Author Archives: Syndicated User

Photography: The importance of constructive criticism

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Or as I like to call it, comments on how much you suck (or more enthusiastically put, where you can improve).

Imagine, if you will, you are showing photographs of yours to someone. These photographs are your favourite, or at the very least you consider them to be pretty good (and many others have told you so). This person you show your photographs to has very little to say with regards to how good they are. In fact, they mention how they don’t like the contrast, the positioning, the lack of meaning, and the averageness. Average. You considered to be pretty good photographs, but now you hear that they’re just average. It wounds your pride a little, a lot. Two options from here: feel offended or give your mind time to pause and listen to what your critic has to say.

This happened to me a few days ago and to say it wasn’t disheartening at first would be a lie. Who was the critic? My dad. In the end I realized what I had been missing out on since I got into UBC. Back when photography was a budding interest when I was in high school, I posted photos onto Facebook as any person interested in photography tends to do these days. Looking back, the best thing about doing just that was not the comments telling me about how nice the photos were, but having a small number of people telling me what they didn’t like about my photos. They answered questions like: What doesn’t work in this photo? What makes it lack a uniqueness? What makes it a photo that anybody could take? What could possibly make it so that it has a unique style? I would find out about their opinions through Facebook, MSN, Skype, and texts.

At UBC, I don’t recall many (if any) comments on how my photos lacked quality. It was always the same old “ohhh these are nice”. No wonder my photography has stagnated. That being said, I appreciate comments on how nice my photos are/can be, but one needs a mix of praise and criticism. This recent experience really exaggerated that necessity. Without criticism, one can still improve but it is a very slow process and isn’t a guarantee. With criticism, that process can be sped up and improvements will be had (assuming constructive criticism is listened to and considered). Critics don’t even have to be photographers themselves, though the hardest part is listening to people critique you when they know little of the processes and not try to defend yourself. Initially it’s hard, but once you start listening you can get some great ideas!

Your best friends are your critics, not the ones that praise you. This applies to almost anything one does in life! If you’re curious about the photos in question along with the reasons:

This one was the better one of the following three. When printed, some details in the dark areas are actually clearly visible. The lighting in the photo is very appealing and there exists a sense of movement with the water and the boat. The eyes follow it very well. There could be areas of improvement in terms of lighting.

One of the bad ones according to my father. According to him there is too much contrast and details in the dark areas are lost. There is nothing unique about this photo and it lacks a sort of meaning.

Again according to my dad this one is also nothing special. While it may look nice, there lacks a sense of movement and it is a photo that can be taken almost anywhere in urban areas around the world (supposedly). Again, too much contrast.

Opinions will be opinions of course. There is no right or wrong and sometimes a photo that looks great just looks great. Learn with an open mind! Situations will rarely be perfect, but knowing the “perfect” situations can give you an edge and not miss wonderful chances!

Music is so…amaz…actually no it comes and goes

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Ever hear a song that makes you want to get up and dance? or seems to just portray your current mood so well? It’s a wonderful feeling, but how about when you want to skip pretty much all the songs being played? When you’re at that point, music kind of sucks. Cleaning out that music list seems like a good idea, but then that’s a bit of work so you can’t really be bothered to. Plus, maybe you’ll grow nostalgic towards an old song when you hear it again a few weeks down the road! So we tell ourselves anyway. The best thing is probably to clear out the songs one at a time. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing fairly recently when I have my songs on shuffle on iTunes. Each time I hear a song I don’t quite like anymore, the delete option is not too far off.

It’s hard to work in a subject where you lack interest. That’s how it is for most people and a lot of people (not all) are still able to work pretty hard in subjects that aren’t interesting anyway. This year I can’t seem to do that. I find it increasingly difficult to pay attention in class and work hard. It’s strange, my first and second years were probably much more busy and chaotic than my third year is now. I dropped many things to concentrate on school and I ended up doing much worse than when I had absolutely no time to study. I have more time to study now and yet…studying is the hardest action to do. I find a very limited number of things that are mentally stimulating. My camera has seen little use these days, blogging is infrequent (if not nonexistent), questioning of myself is frequent, slight aversions towards the internet are abound, and the turning to books (not school related of course) as a source of comfort. Maybe I’ll try and do some book reviews in the future…

As for the music, I’m probably just gravitating towards a different style. What it is I don’t know just yet. Keeping posts short and simple for now.

Here’s a pigeon.

