“UBC Student Housing and Hospitality Services | Vancouver is pleased to offer you a place in residence for the 2010/2011 Winter Session, beginning September 4, 2010.”
I swear I feel like I won some million dollar lottery. Huge rounds of applauses and fireworks are going off in my head. I feel damn lucky that I’m spared one more year of apartment hunting/renting in Vancouver. But unlike me, many MANY people I know didn’t get accepted. If you’re living on res, chances are you’ve heard all about this – UBC and the lack of housing placements. And if you haven’t, maybe climb out from under that rock and visit the facebook group? (Sorry no link, I’m on fb detox. But I swear there’s one, I’ve heard lots about it.)
I know I really shouldn’t been complaining as I’m fortunate enough to get a placement next year, BUT seriously everyone I considered living with next year didn’t get in. BLAAAAHH. What if I get put with some creepy stalker or some high maintenance “OMG I just broke a nail” barbie?
In the meantime, for those who have apartment hunting/looking for a place to stay next year on their to-do list, here’s a good place to start. A website many of my friends found useful:
Best of luck.
Tons of updates guys!
To start, I’ve got midterm in 5 days. Three in a row: natural disasters, psychology, and sociology. I’ve been so caught up in everything else the past two weeks that I haven’t even had a chance to start studying. That’s where the week long study binge occurs. Fairly optimistic that I’ll do well.
As for job interviews, I’m completely stoked.
First was the Front Desk position I applied for during the summer here on campus. I’d basically be working for the hotel services in Marine and Gage during the summer, full time, with one graveyard shift a week. Pretty manageable in my opinion. I recently had an “online interview” which consisted of me being sent a link to a quiz that had to be completed in an hour and a half. This quiz had me answering questions involving basic math skills, problem solving, prioritising what seemed to be catastrophes in certain scenarios, as well as basic know how of Vancouver tourism attractions. I think I did pretty well in that.
Second was the RA carousel. I’ve been hearing about this shindig since October from my advisor, and it was quite the experience. We were put in groups of 5 to 7 people, and then later led to stations such as scheduling and “speed friending”. It was all very chill, and for a legit interview experience; not that stressful. The last station was indeed a legitimate one on one interview. Or two on one rather. Can you believe I was asked this question? “If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?”. Theresa question you don’t typically expect. The one thing that has me worried though is the amount of people that applied. Its something like 500 people applying for 150 positions? That’s not including the returners who get a much better chance of getting the job. I find out the results March 8th, keep your fingers crossed!
Third was my MUG Leader group interview. This was similar to the carousel, only the activities were shorter and much more creative. The first station involved being grouped with two other people, and creating a short skit about UBC. We had a specific theme. Next, your whole group of 6 had to recreate a lego structure that one of your group members saw. I, in this case, saw the lego structure, and had to explain using fingers and words to guide the group into building it. We beat the other group easily. The last station included picking up a completely random item and relating it to UBC, or an experience I had. I had a mug.
So tons and tons of participation in leadership roles, get included if you already haven’t, loads of fun!
I occasionally venture to the theatres when anticipating one of the great films of my lifetime. I’m not providing a review here, just some thoughts, so it
CONTAINS SPOLIERS. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED IT YET.
I’m going to discuss something further than the typical “Pocahontas” theme here. Although I think that particular political (and environmental message) is still very pertinent today, it could not be missed. Instead, I’ll focus on what I was pleased to find added a third dimension to this story.
As Grace put it, Pandora is composed of electrical synapses, every living being forming a complex system similar to the human brain. And of course, my Arts One critical thinking skills kicked in, and I started questioning the symbolism behind all the action.
As I see it, this film can be interpreted to criticize a sickness, an insanity—and do not consider that word as the medical condition we describe it as today, rather imagine it as an illogical attack on the mind. I use this word because it is “insanity” that Neytiri tries to rid Jake Sully of. Each tree cut down was causing mental damage to brain cells. Otherwise, the mind is formed of complex and beautiful electrical relations. And of course, I’m going to the explain the “spirit tree” thing as some sort of weird representation of complete consciousness. In many eastern philosophies, the mind fully conscious (in other words, the collection of all beings in Pandora all at once) is the pathway to connect with“Ai’Wa” or God. Grace, when she was dying, could not quite connect with the tree as she was still contaminated with the “insanity.”
