Stop, duck and cover.
Exactly where do we hide if an earthquake hits while we’re on campus?
Especially if we’re in a Buchanan D class room, or MATH 100 or WOOD [insert #]?
Really… I don’t know what I would do other than book it for the door but so would most other people right?
Do you ever notice that when you have a schedule for your life, you tend to cross paths with the same people?
I guess every student has a schedule for their life to some extent.
Back in the summer I thought about taking a different route to school everyday just so I could see new things but that never happened and I settled down for consistency (or is it laziness). When I look around I notice I’m not the only one with the consistent flow of life.
For example:
– the same lady on the bus with the thick rims and trench coat
– the guy passing out the Metro
– the man who plays the guitar at the sky train station (his life is more flexible, he’s not always there)
– the 5 siblings walking to school who I always bump into at the same intersection of my route to school
– big guy with Elton John glasses who I always bump into at the other intersection
Do you have these people in your life?
If they suddenly stopped being there, would you be sad?
Sometimes it feels like I’m in the Truman Show… you know the part where he greets his neighbour every morning with the same actions?
I have this expectation that they will be there even if I’m not. It makes the world much less lonely yet I’m sure such an expectation is extremely selfish.
When I grow up, will I still be selfish like this?
Speaking of growing up, I went to Chapters today. COMM 299 talked about how people should build on their strengths because simply fixing our weaknesses will never be enough. What if my strengths aren’t the things I want to be good at? So instead I tried to find my interests and went to every shelf and looked at something there.
I got to the business section I thought “this is grown up stuff, I’ll check it out some other day.” But I’m at Sauder, shouldn’t this be the stuff I want to look into more? The only thing that caught my eye was a book on marketing tactics. Could this be a sign I’m not at the right place?
What’s growing up anyway? University student, parents will always look at their children as kids but shouldn’t I have almost reached that “grown up” stage by now? If I weren’t at school, I’d be working. To me, a full time job is what I’ve always felt is the dividing line between adolescence and adult.
The first week of school… the first week of the year. You know where everything is still new, fresh… exciting? It’s wonderful. One of my biggest worries in life is that I’m going to fall into a routine.
When you think about your future, do you see a 9-5 desk job? I used to think, sure, maybe I’ll be satisfied with it as long as I get paid well and get enough time to do enjoyable. It has a stability and certainty it in which puts away a lot of stress. However, the more I visualize it the more scared I get of it. I don’t believe jobs with rigid structures of tasks is a bad thing, but I don’t think it’s for me.
My fingers ran away on me just now. The point is that I love the first week of school because everyday feels like an adventure.
By the way, happy new year everyone. Did you make resolutions?
My friends tell me “It’s a new decade. Now is the time.”
Last year my 3 day short lived resolution was to take a picture that reminds me of something special about that day. Day 3 came along and nothing inspiring hit me by 12am of the next day so I just gave up.
I didn’t resolute anything for this year but everyday has been pretty interesting this week and I actually did take a picture everyday… so though I didn’t resolute it, I think I might try. (The wonders of camera phone make this so much more attainable…)
A resolution just came to me… but really it’s more like a lazy way out. I will (not resolute) but try, to make a post here every (at least) other day. It’s the internet, vast amounts of storage, I’m sure it’s fine if I make a few unfocused posts here and there…
So I will now share with you my 1st week of 2nd semester…
(I’m nothing like the talented Rabi, so you’ll have to bare with not so awesome pictures)
Jan 4: This has become my favorite place to nap. It’s in the new section of Henry Angus. Not a soul in a 50 m radius. Does anyone else think the new Henry Angus is totally ballin’?
Jan 5: I hate how buttons scream PUSH ME. Especially when you’re sitting next to them for a whole lecture. Buttons are usually near the door too… so you can always press them on your way out without anyone shooting you the stink eye…
Jan 5 #2: Why I will be loving semester 2: I have 2 days where I will go home when it is still light out (as opposed to 1)
One of these is not like the other…. Do you see it? Poor little Muk Muk is left out of the group and photoshopped into the corner =(
Jan 6: Exploring Sauder! I’ve always wanted a spiral stair case… The best thing about standard timetables for me, who is quite socially awkward, is that I actually get some classes with the same people and can therefore make friends… like that guy in the picture. (Shhh… he doesn’t know he’s on here)
Jan 7: Being somewhere at a different time of day can make you see more even if you go to that same place everyday. (I never noticed there were train tracks under there.) Taking different routes to and from school is a good way to see more too.
Jan 8: Taken on the eerie path towards the Burnaby Public Library. I should go to the library more often.
Another “project” I’ve taken onto myself is to try something that Rabi suggested in his posts. To compile pictures of similar things, of which an example he used was your feet. Since Dec 3 I have taken 9… which I guess isn’t a lot. But I’m content with my progress.
Jan 9: My “adventure” today.
Marks are out.
Moment of truth… drumroll please…
I’m not on AP (academic probation) so far.
Not all the marks are out but there are likely enough to potentially give you a heart attack.
That is all.
GL. HF. DD.
You think that when one distraction has run dry you’ll go back to studying. It just keeps on coming. Internet, you’ll be the end of me.
Mind over matter… mind over matter…
Up till around 1 pm today I was actually one chapter in economics ahead of schedule.
Then I went to write the math final and somehow my Tuesday just fell away.
I don’t think I did very well on the final to be honest, but wilst writing it I came over an interesting sensation.
Have you heard of “flow”?
It’s like when you’re so in-the-zone of doing something that you are doing and the motions are moving but you’re not thinking about it. I think it’s also known as concentration. Just… on a very high level.