Reading Week and Midterm Review Session

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Reading Week

…was awesome!  Not academic wise, i got nothing done.  But I did volunteer at an elementary school in the east-side of Vancouver, and it was great.  It wasn’t what I had anticipated I didn’t know the volunteers would be in the class the whole day for 3 days, pretty much following a lesson plan created by our group leader.  And a lot of times we would have extra time, and it was fun to kind of think on the spot, and think of a game or activity for the students.  I taught grade 4/5 students, the experience was so great, the kids were so awesome.  Kids are really smart!  I wish I had their memory, these kids memorized things from day 1 that we taught that I couldn’t remember.  I will be going to volunteer hopefully once school is over, it’d be fun to go back.

Now because I had to be up early every day, I couldn’t stay up late.  This was a problem for me, because I study better at night, its weird but when I studied for all my midterms I was studying hardest like 2am to 7am and then i’d sleep and wake up 2-3 hours before my midterm(they were all evening midterms), Bio 201 was 7-9 and this worked really well for me because this has been my best “midterm season” since I got to this school.  I think the key difference is that I got 6 hours before every midterm too.  Now, the only midterm grade I didn’t have after reading week was Biol 201, or Biochem.  And it showed up on vista, and I was so scared, because its a whopping 35%, a huge chunk of my grade.  I felt like I did well on the midterm but its usually safe to deduct 10 to 15% from what you ‘think’ you got.  And when I saw my grade my first thought was like “what happened!” Because it was really low.  Like were the ta’s grading crazy, did I screw up somewhere, what happened!  This was the first midterm grade that was bad, and below average (I later found out the average was 72).  So this depressed me so much, like how come I’m below the majority after studying 3 days straight.  I didn’t study much for like 4 days after this, I guess I went into a bad funk if that makes sense.  You know how it is!  Those days you try to study and its just not working out and you just sleep and fall more and more behind…-_-  Well anyways I signed up to view my midterm to see ‘just where it all went wrong’  And I looked through it.  Biol 201 TAs are real cruel about a few things…if you went to see your midterm please tell me you agree!  Like I’ll have the right idea completely, know exactly what I’m talking about, for a few questions the answer key and my answer were almost verbatum… and then i’d add the word “better”  as in… “creating a stronger nucleophile would lead to a better attack..yada” instantly because of the word ‘better’ -1.  Apparently its redundant and makes it seem like I don’t understand what nucleophiles do *sighhhhhh*  And because i repeated myself in different words another -1.  But nothing I said was incorrect, a few redundant statements maybe, but I’ve never been a great writer!  I BSed my way through English 110.  So it annoys me that I lost most of my marks on trivial things like that.  I guess I know now how things are, so when the final comes around, I know to really pay attention to how I am writing, and to keep it simple.  BUT THATS NOT EVEN THE CRAZY PART.  So I accepted the grading, and decided to just add up the marks before I left, I did and my heart literally dropped.  Because the number on my calculator was 10% higher.  I re-calculated, same thing.  Then I gave it to my prof to make sure I wasn’t crazy, and he got the same number I did, and there you go, now my grade makes more sense!  I’m ok with it, I still want to improve for the final, but WHAT A RELIEF.  This was 35% , and a 10% increase goes a long way.  THANK GOD I added it up, before I left sheesh.  This just goes to show how important it is to look at your midterm over, TAs aren’t computers and don’t think for any reason your midterm won’t be the one they screw up on.

 

Binta

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040. Where in the world is Krystal going?

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And where the heck has she been?

I’m sorry I’ve been so out of the loop. The chaos of my life picked up almost as soon as I landed at YVR after Winter Break. I figured post-Reading Break was a good time to catch you up on all the shenanigans I’ve been getting up to.

In January, I kicked off the month with the ‘F’ Word Planning Committee Retreat with the Women’s and Gender Studies Student Association. The ‘F’ Word Conference is a FREE conference on April 28th, 2012  and a chance for WAGS students, and students from other faculties and universities to engage in some awesome discussions with various panelists, student-led workshops presentations and  community organization workshops. I’m the Communications Co-Coordinator, so my job is to build and maintain the website, Twitter and Facebook accounts, and the print media with my wonderful partner-in-communications. So that’s been keeping my busy for the past two months.

