Archives: Wellness

Useful Links Around Campus

Summer is drawing to an end and I had a fabulous year here on the Blogsquad. A shoutout to my fellow bloggers and Humaira: you guys made the experience awesome! This may be my last post as my “tenure” here draws to an end. Feel free to comment on all the old posts – I check them regularly!

Here’s a batch of links I’ve bookmarked over the months that were helpful. Hope it helps you in some way or another.

Best Places to Nap on the UBC Campus – an awesome list for the sleepier ones amongst us, compiled by Humaira

Grade Distribution and Curves for UBC Classes – this is an absolute GOLDMINE. You can check all the grades for past classes here. This is as reliable as you can get! You will never have to wonder whether a prof is easy or not or how many A’s he or she hands out! It gives highest, lowest, passing rate, average, total attendance etc.

UBC Rate My Profs – y’all should know this already. Take every comment here about profs with a grain of salt!

UBC LEAP – “We Help You Learn” is the perfect for LEAP (Learning Enhancement Academic Partnership Program). This huge site has everything you need for academic survival and beyond. Check it out! On a sidenote, I actually worked on part of the site with the awesome folks over at Student Development and the Office of Learning Technology for the majority of the summer!

An Ancient Guide to Climbing Almost Every Building on the UBC Campus – Caution: try at your own risk. I thought this was hilarious.

The Ubyssey – our official newspaper! Lookin’ gorgeous after a makeover this summer. Keep up-to-date with campus news.

UBC Blogsquad – of course 😀 Don’t forget everyone in my blogroll!

I wish everyone an exciting and fruitful school year. Keep in touch.

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Car-Free Vancouver Day

On Sunday June 14th, many areas of Vancouver went “car-free” for the day. On Main Street for example, instead of the usual congest one sees on the weekend, there was a street festival stretching a few dozen blocks. As a part of the Leave Out ViolencE campaign, I had a booth for PeerNetBC (non-profit organization that provides workshops and training for peer-led groups) near King Edward which was also next to a stage!

There were four or five booths beside the PeerNetBC one and it really goes to show how connected the non-profit/youth-led groups in Vancouver are! I knew the colleague of the guy who was there from Check Your Head (above). One of the Points Youth Media girl beside my booth (below) was the sister of this girl I knew from my organization. One table over, the girl participated in the My Circle program with my friend. And the City of Vancouver ladies two tables away I knew from Youthpolitik and also from presenting a workshop at City Hall a few months  ago. Wow!

For those of you who read the Vancouver 24 Hours newspaper, you probably have seen the cynical comments in “letter to the editor” about how useless Car-Free Vancouver is when it comes to reducing traffic and helping the environment. That part is true, in my opinion. I had to have one of my colleagues drive me over and park a block away to get the board there. A lot of people simply drove as close as possible and parked infront of someone’s lawn. However, I don’t think the value of a street festival-type event such as this should be measured by how much it helped the environment. I saw tons of kids and families there having a blast and I think it’s just a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Not only does it gives non-profit organizations a chance to showcase their services, but also lets merchants/performers promote their products/acts. It sort of adds a little culture and recognition to a city that sorely lacks it. I know I would’ve spent the day couped up at home if it wasn’t for Car-Free Vancouver.

QOTW: Do you think there should be future Car-Free Vancouver Day’s? Have you been to other street festivals?

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You Asked, I Answer

If you had to make 7 things mandatory for each first year at UBC to do, what would they be? – Matt Corker

Excellent, excellent question Matt. Here it is in brief and I will expand this into a blog post one day.

1. Attend the Pep Rally on Imagine Day and cheer your heart out
2. Join a club, council, or association on campus (shameless promotion: International Business Club, for example)
3. Take a interest in the AMS candidates and vote in the AMS election
4. Take advantage of free swimming at the aquatic center
5. Visit the Rose Garden and trek down to Wreck Beach
6. Read the Ubyssey (optional: and comment on UBC Years and all the lovely people on the Blogsquad :D)
7. Visit all of your TAs and Profs during office hours, at least once; bonus points if you discuss non-homework related topics

Seven items are so short! The Ubyssey also published a 90 Things to do Before You Graduate UBC back in September, check it out, doing all of them might not be recommended hehe.

What’s the meaning of life? – Krys

42.

What was the lowest moment of your life, and how did you get out of there? – Lisa

Is this supposed to be one of those deep, thought-provoking, soul-searching questions that uncovers the mask I have been hiding behind, only to unveil behind it a hapless kindred spirit toiling without rewards? Of course not! The lowest moment of my life was probably when I went on a trip to Alberta and we went deep inside this cave that was at least a few hundred meters below sea level. I got out of there by taking a mining cart with the rest of the tourist group.

Where did you encounter the word “loquacious” and what does it mean? – Jason Yang

Easy question Jason, thank goodness! I encountered “loquacious” in my SAT prep days (remember those? haha). It means being excessively verbose or chatty, much like this blog.

What/who inspires you the most in life? – Travis

Of course it’s you, Travis. Other than my hardworking VP Finance, I am inspired by one particular quality: selflessness. To give up wealth or your own emotional well-being to service others is truly admirable. I’m also inspired by people who have overcome significant challenges to come out a new and better person.

How much sleep do you get every night? – Tysune

Usually between 5 and 6.5 hours. 9 hours on weekends. I feel bad now. Eastwood is going to come and tell me what up!

How much actual studying do you do during the school year on a usual day? – Tysune

Haha oh dear. I think about 90 minutes max, and then cramming before a due date.

Thank you for all your lovely questions! I picked and chose seven because that seemed to be the number we’re working with today. I encourage you bloggers out there to all take a narcissistic moment and have people ask your questions!

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Ask Me Anything

Nowadays, most of my time on campus is evenly divided between Buchanan and Irving K. Barber. Being in one area of campus for so long has almost made me forget all the little things that used to occupy my mind when I’m walking between classes.

For example, spotted at UBC, why are all the clocks in Henry Angus frozen at 2:37 PM? It’s been like that for an entire year and even though I’m sure there’s some mundane explanation for it like electricity shortage, I still like the eerie post-apocalyptic feel to it. And then there are the Greenpeace/Amnesty people standing at their strategic location asking people to sign things. Who came up with the clever idea? You see, people HAVE to go past them to walk from the Sub and Henry Angus!

Other questions that come to mind include…

Why are there five high school kids in Chapman every single day playing Warcraft for hours on end?

Did my Chinese class SERIOUSLY just went on a field trip to the beach, where the prof played the ACCORDION and led us in singing revolutionary Chinese songs?!

Is anyone else aware of the shelves upon shelves of BOARD GAMES in the basement of the Education library in Neville Scarfe? Whee!

So dear readers, for this blog post, feel free to ask me questions about ANYTHING you want in the comments! My life, my work, UBC, shopping, the Sauder school, the meaning of life, the list goes on…. I did this with IB Years before and it was quite fun. I’ll select the good ones and answer them as honestly as possible in a future post =D Ready? GO.

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