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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Term 2 Class Summary

This blog started 35 entries ago, wow.

See End of Term Wrap Up for my first semester courses.

Commerce 293 (Financial Accounting)
Rob Jackes
Monday/Wednesday/Friday
10:00am – 11:00am

I had never seen anyone more excited about accounting than Rob Jackes. He has a booming voice and could sometimes be seen jumping up and down to emphasize a point. He’s a firm prof, but quite fair and nice during office hour chats. As for the subject itself, duh, it’s accounting ,you either hated it or could tolerate it (kidding!). My two years of high school accounting and career prep work experience really paid off because the first month or so turned out to be a breeze. Instruction components: the textbook was not overly useful but good for previews and additional practice, the online Lyryx labs were kind of … frustrating and fun(?!), and the note pkg you had to buy were life-saving. One midterm and one non-cumulative final. Grade: I’m happy (I’ll let you work out the code haha).

Continue reading →

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Enfin, La Fin!

Can you believe we’re coming to the end of the term?! Shocking, I know. I have so many stories to tell of the past few weeks and so little time to blog about it. I promise, I will actually sit down this week and write my heart out to make up for the sparse updates.

Allow me to get a little ahead of myself right now. So far I have my summer planned out

12 credits of intermediate heritage Chinese: about 16 hours a week, fun stuff! I really want to communicate with style with my grandparents and shilling out $1500 for summer courses may just be worth it (did I say $1500? Crap, that’s a lot of money)
A parttime job that’s technology/finance oriented
Event planning for the year for International Business Club <3
Travel somewhere, anywhere
Finish the novel I’m working on blog lol, it’s easier

QOTW: As we approach la fin de l’année, what wonderful, exciting, exotic plans do YOU have for the summer?

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Year-End Fiscal Report

2008 was a good year in the sense that I entered the workforce full time and managed to hold on to jobs during the school year. 2008 was a bad year in the sense that I spent money frivolously on non-essentials such as clothing and food. Textbooks are also huge drains from my savings.

Note: Always wanted to use the word “fiscal”… it makes everything sound so official! Oh and this entry is all about money, so stay away if financial talk isn’t your thing. I pay for all of my own stuff except groceries and around one meal a day (lovingly supplied by my parents, fyi i still live at home).

EXPENSES PIE GRAPH

I tried to keep as an accurate account as possible (…have the habit of spending cash/debit instead of credit… ah well). As you can see, UBC textbooks took a ridiculously huge chunk out of my wallet. I’m quite happy that my university tuition was only a few hundred bucks.

EXPENSES PIE GRAPH – “WALLET” ACCOUNT

The above graph takes out all the “major expenses”. Ever since univ started I’ve been lavishly spending money on fastfood at lunch, a habit I hope to drop this year. Clothings expenses were up there as well – averages to about $30 a month which isn’t too bad.

EXPENSE BAR GRAPH – “WALLET” ACCOUNT

It’s skyrocketing towards the end of the year haha… blame Boxing Day.

INCOME/EXPENSE BAR GRAPH

Green bar = income, red = expenses. Got a job in July. Pulled in a deficit for September, but otherwise I’m in the green!

BALANCE LINE GRAPH

This doesn’t represent the actual balance (give or take a few grand), but I love having visual representation!

Now isn’t dealing with finances fun?! Coming up next: where are Phoebe’s incomes coming from? AKA Making money at UBC =D On a sidenote, for those of you looking for cheap textbooks, refer to my buying textbooks at UBC post back in September. Hope it helps!

QOTW: What do you spend the most money on? What about non-essential items?