abaculus

A friend just introduced me to the fascinating concept of the UBC Penalty Box. Apparently, we all have a quota of 5GB every 24 hours and if we exceed this, our internet for off-campus sites is much slower. Amazing! Some things suddenly make a lot of sense!

(And you should totally check that link out; it tells you how much of your quota you have used in the last 24 hours. I think this is very cool.)

Guess who was in the shower when the fire alarm went off!

In online emoticon language, there is an expression that sums up my initial reaction perfectly:

=__________________________=

For the last couple of months, I’ve been the most annoying wretch and complained about my heater to anyone within a few metres’ range when the mood struck me, regardless of what they wanted. Poor them. I’m sorry.

The problem was not that my heater didn’t work at all — it gave off heat, but there didn’t seem to be any difference in temperature after 25’C. 35’C felt exactly the same. Actually, that wasn’t the problem either, since I don’t need to live in 35’C temperature: the problem was that my room was sanely warm in the daytime, and then cold at night. I woke up shivering more often than not, and hoped that turning up the thermostat would help. (Getting extra blankets didn’t have much effect, unfortunately. The extra weight also hampered my nightly tossing and turning, so I woke up exhausted.)

I put in a work order last week — couldn’t hurt, whatever the consequences — and the man who came to look it over said that it might be burning itself out and suggested putting it at 20’C instead.

Maybe it’s too soon to say as it hasn’t snowed again since last weekend, but it does seem to be working and I don’t wake up cold every morning anymore.

I have firmly decided that the Vanier caf staff are some of the nicest people around.

When I was grabbing lunch yesterday, they asked if I had got a goody bag. “A goody bag?” I repeated, bemused. They asked me for my name and residence, and then promptly placed a large, brown paper bag in my arms. “It’s for your studying!”

Chocolate, chips/crisps, an orange fruit that is either an orange, a mandarin or a tangerine, and a can of Coke (which I gave to someone else because I don’t drink soft drinks) — when they don’t have to give us anything at all! I’m not sure if this is a UBC Food Catering thing or if it’s limited to Vanier and/or Totem, but at any rate, I’m grateful for it.

As part of my break from writing one of my papers tonight, I decided to swim around the UBC Housing website and think about where I might want to live next year just for fun.

Turns out it’s not quite as leisurely as I thought.

If you want housing next year and you are a current student at UBC, apply now for the lottery system. Yes, you have to pay $50 and submit an application now just to be considered for a place in housing. Entering the lottery does not mean that you are guarenteed a spot in housing — it means exactly what it says. Regardless, if you do not want to be homeless next year, apply now. The deadline is February 1st, but we all know how we procrastinate. (Plus we go around asking who is wanting to live where. Ask now.)

The lottery apparently opened on November 1. What I want to know is: how come there hasn’t been anything about it? I had the impression that the lottery would open later on in the year, like March or April, because after all, it’s a computer that does the juggling. No posters, no information whatsoever — I just happened to stumble upon it because I was looking for it out of curiousity.

My only other question is how a person might be able to room with friends if they wanted to live in one of the shared residences, such as Ritsumeikan, Gage, or Fairview. There is nothing on the online application that I have seen that has this option, yet I hear of people living with their friends all the time. How is this done?

—

Ah-ha, my friend just pointed me to the ever-helpful FAQs:

“Those selected in the lottery can ask to live together, and we will do our best to accommodate those requests. Please note, each roommate’s application must show the identical rankings for residence area preferences.”

So if you are interested in living with your friends, remember to rank everything exactly the same. And preferably, now.