (a co-op job nonetheless; I still can't believe how I got it after my first interview, which I got after I lowered my standards for a job. My standards are always way too high, especially for women, but that's a different topic all together), I'm making a list of things I hope to accomplish before coming back to UW (yes, I will be coming back despite my bitter unhappiness in what I'm currently doing; I guess it's only for the fact that my favourite prof is my program director and he's got my hyped about Comp Math).

Summer To Do List

Get an Excellent rating on my co-op work term
Learn guitar sorta well
Work out at least twice a week (I need to get in shape for the ladies), I'm pretty small so it won't take too long (last time I was 'jacked' was in Grade 11 when I was all about the amateur wrestling)
Get my CSC
Learn SQL to help me with my next co-op term
Get to some summer concerts (hopefully to see Thornley, don't worry, nobody's heard of them; they don't have a CD out yet, but they will)
Figure out exactly what I want to do with my life and apply myself to that goal (still planning to get the MBA, but I need to get on the ball for that. Plus, Oldford makes Comp Math sound great so maybe I'll go into Computational Finance/Mathematical Finance after undergrad and use my Comp Math skills to fuck shit up)
Get down to my boys' 19th and make a weekend event outta it.

Just as a side note:
You know those Brock girls in the email going around? They were at Philty's on Friday! I wish I went down, hell one of my friends asked me to go, but I already had plans to celebrate that night with a buddy that was leaving UW, well left UW yesterday, to do something else at some other institution of higher learning. I went to REV and had an ok time, only a couple of ladies were feeling me, quite literally, but damn I wanted to dance with some "celebrities." For all those wondering, I hear the brunette, who actually goes to Guelph, is cool and the blonde is a huge tramp.

Gots a Job

2004-03-07T03:06:00.000-05:00

A few hours after making a comment about how I wasn't expecting to get a co-op job, I checked Access (the UW co-op site) and saw that I had an interview. I was like whoa, totally didn't see that coming.

So anyways, I had my interview on Friday and I was feeling pretty confident that I had gotten the job (given my cocky nature and 100% placement rate after every interview I've had). The interview was very unstructured and I was given a chance to expand on my resume at every chance. The preparation I had done was mostly about the organization itself and the nature of the job, but once I got in there, a emphasis was placed on the broad basis of the job. I picked up on this and adapted myself (call me Lennox Lewis) to the answers they were looking for.

I was also given many questions that are very much unheard of unless you are getting the job like they asked about my living arrangements if I got the job (considering I live fairly far from the location of the job). None, and I mean NONE, of the normal interview questions (i.e. tell us about yourself, what do you know about us, what are your career goals, what are your strengths and weaknesses, etc.) were asked.

And the job you ask?
It's Technical Support at the Ministry of Education and Training in Toronto. I'll be doing a bunch of different stuff, especially in the area of databases, which is always a good thing. I'll have great experience for my work term after next.

I beat out 4 other people (2: 1st year CSers, 1: 2nd year CSer, 1: 3rd year Act Sci) for the job. I was the last one interviewed so I guess that gave me an advantage or maybe they wanted to interview the best candidate last (I got nothing).

Getting co-op is really easy, as long as you have some experience coming in and lower your standards to do something you don't really want to. I guess I mean: something you don't prefer to do than want to do. I'm gonna work with databases (which I really need to get some practical experience in), do some HTML work, and basically fix computers the IT department doesn't have the time to.

Hell, I've done all this before, except the database stuff, which I'm sorta looking forward to getting into. It's a relational database so it's sorta complicated (I guess, I know hardly anything about databases but I will learn). Other than that the job will give me experience, but in something I don't really want much experience in (except databases). I'll probably read up on SQL over the summer so I can get something in a business-related industry next work term.

First Interview

2004-03-05T14:08:00.000-05:00

Since I didn't find a co-op job during matching phase because I only applied for intermediate/senior jobs, I drastically lowered my standards and applied to basically anything during continuous phase. I still spent the same amount of effort on cover letters and it finally paid off.

I had my first interview today and I felt that it went well as I answered, in my (concise) manner, all the questions posed well. I'll get into the specifics after I hear back from them.