Jump forward to February 17th, and I’m leaving on a (jet) plane for California. I spent four full days exploring all that SoCal had to offer with my best friend from Ontario (who currently goes to UBCO) and two of her friends. I had been there before with her in 2009, and on a whim asked if she’d be up to Californ-i-a part deux. We went to Santa Monica and Venice Beach (where I did all my shopping),

Santa Monica

the Natural History Museum (where we took a slight unplanned detour through the University of Southern California),

The cutest little guy at the Natural History Museum

Hollywood Blvd (including Grauman’s Chinese Theatre where I got to see the lovely cast of HP’s hand and footprints),

The Trio's prints in Hollywood

Disneyland (I got a picture with Mickey!),

The big "cheese" himself, Mickey Mouse

and the beaches of Orange County. Best (and first) trip of 2012 (but not the last!).

I’ve also had countless interviews and applications to fill out as I try to build some sort of plan for the upcoming academic year and finalize summer plans. As it stands:  1) I will be going to Europe for 5 weeks in May, 2) I’m still looking for a summer job, 3) you will find me back at Place Vanier for another term of Advising before I 4) go on exchange to Australia (Macquarie University in Sydney)! So if you’re looking for me in term two of next year, you’ll have to make the trek to find me. I am so beyond excited! It still feels super surreal and a part of me is wondering what the heck I just got myself into, mostly because it was an abstract idea before it became an actual reality and I’m not sure if I was prepared for said reality to hit my like a tonne of sparkly, beautiful bricks. But I’m more stoked than not.

I have some more interviews and applications to fill out. So, wish me luck and I’ll update you all soon.

Hope you enjoyed your Reading Break!

School

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Hey guys,

This will be a short entry, I want a break from studying for my Biol 201 Midterm.  It’s like an “exam,” its 35% and 2 hours long..and I haven’t kept up, so I am just taking the next 3 days to ignore every other course…and focus lol.  As for my other classes, well I don’t “go” to chem 205, because it’s actually pointless to me, I’d rather sleep and have the energy to study for the course.  That sounds like such a bad excuse, but this new prof writes on the board so I will go now.  But we got our midterms back, I am fine with my grade.  It’s above average, I wish it was as high as my chem 123 midterm, but that multiple choice… in the long haul, I only lost a few percents, so I’m good.  Micb 202 grade should be out by Friday latest, i feel like I did good, but at UBC you just never know!  I feel like this has been my most chill semester since I’ve been here, like I sleep more, eat more, chill more..lol.  This new major is what I needed!  Freedom!  I’m hoping to pull my average up like 15% from last semester (it was that bad…) and it’s veryy possible with my elective.

I took my Eosc midterm last night, so annoying.  I didn’t read till the day before (WHY!) and it’s online but clearly I didn’t know my stuff well enough.  I got a B, and thats fine, it’s just one of those classes you know damn well you could get an A.  My first midterm went too well, and I figured this one would too, this just goes to show, ALWAYS BE SCARED.  AlWAYS think you’ll fail, that way you prepare for the worst, and you’ll be prepared.  So, I want to stop being comfortable, I should hang up my Bio 204 midterm from last semester in my room as motivation of what can happen if you get comfortable lol. :)  Back to Biol 201 studying ! -_-

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Welcome death like an old friend and you’ll be fine.

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It is a fact that the new of the passing away of the man in the SUB is spreading rapidly. To me he was always known as “that guy who sits in the chair in the SUB”. It wasn’t up until I found out about the news of his passing that I learned what his name was (might be). It is, dare I say tragic, to learn of his passing but then it is also curious. It is curious to read all the comments regarding his death. It is curious that his death has impacted not only those who talked with him, but those who never did. It is curious that not all that much is known about him. It is curious that he read and sat in the same chair for so many years. It is curious…well everything about all this is curious.

All this eerily reminds me of a previous experience (in a good way though). There always was longing to go and talk to him (and possibly take his photo, what? I like photos) and I wouldn’t be the first one to admit regret over not doing so. It seems that his passing is a shock (of various degrees) to many at UBC. Logically speaking, it really shouldn’t be such a shock. People die/pass away all the time, strangers, friends, family, and acquaintances. Even then though, the feeling from the knowledge that we won’t be able to see this silent man again is…peculiar. Future UBC students may only hear of him in passing or his memory may end up becoming a story.