[I suppose another way to interpret the "everything is connected" message is as Pantheism. Ok, so I JUST looked this up and found a Huffington Post article on "panentheism" found in Avatar here, if you're interested, but I'm not.]
So what is my view of the “insanity”? Think of how heavy on technology and science the human side is. They had avatars for goodness sake, and the presence of science was emphasized many times through the film –you see it in the obvious contrast between Jake Sully and the other avatars, Grace’s words about being a scientist not believing in fairy tales, and so forth. However, I would interpret this as an unregulated science—the mission was, after all, in search of unobtanium. This kind of science is only one of the ways in which, perhaps, the real meaning of “insanity” can be brought about. In general, I’d label the insanity has the egotistical refusal to connect with the spirit tree and other beings.
I also read into the story a significant female presence. The spirit shaman, the god as a “mother,” the main female role, the helicopter woman and Grace all had important roles to play. I would have liked to see Pandora more matriarchal, just to see what it would look like—although perhaps the equality there was the result of a female-run society 
Overall, I would not name this the best movie ever. Partially because it is an expensive retelling of Pocahontas, contains too many war scenes (which I zoned out of), and includes a predictable love plot. I also did not like how Jake ends up becoming one of the Na’vi, I’d rather have seen him return to the human race (or possibly dead, but that’s just me being cruel.) I would definitly recommend people to see this though. When you get this harsh with a critique, you know you’re using a double standard, and that it is in fact worthy of many Oscars.
I occasionally venture to the theatres when anticipating one of the great films of my lifetime. I’m not providing a review here, just some thoughts, so it
CONTAINS SPOLIERS. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED IT YET.
I’m going to discuss something further than the typical “Pocahontas” theme here. Although I think that particular political (and environmental message) is still very pertinent today, it could not be missed. Instead, I’ll focus on what I was pleased to find added a third dimension to this story.
As Grace put it, Pandora is composed of electrical synapses, every living being forming a complex system similar to the human brain. And of course, my Arts One critical thinking skills kicked in, and I started questioning the symbolism behind all the action.
As I see it, this film can be interpreted to criticize a sickness, an insanity—and do not consider that word as the medical condition we describe it as today, rather imagine it as an illogical attack on the mind. I use this word because it is “insanity” that Neytiri tries to rid Jake Sully of. Each tree cut down was causing mental damage to brain cells. Otherwise, the mind is formed of complex and beautiful electrical relations. And of course, I’m going to the explain the “spirit tree” thing as some sort of weird representation of complete consciousness. In many eastern philosophies, the mind fully conscious (in other words, the collection of all beings in Pandora all at once) is the pathway to connect with“Ai’Wa” or God. Grace, when she was dying, could not quite connect with the tree as she was still contaminated with the “insanity.”
[I suppose another way to interpret the "everything is connected" message is as Pantheism. Ok, so I JUST looked this up and found a Huffington Post article on "panentheism" found in Avatar here, if you're interested, but I'm not.]
So what is my view of the “insanity”? Think of how heavy on technology and science the human side is. They had avatars for goodness sake, and the presence of science was emphasized many times through the film –you see it in the obvious contrast between Jake Sully and the other avatars, Grace’s words about being a scientist not believing in fairy tales, and so forth. However, I would interpret this as an unregulated science—the mission was, after all, in search of unobtanium. This kind of science is only one of the ways in which, perhaps, the real meaning of “insanity” can be brought about. In general, I’d label the insanity has the egotistical refusal to connect with the spirit tree and other beings.