I was completly immersed in math. I screwed up some differentiating steps along the way but it didn’t get me down. Over the past few months I developed this bad habit of giving up and feeling helpless even during a test but this time I think I overcame it. Or rather, it didn’t come up?
Somewhere in the last hour I suddenly consciously realized I was in flow and then it broke. =( But it came back for a little bit at the end.
Anyway, back to studying.
Verdict of my first university final taking experience: Good experience but let’s never do that again. Too bad that’s not happening…
Good luck everyone =)
This is bad. I don’t know how to deal with this. The finals. They’re EVERYWHERE.
I’ve never needed to do this before… but I think I’m left with no choice. I have to make a studying schedule.
Math- focus on Ch 5 and 11; review all.
Econ- read the last chapter, Ch 1-3
Japn- Ch 13
Math final.Econ- Ch 4-5
Japn- Ch 14
OB – catch up on reading…
Econ- Ch 6-8
Japn- Ch 15
OB- Ch 1-2
Phil- Utilitarianism
Econ- Ch 9-11
Japn- Ch 16
Phil- Kant
Econ- Ch 10-13, review all.
Econ final.
Japn- Ch 17
OB- 4-6
Japn- Ch 18
OB- Ch 7-8
Phil- Non relative virtue ethics
Japn- review all.
OB – Ch 9
Phil- Cultural Relativism
Japanese final.
OB- 10-12
Phil- abortion
OB- 13-14, review all.
Phil- animal rights
OB final.
Phil- all the rest.
Philosophy final.
Why I never made schedules before: 1. didn’t really need it, 2. lazy, 3. it’s too overwhelming to look at.
I hope I will survive this.
[on a side note] Any K-pop fans here? I hear Minho of SHINee (along with other Korean celebs) has been around campus this weekend filming for a special on the Olympics. Fan cams are already on Youtube if you’re interested. I don’t know if they’re still going to be around though but I hear there are many screaming fans around.
A speaker was at my Organizational Behavior class. He shared an insight that I thought was very interesting.
He said…
You can play to win
or play not to lose.
I would assume he meant in life.
That’s all I wanted to share.
Do you play to win?
I know I want to, but I think unless I remember to remind myself I will play not to lose.
If there was legitimate scientific fact that all the scientists of the world approved of that proved the world is ending in two years…
What would you do?
Would you try to survive it?
If not, what will you do in your last moment?
I watched 2012 on Friday night, not bad. Come for the CG stay for the “I wonder if they will live… will this end like The Knowing?”
I kind of want to be there when the world ends, just to see how it happens. But not really, I think I’d like a peaceful, in my sleep of old age, kind of death. If somehow the world is all messed up and some humans survive, I’d want to be there just to know. But not really, it’s probably going to be chaos and depressing and maybe worse than the moment when the world “ended”.
My friend said when the world ends he’d take a picture of it. I thought to myself “what’s the point no one would see it” and then I realized it’s pretty deep. The world “ends” for everyone eventually, you still do the things you want to do anyway.
Back to the movie,
The CG: Haven’t seen anything like it before, but to be honest it didn’t reach my expectations. There were moments when it felt more like cut scenes of games like Final Fantasy, impressive but still had the cartoony feel.
The destruction: There is something about visually stimulating scenes of destruction that I love. Not the most imaginative stuff but still worth the gander.
The characters: Some quirky ones, but for others it felt like they tried to give them depth only to have it come out kind of forced.
The story: The only interesting thing about this movie was what exactly was the government building that could save some people. There was a notable scene where… ok no spoilers but there was a scene where it was so well executed that everyone was laughing and clapping at their way of escaping yet another disaster.
So I didn’t say too many good things about 2012 but it wasn’t a bad movie. It was entertaining and a well spent Friday.
I rate it a $9 out of $12. (I believe the price was actually $11.95…)
However, for other mainstream end of the world type movies I would recommend:
For the celebs – Armageddon
For the soul – Deep Impact
For fun – Independence Day
For similar-to-2012-but-better-and-I’m-broke – The Day After Tomorrow
For the faint of heart – Titanic
These kind of movies always make me wonder if I should go be a scientist or a CG artist…
[side note] If you are very critical of movie magic “physics” where for some reason they forgot to account for centripital force, this may not be for you.
Yesterday was the long anticipated (but not in the “I can’t wait, it’s going to be so fun” kind of way) presentation day of my first big project. The Electronic Arts case study for organizational behavior (aka COMM292).
At the beginning of the course, the professor puts everyone in the class into teams. Teams were created based on these personality analysis surveys we did.
I was really excited to find out if good teams can actually be made this way.
My conclusion: well I loved my group but I still can’t tell if it is related to how the prof put it together.
Do you remember how group projects felt in highschool? (Yes I realize I compare everything to high school a lot.)
1. Most people want every project to be a group project.
2. You must choose your own groups.
3. You must choose your friends.
3b. You must choose the smart kids who will get you the highest marks.
Of course, you don’t always get your way. It wasn’t so bad when teachers picked your teams because you see these same people all the time and at least sort of know them.
This was different. I didn’t even know everyone’s names at the start. Even then, this was honestly one of the coolest project experiences. Oh I feel like a nerd for saying that. I didn’t notice much during the whole thing but once it ended, it felt so cool to know total strangers can work together and make something in a short time.
Random fact about me #4: I am a pretty distant person. Which explains my huge awe of the whole interacting with people thing.
On Sunday, I hung out with a friend from SFU and we were talking about how at the rate we’re going, in four years we will be just as lost with even less of a purpose because by then we won’t even have school to focus on.
I still don’t know what I want to do, and even if it is based on a single experience, I’m glad I found something that I would like from my future. I want to work with people. Ok, so most jobs require working with people anyway, but hey, a step forward is a step forward.
Right direction or not, at least I’m moving?
