So, this upcoming Friday, I will be attempting to pass the Road Exam and get my Novice Drivers License… FINALLY. I’ve been practicing for about 3 months now with an instructor. So far, I’m 70% ready… for me it’s just the mental mindgame that I need to overcome to get my N. I have the skills to drive well, I just get nervous while driving because I keep thinking to myself that I am not a good driver, and therefore, act like a bad driver. This Road Exam couldn’t of come at a worse time too, Midterms + Practcing Driving don’t work well together. BUT! I need my N for the Reading Break, cause that will make it about 70 times more fun, so I have no choice. I know what you’re all thinking… why don’t I just take my N Test during Reading Break, but there’s a problem with that. ICBC ISN’T DOING ROAD TESTS DURING OLYMPICS…!! So if I don’t get it this Friday, I’ll be waiting for about 2 months to get my retry, because they are booked til the end of March!!!!
If any of you, have any tips, or any stories about taking Road Exams, help me out here!!!
EDIT: If any of you are interesting in any my mixes, I uploaded one onto my Facebook Fan Page, here’s a link, become a fan and tell me what you think!!
This is how I’m feeling right now. Sorry for the lack of blogging, this term is about 10.0432 times harder than the first term… I calculated that myself.
Currently: Writing this Blog Post as I ride the 33 Bus to King Edward Station
Today, I volunteered for the Student Leadership Conference (SLC 2010) as a part of the AV Team. It only seems right that I work in the Audio/Visual Component of the Conference considering I set-up more than a few DJ rigs. My job was to film the Feature Presenters so that the SLC can keep these films in their records and possibly post them online (if my videos are good enough). The Camera Tripod I was given was a little bit fidgety in the Horizontal Movement aspect of things.
My first Filming job was for Christian (forgot his last name… if someone went to that presenter and remembers his last name, just remind me) in Hebb Theatre. There were quite a few problems here, in that the mic for Hebb was no where to be found. This lead to problems for me because I had to move closer to the Presenter to pick up his voice on my camera mic. However, Christian loved to move around and interact with the students watching him, so the footage is all over the place, and I found myself twisting around into positions I didn’t even know my body was capable of producing. His presentation was excellent though, he really engaged the students and it wasn’t simply a “let me talk, you listen” kind of presentation. It was very inspiring and interesting as a listener, and I was very fortunate to get to film it.
After that, we had about a 3 and a half hour gap between that presentation and the next presentation I was supposed to film. So during this time, I assisted the AV Trouble Shooting team in minor jobs. During lunch, I also had this AMAZING Chicken Salad Sandwich. SLC has excellent food! The volunteers had time to mingle and such, get to know each other, it was good times.
My last presentation in which I had to film, was from one of our very own Bob Hancock, and his presentation was on Biological Science and his leadership in that field. Me, being a scientist in training, found this pretty interesting. He continued to explain the process in leading a lab, and producing pharmaceuticals that can be used globally in Hospitals or for other purposes. Once again, I was very fortunate to get another presenter that interested me, even if I was a volunteer at the event. Unfortunately, I had to go home because I have a massive pile of homework waiting for me and I wasn’t able to go to the Chan Center to witness the last Keynote Speaker and see the closing “Light Show”. (Yeah, you heard me… LIGHT SHOW!)
Student Leadership Conference is a very exciting and beneficial conference, volunteer or participant. It motivates and prepares you to experience the full potential of the leader that lives inside every one of us. So for those of you who didn’t participate this year, you always have next year to make up for it! I know I’ll definitely be back.
Currently: Finishing up reading my English 112 Assigned reading.
So, my New Years Resolution this year was to get in shape and bulk up. Prior to working out, I weighed only a measly 125lbs. A week later, I weigh 132lbs… I gained 7lbs of PURE MUSCLE. (I hope.) Now, I know what you’re all thinking… how did I do this!? Simple. P90X! Its a 90-day workout routine, you do it everyday, for about an hour. (Except for when its the Yoga Day, I can’t do that routine to save my life, so I cut it short) You basically work on a different part of the body everyday, and normally alternate between Upper Body and Lower Body / Cardio. The first half of the Routine is as follows:
Monday: Chest, Back, and Abs
Tuesday: Pylometrics (HARD AS HELL, basically works your legs and core)
Wednesday: Shoulder, Arms, and Abs
Thursday: Yoga (I fail at Yoga)
Friday: Legs, Back, and Abs
Saturday: Cardio
Sunday: Your Rest Day
On top of the workout, I also take two different supplements. A Creatine Supplement and a Protein Supplement. The Creatine Supplement is called “Cell-Tech” and GUARANTEES, that I gain 7lbs in the first week. (Which I did) The Protein Supplement is called “Quick Mass” and it has HIGH calories and HIGH protein, to help me gain weight as quick as possible. Some of the Calories turn to fat obviously, but that’s what working out is for, to burn those off!!
So that is my New Years Resolution, the first one I’ve ever actually stuck too for more than a week.
Currently: Preparing a DJ Set to post on my Facebook
So, this Christmas, my Main Gift from Santa were these awesome Monitor Speakers that literally make my ears go to heaven everytime I blast them enough to annoy my neighbors. I’ve been using them to DJ in my room, preparing sets and stuff, haven’t really used them at parties or anything. But for New Years, I DJ’d for my family party. We rented out a Ballroom at the Marriott in Richmond, about 80 people were there. My set was awesome, I killed it… literally! Now that I turn 19 on Sunday, I’ll be looking to make my way into the club scene!!
Currently: Getting home from practicing some Driving.