I think we all also noticed in the story a significant female presence. The spirit shaman, the god as a “mother,” Neytiri, the pilot woman and Grace all had important roles to play. I would have liked to see Pandora more matriarchal, just to see what it would look like—although perhaps the equality there was the result of a female-run society
Overall, I would not name this the best movie ever. Partially because it is an expensive retelling of Pocahontas, contains too many war scenes (which I zoned out of), and includes a predictable love plot. I also did not like how Jake ends up becoming one of the Na’vi, I’d rather have seen him return to the human race (or possibly dead, but that’s just me being cruel.) I would definitely recommend people to see this though. When you get this harsh with a critique, you know you’re using a double standard, and that it is in fact worthy of many Oscars.
Currently listening to: Cameron Golinsky’s rendition of “Mad World” (kid is brilliant)
(click on picture for UBC Opera’s Facebook page)
Last evening, I was lucky enough to score a complimentary ticket to UBC Opera’s Western Canada premiere of the Confederation-era historical opera, Louis Riel. Far from being what one usually expects from a traditional opera (à la Mozart/Puccini/Verdi), Louis Riel draws heavily from postmodern influences (think Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring) and is further embellished by the colourful tones of traditional French, Scottish, English, and First Nations musical influences. With a libretto written in English, French, and Cree, the discordant melodies sung in different languages reflects the English Protestant-French Catholic clash during a particularly tumultuous period in Canadian history. As a history geek, I was quite pleasantly surprised by how accurate it was – and how potentially controversial this opera can be. Bringing up some of the darker sides of Canadian history, it forces audiences to consider the bigotry prevalent in both sides in their respective striving for autonomy. The cast is sublime, and the chorus is energetic in its rousing renditions of battle rallies. You may not walk out of the theatre humming its atonal melodies, but you will leave slightly unsettled, ponderous, and indeed, rather impressed with all the technical aspects of the production.
Louis Riel plays Saturday (Feb 6) at 8 pm, and Sunday (Feb 7) at 2 pm.
UBC attracts some pretty important people. I’ve been to presentations by Romeo Dallaire, Michael Ignatieff and Chief Justice Beverley McLaughlin in the time span of a month.
Academic blahblahs:
POLI 100: I have to say, this feels like my first real UBC course. Dealing with basic concepts of Justice and Power, the content is interesting enough. It touches upon a lot what I’ve already learned but enriched with readings. It does not excite me, however, and I rarely look forward to class despite considering a poli sci major—this could be because the university charm has worn off finally. Discussion group is good when half the class is missing, and my TA’s German accent highly entertains me <3. I’d give this class 3.5 out of 5 stars so far, but it depends on the person.
FREN 123: The follow up from 122. Hahaha. Yes, language courses are funny things, aren’t they? Not to downplay them– the people who moved on from Fren 122 are very talented students and I feel challenged to work harder! My prof is so sweet and apparently the best French prof at this level. I still get up at 9am three times a week for this, but I am often amazed at how. It never feels like I’m ever going to become even semi-fluent. Maybe French is actually a difficult language to learn…
Arts One: My beloved. We’ve covered the works of Darwin, Poe, Nietzsche and Freud since the start of term. I am exhausted from the essay writing though, and really don’t know how much longer I can sustain this before I refuse to hand anything at all. 8 essays down, 4 to go. It feels pretty good coming back the same group of people twice a week for seminar through out the year though. I also just realized how insanely awesome and kind my prof is. In general, I find the lectures truly exceptional now that I have experienced some other UBC courses, despite the fact that I do yawn the full two hours.
I also decided to give the Resident Advisor application a kick because of the dynamic carousel interview process consisting of groups of 6-7 people moving from station to station. It was alright as my first job interview, but I just remember being brutally honest about myself. I found the people in my group a bit contrived—conversations were certainly not normal…curiosity only for personal gain, trying to get a word in about oneself instead…but that’s probably just me, not realizing that you’re supposed to show off during an interview. I predict I will be paying for my own housing next year. It’s too bad, I was looking forward to fixing some of the social problems I’ve noticed at Totem Park (and elsewhere actually.)
I am so out of shape. How can my legs be sore after visiting Wreck Beach? Sure, the stairs have a bajillion steps, but now I’m just being an old man.