In a way, he was more than just a person sitting in a chair, reading a book. For anyone who came to UBC on a regular basis (and especially the SUB for that matter) he may have represented a sort of consistency. Seasons change, courses change, faculties change, servers change, friends change. As people, we’re all stubborn towards change (think of Facebook style changes), some more than others. Among all the mid-terms, social conflicts, renovations, and graduations he was generally there; his chair was always there. Day or night, I can’t even count how many times I may have walked by him. I can say that he may have represented one of the many anchors that keep us from drifting to and getting lost in open waters. For those of us who noticed, he may have been an uncomfortable sight, a familiar sight, a curiosity, a quirky secret of UBC, or a mysterious person who was just there. He could have been just about anything for anyone. Or he could have just represented nothing at all. Perhaps it is just the silence and mystery of his past that makes him so memorable. Whatever he represented, he was a part of the UBC campus for many students and staff both past and present.

Credits to Miya Gu

Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men.
-Quintus Ennius

It’s curious that I have been affected enough to go visit that chair tomorrow and visit I shall. There are already many flowers and cards, my own share shall join it soon. It would be very curious indeed if nothing was made in his memory. I do hope UBC or its students puts that into consideration.

With credits to the UBC Campus Security Facebook page

 

More here

Update

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Hello everyone!

 

It has been too long since I’ve blogged, and a lot has happened since Jan 8 2011, wow it’s actually exactly a month since I’ve last blogged.  Ok first of all I changed my schedule around, I am no longer pursuing computer science.  It was around 2 weeks into the course, and I just felt so lost.  The thing that irked me the most is when someone would ask a question using terminology (not taught yet) and discussing things that went far beyond the realm of the course.  I feel bad enough that I can’t get everything as fast as I’d like to, and I think I got over the fact that so many people in that class had programming experience, but I think the professor tended to them more than he did those that had no experience whatsoever.  It didn’t feel like a beginner course for me, and after spending DAYS studying, and still not getting WEEK1/2 stuff, I already knew it was…my time to head on to ssc, click that tab that says registration, click that tab that says Add/Drop courses, and GET OUT OF CPSC110.  My dad is a computer scientist/programmer and I got him to help me but it wasnt enough, to get through this class Id need him daily.  And I thought it’d be teaching intro Java with a textbook, but its changed completely now they’re not really teaching a specific language, but …I won’t even go into it, its too messy for me.

NOW..

Onto classes I’m actually taking.   I decided to stick with the Combined Major in Science, but switch from cpsc to eosc, and i’d only need to take 3 eosc courses to satisfy that portion of my major.  I feel like im constantly switching, but this is safe, and it’s about the most flexible major at UBC, well after Integrated Sciences I think.  I think having more control, and choice with my courses is what I need.  I’ve had two midterms back to back, and one on Sunday(online course) and I can honestly say I’ve slept a lot this week, and I felt good/decent about both, and this doesnt happen to me ever, so this major is probably what I should have done to begin with, Biol 204 will be my biggest regret at UBC i’m sure.  I will give a quick update about each course

Eosc 326

This is one of the eosc courses I must take as part of my combined major, I actually had a wide selection, I only take 3 courses, and this is 1/3 of them.  It’s an online course, I came in about 2 weeks late and had a midterm & lab the following week (together 25%), so I definitely buckled down, and while I gave it a lot of time, I can tell this isn’t a class that can get to be too much to handle.  I’ve done really well on everything so far, my midterm was my highest midterm ever at UBC tied with Chem 123, and my lab was great as well.  Hope to continue, didn’t expect this class to be a GPA booster..but it just might be :)

Ihhs 200

I’ve been very sick, so I missed some classes, but so far the professor is still great!  I actually just signed up for UBC Trek Reading Week Program, the orientation is Saturday, but it will be my volunteering that I’m doing for this course.  You can replace a midterm and report with volunteering, so I can’t be mad at that!  The final should be straight forward, and I have to start focusing more in this course!