So, Term One of my University Life comes to a close as of tomorrow. It feels like 80% of the time I spent studying, 5% on Transit, and 15% on Facebook. Speaking of Facebook, many of my friends have went for the “Facebook Hiatus” method of studying Finals. Any thoughts? Is this a good way to go? First round of Finals start on Tuesday for me, beginning with Math. But before the Finals, and before I get biased, I will give a summary of what to expect for the next year students thinking about getting into Sciences.
Chemistry 121: This class is very deceiving, it starts off with easy course material, most people could’ve probably done it in High School. But then… Orbitals and Schrodingers Equation starts to come up and everything changes. Expect to have lots to study for in the later sections of the course. Another problem I have with this course, is the textbook (at the time of this post). It is a custom made UBC Textbook. First off, it has mistakes in the answer key (which gets posted online, and should be fixed by now) and it also has a lack of questions. My prof always talks about “Oh, its just intuition that this chemical reacts this way”… but how are we supposed to gain this intuition if we only have one question in the entire book relating to that chemical? Prepare for lot’s of studying and try and get some extra questions from books in a library or online.
Math 100: Everyone thinks that this course is the “hardest” math. That you need to be a genius to be in this Math Course (besides the Honours Math). But let me tell you this, it’s not very hard at all. If you put the practice time in, it’s an easy A. The questions in the textbook seem to be a lot harder than the questions that show up in the Midterms and Exams, but thats for your own good. Math 100 ISN’T the hardest math.
Physics 101:
This Physics isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The questions are very straight forward, it is easily comparable to the difficulty of a Gr. 12 Physics Course. The only thing that I have troubles with is remembering formulae, they allow you to make a Formula Sheet for their Midterms, but the Final… they supply their own. This sheet doesn’t have all the Formula and you have to remember some (and when I say some, I mean a lot) on your own. But once you got that down, you’re set.
English 110: For me, this course wasn’t that bad. Most of it was just reading and analyzing, then writing about it. Nothing like writing your own poem, or the like. This course relies heavily on your TAs ability, rather than your Profs ability. I find that I learnt most of the material from the discussion groups rather than the lectures. The readings aren’t too long (for my section), and there was only one novel. So all in all, just hope you get a good TA.
Biology 121: This course is very “conceptual” rather than “factual”. In Gr. 12 it was all about memorization and know how things work. This course is more about “what would happen?”, “how did this happen?”, “let’s test this and collect data”. If you’re good with Concepts (I’m not) then this course will be easy, if you have troubles (me) it should be alright. This course isn’t HARD no matter how you take it, so don’t expect this to be the bane of your existense.
Alright, well I hope that if any of you “prospective” students think about coming to UBC, that my opinions matter in your course decisions. And for you people who already took these courses, tell me if you disagree with anything, and I will fight you.
Currently: Looking for the newest and best tracks to play at my next gig!
This upcoming Friday, Dec 4th, I’ll be DJing for my old High School’s Grad Fashion Show. I DJ’s my own fashion show last year, it was good times, and now that I’m an even better DJ I’m ready to set up a killer DJ set to play while my old classmates strut their stuff. I haven’t done a DJ Gig in forever, it seems, so I’m looking forward to get back out there and stop DJing to my wall. Expect some pictures soon!
As for school, things aren’t so bad anymore. I’m stoked that we’re in the final stretch of the Term One and I can’t wait to take a break. (More excited for the fact that I don’t have to wake up at 7:00am anymore) During the day, I’ll be studying, at night time… It’s Call of Duty time. Anyways, I got quite a bit on my plate for tonight. So I better stop procrastinating and get to that. Everyone have a good Thursday Evening!
I am SOO SOO SOO sorry that I haven’t been posting. Life is harsh, and I had to take care of things that had to be done before I could share things with you! Now that thing’s are slowly settling down, I’ll get back to my normal postings. These past 2 weeks have been HELL for me. Lot’s of homework, midterms to study for, adjusting to a new living pattern, learning to drive, so much reading, getting sick, and other various stressful situations. The one major problem in my life right now is Motivation, or rather the lack of Motivation. This final stretch with the combination of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has completely shot the mentality I had at the beginning of the year to the ground. If anyone has tips on how to stay motivated, PLEASE share, I am desperate. My idea is to give my mom my Call of Duty CD and not give it back to me until after Finals. But back to my list… here it goes: (Order is in Priority)
Get a haircut (reshave my head)
Catch up in Chemistry (I am SOOOOO behind)
Read and Understand Chemistry Crystal Workshop Package
Catch up in Physics (Not as bad as Chemistry)
Practice Driving
Finish up my latest mix CD (compilation of my DJ Sets)
Do some Calculus – Predicting Graphs given the function (These are such long questions!)
That looks like a fair reasonable list for this weekend. I work from 5:00am to 1:30pm on Sunday morning, so I can’t overload myself. I’ll post more after this weekend!
Currently: Listening to Showtek’s new Podcast. If ANYONE listens to Hardstyle (I highly doubt it) download and subscribe to Showtek’s Podcast… it’s awesome!
I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in almost a month! This past month has been a very hard month. October Midterms took over my life for a week, then I had to move back to my mom’s house. Then immediately after that I had to start studying for the 2nd batch of Midterms… finally here I am. Midterm free, and looking at the pile of homework and readings I have to do to catch up. I am sorry that I will have to keep this short, my life is seriously taken over by school and other things I need to do.
Here’s a video from the latest “all-night dance event” I was just at.
I hope all of you aren’t having a majorly stressful time, like I am! It’s definitely not fun!
Hi there fellow humans, Welcome to the "Beats Per Minute" Blog. We're just living life one beat at a time, but who's musical waveform is told from here? The one and only Jordan McGarry.
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