Cockiness

2004-03-03T04:39:00.000-05:00

So far this year I've been doing pretty decent (midterm marks: Business - 76%, Calc - 80%, Alg - 88%, CS - 79%, Econ - not so good) and because of this, I got really cocky.

Now after saying how easy the CS project (due tomorrow) is, I'm up at around 5 trying to sort out a really stupid bug that I can't find because my eyes can't stay open. Why is this? It's because I'm cocky like a motherfucker and thought I could do everything at the last minute because of my decent mark in the class.

Same thing with Algebra, right after I got my midterm back, I haven't done one assignment; I usually copy from people (which is what I am also doing at this time). Now I'm so screwed for the finals.

I said it once and I'll say it again, I'm gonna turn it around next study term... when I'll do all my work on time and by myself.

Program Presentations

2004-03-01T18:51:00.000-05:00

Today was program presentation day for the Math Faculty. They had shit organized so that different programs (i.e. Math/Biz, Comp Math, CS, C&O, AM, OR, PMath, etc) had presentations in different rooms. I attended the Math/Biz, Comp Math, and Teaching Option presentations, in that order (and I'll review in that same order).

Math/Biz.
First thing coming into the room I noticed the very large amount of Asian people. I'm like whoa! The presentation just gave a brief overview of the program and its 4 options. Finance option seems appealing until I heard that all it's doing is preparing you to get different certifications upon graduating, which I feel is a waste of money/education at university since you could do that shit on your own. The only thing that sparked interest was that you could get into the UW/WLU double degree (BMath and BBA) in 2A if you had over an 80% average among other things, but that's not possible for me so its out the window. Funny thing, most of the people there were double degree rejects, a fact easily noted after each question was about that said program.

Computational Mathematics
A very impressive presentation/program in all. All my nagging questions about whether this was right for me or not were answered. We even got free posters (yeah I know, Comp Math posters. I'm such a fucking nerd, meh, I'll hang them in my closet). The only thing that sucks about the program is that the degree will say BMath in Computational Mathematics, not BMath in Computational Mathematics with Finance application. I'm so hyped about this program! Side Note: My Linear Algebra prof, Wayne Oldford, is the Computational Mathematics program director. I found that pretty cool since he's my favourite prof and we got a raport between us. BTW, there were 3 students in the presentation, hopefully a sign of things to come.

Teaching Option
I went here only because my fallback option is teaching. It's way too structured for my tastes; you have to have an interview along with marks to get in, since I have a horrible personality, this isn't a good thing for me. Meh, if I had to fallback on anything, this wouldn't be it anymore.

All in all I'm glad I took my Comp Math offer instead of the other ones I had.

2004-02-29T21:13:00.000-05:00

My Audioscrobbler page. See what I'm listening to.

UW Mathnerd-isms

2004-02-21T21:21:00.000-05:00

"NewsRadio is the funniest TV show ever made. I blame NewsRadio for failing three midterms this coming week. I wonder when the DVDs are coming out?"

"I discovered that I learn absolutely nothing in class yet I still attend each and every one. I could just get notes from people and save myself 20 hours of boring hell."

"Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is also to blame for my failure of three midterms this coming week."

"Don't you just love the feeling that you get when you waste a whole day? It's right up there with the 'I know I have to study, but I don't want to, but I realize that I need to study. WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING WATCHING NEWSRADIO? HOW IS NEWSRADIO GONNA HELP ME GET A JOB!!! Well it will help me deal with office problems in a humour manner. WHAT THE HELL AM I TALKING ABOUT... GAHHH I NEED TO WORK!"

2004-02-20T14:05:00.000-05:00

UW keeps messing with my head!

Law of Averages

2004-02-17T13:08:00.000-05:00

Ever since my horrible last term, I've been waiting patiently for the Law of Averages to kick in. Simply stated, in my case, it is the more exams I write the better the chance that I write a good one.

Well the Law finally kicked in and I got 88% on my Algebra midterm (I hear the average was around low to mid 60s). This was followed by a period of joyous cockiness and because of this, the Law kicked in once again and forced me to do very poorly on my Calc midterm that I wrote last night (I left a couple of 6-7 mark questions blank).