Chem 205

OMG why didn’t I make a separate post about this course!  I feel like this is about to be a longggg paragraph.  So i’m about to go in on pretty much the whole department thats in Chem 205.  FIRST OF ALL:  Why were you guys unable to send a MASS email that SIMPLY STATED what was on the midterm, what the cutoff was, and what we weren’t responsible for.  Though it’s a section wide midterm, people were being told different things.  We were assigned problem sets, but there were apparent questions that we weren’t responsible for.  The discussion board was MASS confusion, every time I went on it, it was something new.  ”OK …umm my prof said we are responsible for Clapeyron”…oh really “my prof said not to worry about it too much”…ok.. “my prof said we arent responsible for some problem set 2 questions” SO THE DISCUSSION BOARD WAS PRETTY MUCH A GIANT HEADACHE.  It’s crunch time, and these kind of trivial matters are just annoying.  When I was studying for the midterm I looked and looked for practice/old midterms, but there were NONE.  If I had JUST ONE I know for sure, I would have done way better because I’d know the format, and get all the little tricky things.. especially in a course like chem 205, once you know the tricks, and your good with equations, your solid.  Nonetheless, I can’t say that I’ve ever been as ‘nonchalant’ about a midterm as I was for this.  Like I didn’t read the webtext..ever..because all those derivatives were too intimidating, so I spent the week prior to the midterm reading/taking notes, but it wasn’t like I was going hardcore.  Fact of the matter is…I know how I am, finals schedules came out, and I will have time for this final.  Its 70%, and 15% are quizzes with TWO attempts :D  Meaning you can pretty much get perfect every time.  In the grand scheme of things getting an 80 or a 90, or getting a 70 or a 80 is not too big of a deal in the grand scheme.  If I could learn half of Chem 233 in 3 days and beast my final…4 days for Chem 205 should be fine, that 15% on quizzes doesn’t hurt either.

Biol 201

Okay, so this course has taken a “backseat” this week(and last week) because I have other courses with midterms, but I think my prof Bingle has so much swag for a prof! Haha he’s not my favorite prof at UBC, but he has this chill vibe, where it’s like hes very comfortable with the material, so it makes YOU feel comfortable with the material, he teaches so well without even trying!  I’ve went to other sections, and they may have more clickers, or whatnot, but he is just so chill, and explains complicated things in the BEST ways.  I missed a few classes last couple weeks (X_X).  I will NEVER miss a class again, this is a promise to myself.  I also have this eery feeling like this could be my worst grade this semester, so I have to catch up!! ARGHH.

Micb 202

Just had my midterm today, and it was a whopping 34%.  Okay (watch me change my opinion when grades come out lol) I reallly really really really really love the material for this course.  This course is divided into 3 sections: Immunology, Bacterial Diseases, and Virology.  And Immunology was just so interesting!  I think it’s because for once I’m learning about actual people not animals (*cough* Biol 204 *cough*).  And I was at the pace of the class at the beginning, but then started going at my own pace later on, really making sure I knew everything before I moved on.  And I would find myself like saying “damn..” or “wow…” or just Shaking My Head as I read the different topics in Immunology section.  Like how you get bacterial infections, how the innate, and adaptive immune responses rise to action.  It started off being so complicated at the beginning but then it just all seemed simple at the end.  And you learn so much about infections, like HIV.  Do you know that you can have a HIV protein just chilling in one of your cells for years and years…just waiting to attack!  That’s just one of the things.  How a guy with cancer AND HIV got cured by getting a bone marrow transplant from some with a defective CCR5 gene.  How crazy is that, and I always get ideas, like what about this, or what about that.  It just seems like a really important subject, that could do so many things for mankind.  We are moving on to bacterial diseases now, so I don’t know if the interest will continue, but I hope so.
AS FOR THE MIDTERMS.  I have a question for UBC Science Faculty.  What are you guys so AFRAID OF?  Why is the very thought at a B average for a midterm horrifying for you guys?  Why?  Why can’t the average be a B+?  I always thought that too many Science students at UBC are mentally psychotic when it comes to helping their peers, its too competitive, and now that I think about it, what do you expect when the professors or whoever is their boss, cringes at the very thought of students doing well. I undertand first year, fine weed out the med school keeners, but can this end?  That midterm was I would say good, I think I did very well…but when a prof says something like “I really hate x type of questions, but we have to do them or else too many people will do well”….AND? Whats wrong with that? I REALLY hope that this mentality changes 3rd year+ (SOMEONE TELL ME IT DOES)

Okay thats all for today, good bye folks

and btw how ILL is this video!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Oh look it’s 2012! What a difference! No.

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Hello internet, it’s been a while. First off, I’d like to share this video:

From the looks of it, it’s gone pretty darn viral already and these guys will probably get caught within the week (that is assuming this is a real video and I don’t doubt that it is real). This video doesn’t show it, but the victim does end up running away. If the video outrages you, good. You still have some sense of morality. If it doesn’t, well I dont’ have much to say regarding that. However, now that some of you are outraged I’d say take a minute (or a dozen minutes if you have a slight temper) and just chill. Relax. At first one would like to see these guys (punks, cowards, losers, assholes, scumbags, pussies, pick your adjective(s) from the lot or add your own) have the same thing happen to them. Probably not the best as it only just makes the problem worse and make violence justified. Will they end up getting what they deserve? Yes and no.

