Category Archives: Involvement / Leadership

SLC Applications

Is it just me who can’t read any job descriptions for the SLC planning team? The job positions are not clickable for me.

I want to and want to apply so badly but can’t see anything from any angle. I’ve emailed Kim Davidson asking about it but as of yet have received no reply. At the rate that I’m going, I will probably end up applying anyway by guessing what each job entails. This probably will not be very impressive, but I want to get involved with this so much, I’ll risk looking like a fool.

It’s very irritating to think how often I’ve made myself a fool. These days, people can actually trace my name.

College Videos

MacKenzie mentioned one of these in her latest post and while I’ve linked it there, I always like to promote it a bit more.

Firstly, though, another speech that I read before:

Steve Jobs’s Commencement Address at Stanford: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish (text)
Video of this on Youtube

And finally, the best one of all:

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

(If that link doesn’t work, try this one.)

It’s 100 minutes long but well worth watching.

Free books make me happy

The Student Leaders reception did not get to laugh in my face.

I got some kind of dessert, a certificate and a free book called The Bottom Billion.

I love UBC.

Stephen Toope gave a speech and he seems like a nice guy. He gave us all a book. He acknowledges that universities exist for students. (Like hospitals exist for patients. I hate it when that’s forgotten.) He doesn’t like reducing people to human “capital”. I’m happy with the leadership.

Peeling an orange with one hand and typing with the other is surprisingly difficult. I give up.

Oh ho ho

So apparently I am a bad judge about myself.

I got an email on Monday offering me both the Gala group leader and the Imagine MUG leader positions. This was a pleasant surprise, doubly so given that I didn’t apply to be a MUG leader. After further consideration, I stuck to my original plan and asked to just be a Gala leader. I have grand plans about keeping in touch with my Gala group, and doing fun things if any of them are willing. Kind of like an informal International Peer Program thing.

Speaking of which, as soon as I have time to breathe, I have got to start thinking about what kind of leadership positions and activities I want to be doing next term. Applications for all sorts of things are going underway now and I must decide what role I want for myself, and just as importantly, how much time I have to spare.

Unfortunately I had to quit Trek, partly because it was eating up my time (four hours a week including travelling time) and I was severely behind on my schoolwork ever since it began. Trek in itself is manageable; Trek coupled with my previous volunteering commitment is impossible, so I had to pick and choose. Of course, I’m now also guilt-stricken because I never used to be so non-committal. Some elegant planning is required to alleviate myself from negative feelings next year!

Because cooking will also take a lot of time, considering how little I know about the art. It’ll be quite the learning experience. I’m taking applications for guinea pigs, by the by!

And before I forget, my current most pressing problem regarding moving out of rez is that I have no idea where I can practise the piano anymore. Does anyone know if the Music Building offers a public piano room of sorts?

(I think I should make an Off-Campus Life category. For now, I will classify this under Wellness and Sustainability as it is a most important matter of sustaining my own well-being. Very clever, not really.)

Darfur 2008

Ugh, I have done a very stupid thing by not doing something earlier. This is where procrastination leads me.

I wanted to attend the Darfur 2008 Conference on March 2nd. I’d downloaded the application but thought that I would fill it out “later”, before the deadline (February 25th). But when I checked it again today, it’s quite full. This is a good thing for them as it means that there are enough people who care about the issue and it isn’t going to be partially empty up until the deadline. I’m consoling myself with the thought that I will be spending the day with my mother, who will be visiting then, but this is also a very adequate lesson for me to go after the things I want now. Tomorrow doesn’t always come.