So what's the lesson in all of this? I should've studied for the Calculus II midterm. Goddamnit I hate integrals.

Advisor talk update: He's not in his office during office hours (how appropriate) so I'll go see him after Reading Week---end.

Also, I got my Atom Feed up if anybody wants to use it.

Co-op (or how I paid UW co-op fees and learned to love the feeling of rejection)

2004-02-12T14:23:00.000-05:00

"Co-op works." It's the clever pun that UW uses to intice students to come here and reap the benefits of the world's largest (and most overrated) co-op program. The man claims that you can apply the knowledge you learned at school in a work environment. These work terms are interspliced in between study terms and you will come out a rounded, well experienced individual who, if the cards are played right, will be in hardly any debt.

FUCKING BULLSHIT! Co-op doesn't work. I've wasted around 15 hours so far this term doing co-op shit. I've gone to useless classes that tell me how to make a resume, give an interview, etc. I've made around 15 cover letters (only for the ones I really wanted) and perfected my resume (my way, not the sentence like way CECS shows) for those 15 jobs I wanted. What did I get? A bunch of fucking "No"s from every fucking employeer (18 in total). The ones I didn't get a "No" in were cancelled (4 in total); ironically, those were the ones I was perfect for. There was one that even involved telemarketing and mutual funds, two things that I'm like the most knowledge about.

It's not like marks are that important: people with worse averages than me have gotten interviews. It's not like I'm underqualified: I have experience that would make 75% of the people in 1B jealous. It would be fine if I didn't have the certifications that are required but I almost have the CSC done; I got the material down and only need to write (read: fucking ace) the test... this alone should put me above all the Intermediate and Senior candidates I'm going up against. Why the fuck am I not getting anything?

Now that matching phase is over for me and I have gotten a total of 0 inteviews (from the 22 applications I threw in), I'm getting depressed since my main reason for coming to UW isn't working out for me. Is there any real reason for me to stay if I don't get anything this term?

All I know is that if the continuous phase doesn't work out for me, the Financial Mathematics program at Laurier will become even more inticing.

UW Blogger Get Together

2004-02-02T13:04:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, 8pm, Grad House.

Sounds interesting... I'll probably go since you know, I gots nothing else to do.

It'll be pretty awkward meeting online people in real life. Thoughts/comments?

Snow Day!!!!

2004-01-27T12:02:00.000-05:00

Snow and freezing rain shut campus

Woke up at 7:45 and go into the bathroom where somebody tells me that there is a snow day today... I turned around and went back to bed. Finally something actually goes my way. Knowing me I'm so wasting this day instead of finishing a couple of assignments/studying for a Macro midterm.

Also, I'll like to make an addendum to my last post:
Wayne Oldford is the greatest prof I've had yet. He took like 25 minutes to explain the background of a concept to me during a tutorial when the answer was just simply parallel lines in R^3 offset by a vector.
Somebody's a gonna get a nomination for a Distinguished Teacher award. [/Russell Peters]

All UW's Bases are Belong to Maclean's

2004-01-24T01:33:00.000-05:00

I'll pull a partial Matt Goyer on your asses and do a parital Imprint review. I say partial because I don't want to cramp his style.

UW is thinking about raising their admission averages to get a better ranking in Maclean's

This is just plain stupid. Why do we have to not let in ESers and Artsies (I'll take my shots when I can) since they're averages are too low. What about Mathies who slack off after second semester mid-term marks? Nobody should be punished

Layla

2004-01-24T00:54:00.000-05:00

Such a perfect metaphor for life, well not my life... the life of a torchered soul who is oozing with passion and a desire to have something unattainable. I love it.

So yeah, anyways, since I've come back I've been busy so I haven't really had a chance to update. With co-op applications, extracirricular stuff, some studying (let's not get too carried away yet), and even trying to learn guitar, I've hardly had any time. I love being busy, it makes it seems like my life is important and that I'm accomplishing something, but in actuality, it's gonna be a long while before I can brag about any accomplishment in my life.