It is likely that those responsible may get a light sentence (relatively speaking). I do not believe the legal system works 100% of the time, but that doesn’t meant these guys won’t get what they “deserve” in court either. Now the question is: who do we blame? It’s simple to say that it is entirely their fault. I could also be the devil’s advocate and say that the victim in the video did do something to evoke that sort of response from the “attackers”. That is highly unlikely of course. One could also blame societal structures, bad parenting, education, the music industry, the government, xenophobia, poverty?, human nature, aliens, or the bad burritos they ate beforehand. Some “causes” are more plausible than others and the point being is that while it is easy to place quick blame, it isn’t so true in reality.

What do these guys deserve? Death penalty? Life in prison? An equal sort of beating? Public shaming? A combination of everything? It can be both easy to say and hard to say. Why this video was uploaded onto Youtube originally is beyond me. One would imagine people would have been smarter than that by now. What I do know is that events like this happen more often than people realize or care to admit. This video was just luckily (or unluckily from the other viewpoint) found on Youtube and a combination of circumstances allowed it to spread and be re-uploaded after the original was taken down. Is it good that videos like this pop up every once in a while rather than all the time? Probably. Otherwise we’d most likely be accustomed to seeing events like this. We might not be so shocked if that were the case.

Right now, I see an online petition going around. The phone numbers, addresses, Facebook accounts, and Myspace of some of the perpetrators (and their parents) available in the info of the video. Public vengeance is…quick. This could easily get out of hand in the near future. I do not doubt peoples’ abilities to obtain personal info using online methods, nor do I doubt the ability for people to harass these individuals and their families for the next month. Do they deserve it? Maybe, maybe not. I am not the judge of that. I do not believe in the “eye for an eye” idea, but there is a fine line between a slap on the wrist and excessive punishment. How fine? Probably more than razor thin.

Yes, this act is disgusting, terrible, horrible, unnecessary, devastating. Throw in any words that you would use. Is humanity going down the drain? No. Let’s say these folks do get caught. Justice is “served” and public shaming online goes on. What then? We give ourselves a nice pat on the back? Feel whatever it is you’re feeling, but don’t give yourself that pat on the back when they do get caught. Keeping ill thoughts does not make one any better.

First Week of School Review

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Ok So the classes I am taking this semester are

Chem 205, Micb 202, Biol 201, Ihhs 200, and Cpsc 110

I’ll go over my thoughts on each course, so far, first week is typically “syllabus week” but didn’t see too much of that this time around.

Chem 205

So I actually just switched out of my mwf section to a tth section due to schedule conflicts bleh.  So the professor I’m going to tuesday will be different.  The prof I had on Monday was… Lets just say I notice that those sections MWF 10-11 tend to be where all the super smart kids are and where the best profs are as well.  [flashback to chem 233 mwf section with Dake class average was 10% higher than my section, and people told me his quizzes paralleled really well to the midterm, makes sense since he wrote most of the midterm/final I hear..smh].  So I made sure to get into that 10-11 section.  Approximately 6 minutes in to the class I was on my phone looking for other sections to switch into!  The guy seemed a bit random and misdirected.  I usually have a gut feeling about profs, like I knew Spiegelman would be my favorite prof ever for Bio 112, and I still felt that way at the end of the course.  He’s not horrible..I just know his teaching isn’t preferable for me.  Regardless I planned to stay in the course because at the end of the day this is a self taught course, all courses at UBC feel like self taught, but this class is definitely self taught and I have lecture slides from previous years (lol) and the slides he presented were virtually the same…  People say this class is easy, and if its anything like the first portion of Chem 123 then it should be my best grade, but you lose once you thought you’ve won, so I’ll still go apecrazy on this course.  Hoping the t/th prof is a bit better..