My classes this term are as follows:

Math 136 (Linear Algebra I) with Prof. Wayne Oldford - It's been matrix math so far, with a bit of Computational Mathematics (woot!) squeezed in there in the form of floating point numbers. I don't understand the concepts, but I get how to use applications, which is all I really need to know anyways... The prof is good since he slows down to the level of the class.
Math 138 (Calculus II) with Prof. Robert Andre - I have it at 10:30 but i got to the 12:30 class which leads me to have an extra hour of sleep on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Hell, I can even skip the class since all the material is on his website. IMO, best class since it doesn't require me to go.
CS 134 (Principles of Computer Science) with Prof. Frank Tompa - I'm enjoying this class more than I thought; I hated CS last term. I'm suprising myself with my knowledge of Java, somehow I learned it between the final exam in CS133 and the first assignment for 134 without ever touching a Java book. The prof seems good, but it's too early too tell.
ECON 102 (Introduction to Macroeconomics) with Prof. Robert Cook - I couldn't handle Larry Smith's hard as shit exams so I went with Cook. The class is really boring, but the material doesn't lend itself to be anything but. Cook is always trying to relate to his class by talking about beer and weed, but it's very, very lame and pitiful.
BUS 121W (Functional Areas of Organization) with Prof. Jim McCutcheon - I only took this class since I might change my major to Math/Biz (which I'll get into later on this post). Since I've never taken accoutning in my life, I'm sorta behind, but it's only gonna get easier from now on. It's sad that this class is most of my workload and it's an elective. Arg!

Yeah, so, I'm thinking about switching programs since it doesn't seem like Computational Mathematics with a Finance application focus will get me the jobs I want compared to the Mathematics/Business Finance Option program. After looking at Intermediate and Senior co-op jobs, I can see that Comp. Math doesn't give me the knowledge to do what I want to do compared to other programs. I'm gonna go see my advisor soon to find out how to maximize my finance course load with the Comp Math program.

Wasting Away...

2003-12-12T01:55:00.000-05:00

So after bombing 4 out of 4 exams so far (I have a chance to go a perfect 5 for 5 on Saturday night when I write CS), I have come to a realization: paying $15 000/year to waste my life and barely pass isn't cutting it anymore. I know that with this horrendous 1A term, I have no chance in hell of getting into Anderson so I guess I better turn my act around so I have some sort of chance to get into a good Canadian B-school.

Why is my lack of effort always a problem? I could've tried a bit harder in school last year and raised my marks a bit more so I could've gotten into UCLA; I was rejected with a 1420 on the SATs (the thing that hurts the most is that I know 1300s who got in just because their GPA was higher). Now I gave up my dream of going to Anderson for what? For me being lazy and not ever wanting to do work? It just makes no sense. I'm gonna have to start working harder sooner or later since with competitive pressures rising and the population declining, jobs are become less secure and in order to keep myself employeed I will have to work my ass off. I realize this, so why can't I start trying sooner rather than later?

I keep telling myself that next term will be different, but that's exactly what I told myself this summer (insert all those posts outlining the same problem) about university. I don't know what's gonna wake me up.

Why can't I study?

2003-12-05T16:51:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to force myself to study for the past week and I can't get anything done! And I mean I've done absolutely jack shit for the past week.

Let's break down my exam schedule, I had Algebra yesterday, got Business tomorrow, Calculus AND Economics on Tuesday, and Computer Science on the 13th.

Now let's look at what I've done so far in the past seven days... I've gotten drunk a grand total of three nights, watched every single episode of Scrubs (go ResNet!), sat at my computer and decided which desktop would be the best for me to use, looked for Mr. T emoticons for MSN because I thought it would be funny to have a Mr. T smilie after I said: 'I pity the fool', watched at least 6 movies, and slept around 10-12 hours every night. I know I bombed my Algebra exam, but I can't help it... I can't sit and make myself study. Hell even when I go to the library, I just sit there and stare at nothing.

I don't know what the fuck is going on. Maybe I should go to a study skills session, but I doubt that'll fix my non-interest in everything. I should've picked a more interesting major; waking up every morning and looking around and thinking 'Why Math?' is really getting me depressed. Hell, I know I like Math, but I only like its applications (which is why I'm in Comp Math). Why can't Math be streamed? Meh, whatever.

I don't like doing bad on my exams, but I can't really help it when I don't like what I'm doing... Guess it's time for me to hit the books (read: watch 12 Monkeys).

P.S. -

What Irrational Number Are You?

You are √2

You are in good company, many other square roots are also irrational numbers. Just by being a square root you have been branded a radical. You are considered very attractive, especially by Europeans (at least on paper.)

You fear that a relationship with another √2 may somehow end up complex and ultimately imaginary. In reality, only another √2 will make you whole.

Your lucky number is approximately 1.41421356

Shiny Lemur

Straif's Blog

'What happened?' is what everybody's thinking

2003-11-17T19:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I wrestled a guy 55 pounds heavier than I after he slapped me (yeah, that's right. The motherfucker slapped me!) and ended up with a scar on my face. Today, I've been walking proud with the scar and have observed that which inspired Chuck Palahniuk to write Fight Club. Palahniuk noted that when you walk around with a scar on your face, people won't even make eye contact with you; this leaves you free to do anything.

If I find any quote in the book related this, I'll put in here...

BTW, I got 86 on my second Calculus mid-term. Guess having those exams and B-school applications (I've posted an application for Anderson on my wall right next to my computer) where I can see them has actually produced some results. I say some because I still procrastinate quite a bit and have only done a bit of work, but things are turning around as I'm getting into a studying groove.

2003-11-11T16:11:00.000-05:00

10 Most Overpaid Jobs in the US

Mutual fund mangers are rated #1. So many fools, only 3 out of 10 beat the market, making so much money... it's like in Citizen Kane when Bernstein was saying how it's easy to make a lot of money if all you want to do is make a lot of money. I can't wait to get my degree and be raking it in as a fund manager.

Midterms and Black Russians

2003-11-11T12:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday marked the end of my midterm schedule... it was an impressive fourty-two day journey that I embarked on. Now it's over and thank god, it's, ummmm..., over. Now I can freely study for finals! :rolleyes:

The last midterm I wrote was MATH 137 (Calculus I); I thought it was pretty easy except for a couple of question which I made stupid assumptions about. Anything less than 80% will shock the fuck out of me.

After the midterm I went to McGinnis with a few guys I know. At McGinnis, somebody spilt my Black Russian all over my fucking coat. Even though I love the smell of Black Russians and how my coat now smells better than cologne. I can't get over the fact of how everybody always spills shit over my clothes. Last time at McGinnis some guy fucking spilt his beer all over my sweatshirt... Why the fuck can't people spill shit all over other people that aren't me? I blame Jesus (it's an inside joke so don't get offended).

High School Commencement

2003-11-11T11:57:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday I did something I've only done twice before, I went home. The first time I went home, I only stayed 10 hours and the purpose of the visit was to pick up my computer; the last time I went back was for Thanksgiving and I only went since nobody at UW stayed. Last week my high school commencement was the event that drew me back. I mainly went for the reason that my my BUS111W midterm would be delayed a week if I attended since the exam was scheduled at the same time as my commencement (take that, Adam). So off I went, the 50 minute journey never seemed so long. Yes, I live 50 minutes away and have only gone home three times.

After arriving at home, I bought myself a suit, got a haircut, showered, shaved, and then took off to the place where my commencement was held. After arriving I went backstage and saw all my old high school friends that I havent seen in the longest time; well, I've seen a couple of them, the ones that attend UW, but even those guys I haven't seen that often. So we shot the breeze, caught up and started reminiscing about the old times.

The ceremony itself? Well, it was poorly organized, very long, boring, and childish (so many cat calls and cheering; damn drunks). The validictorian speeches were horrible; they (meaning the one from grade 12 and the one from OAC) tried too hard to be funny and just blew it; they should've just let the humour flow, in other words, try to be like me.

I got two awards: OAC Calculus 2nd place (even though I tied with the first place guy) and also I got the OAC Math Proficiency 2nd place (the guy that beat me had a 98% average overall, so I had no chance for first). Winning got me 4 weeks worth of booze money; SCORE!

So after commencement, my six friends and I went down to Boston Pizza where we ran up a $142 bar tab in less than half an hour. All I know is that I paid $5 all night so I guess I owe a lot of people money. The after commencement bash made me realize that I should go home more often, or at least go to different universities to visit my friends or call them up to UW...