Micb 202 mwf 1pm

Microbio!  This course is as far as I know my only reading intensive course.  I like to read, reread, and take notes, and this seems like the only course I’ll be going through all of that for.  I had a whole book dilemna, I try and stay away from the bookstore at ALL COSTS.  And due to copyright yada yada we had to buy an associated textbook with the course package making it almost 90 bucks.  You couldn’t buy it separately, well now I hear the profs are selling the course package separate in 2 weeks time – HECK NO I’m not waiting 2 weeks to start reading…So I sucked up and bought it.  Its frustrating because the profs said themselves the midterm is based on the course notes, and the textbook is for “figures” cause of the whole copyright dilemna.  I posted on the UBC textbooks for sale facebook page saying I wanted to buy it, and noone replied, seem like everyone was buying on that page.  I randomnly creeped craigslist and luckily found a girl selling last years for 15 bucks!!  So I met up with her at a Safeway parking lot and got it!  It’s so much better because the Immunology/Bacteria/Virology books are separate and bound unlike the ones at the bookstore.  So I am returning the one I bought Monday morning, glad I never opened it.  I didn’t understand the first two lectures, because I didn’t read.  Nothing I hate more than not reading before lecture, because it feels like a waste of time.  So I’ve been reading this weekend and WOW.  The terminology is pretty intense for first week reading, they are not easing you into it.  I also noticed the first lecture wasn’t very syllabus based, the prof jumped into it, and clearly no one had a clue because its the first class.  Second lecture, same deal, by next lecture I should know whats going on.  Though the terminology is already so detailed, it is really interesting, and I feel like I’m finally learning something really relevant.  I mean all courses at UBC (give or take a few *cough* bio 204 *cough*) are relevant, but this seems relevant for what I want to do in my future.  It’s filled with Microbio students who at this point have shown they have strong averages, hope I can keep up!  First midterm is early Feb I believe, I already found out Chem and Micb are back to back midterms (joy) so I can’t wait to see how that goes!

Biol 201 mwf 3-4

My prof’s notes are the truth.  This is all I ask for, for a prof to explain a topic, WRITE IT OUT (i hate slides) and provide examples.  I could hear a church choir during that first lecture.  Never ever missing a lecture, came 10 minutes late to the second lecture (i get distracted during my breaks..) but I still got the notes and understood everything.  His notes seem familiar too..I found some notes when I was studying for Chem 123 that were 50x better than my profs, and they helped me  a lot.  So far the material seems like a mixture between physical chemistry and organic chemistry.  Exactly why I think Biochem is just a fancier way of saying Chemistry!  I got the course package for the book, and it seems straight forward for the most part..but I wont underestimate it.

Ihhs 200 t/th

It was a gift getting into this course.  It’s my elective this year, and after my tumultuous first semester I needed a good elective.  The prof seems like a jolly sweetheart!  He kept playing with his beard the whole lecture, talking about his dog(he showed us pictures) and he told us he had a 17% average in University… that definitely gives everyone some hope.  There’s only 50 kids in the class, and its mostly 4th years (probably because they have earliest registration and got it first).  He told us the midterm was straight forward, fill in the blank, that it wasn’t gonna be mind games or tricky( *cough* Faculty of Science *cough*).  Besides, you can replace the midterm and paper with community service and a 2page report on how your community service went,etc.  That report is due in April, and a lot of kids in the class are doing community service so they are already set.  He said you can even do a week of it during reading week.  Sounds good to be!  The average last year was in the 90′s, lowest grade 86, I wouldn’t mind being the worst kid in that class…I’ll leave it at that.

Cpsc 110 t/th 

I’m doing a Combined Major so I chose to integrate computer science.  In fact I was thinking of Integrated Science, it’s going to be one of them, regardless I’m doing computer science.  Med school is my dream, and it’s an ambitious goal, but lets say I apply to 30 schools, get into 0, then taking 2 years off to do a Masters in CS can be an option.  I could reapply to med school after that or pursue a CS profession.  It’s good to have a backup plan, a lot of people aiming for med school don’t.  The class was hard to find, I swear as a science student you get use to circling Wesbrook, Hebb, and Chem building.  The room looks cool, the prof seems cool, but I worry.  So many students seem to know more than they should.  It’s an introduction class, yet many kids in there know Java, C++…  I was walking behind some guys after class laughing about how they’ve been doing this since grade 7 (what school did they go to!)  I wish I took AP Computer Science instead of AP Physics in high school now.  I’m just going to work hard to understand the material, practice every day, my dad told me that’s what it’s all about with computer science.  I just love the idea of making programs, designing websites, and all of that nerdy stuff, and by the end of my time at UBC I’m excited to have those skills along with my Science degree.

 

 

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