Trains, TODOs and a Curious Sense of Calm
January 28th, 2011 • Academics, Student Life
Just remember that when YOU openly sneeze everywhere, it only looks gross, not strangely provocative.
Today was a culmination of many events, one right after the other. Now that they are all done, I feel a strange sense of emptiness and I’m not quite suer what to do with myself. I mean, I have lots to work on, just nothing that’s immediately due. Not that that’s a bad thing… at all.
First of all, this morning at 9:00am, I had a CS313 (Computer Hardware and Operating Systems) test- the first of four “midterms”, if you will. Now, I took this class’s precursor, CS213, last spring and TA’d it during the second term of summer as well. While I did quite well in the class, I felt like I didn’t actually learn very much, nor did I find the material particularly enthralling. So, I came into CS313 with low expectations insofar as my interest levels were concerned, but I am actually finding this class pretty enjoyable so far. Our professor, Andrew Warfield, is quite amiable and a good lecturer, which is pretty essential at nine in the morning. Also, lo and behold, the textbook is useful! In CS213, we didn’t use the textbook that much since Professor Feeley wrote a “course companion”, like a mini-textbook, to be used instead. The few glances that I took at the textbook suggested that it was a densely technical, monochrome behemoth but actually reading it now, it’s a great resource.
Anyway. I finished my test around 10 minutes early and then made the long trek (across the Dempster lobby) to my CS422 (Intelligent Systems) class, where I had time to fiddle around with the projector. A relatively large component of our final mark for this class is based on a total of three “mini-projects”- what these are is we essentially investigate applications in the field of AI that are somewhat relevant to the course material, find one that we think is cool and talk about it for three minutes. Today my project was on DepthX and its underlying algorithm SLAM, which probably no one but my nerdfriends from CS will care about. I think that my presentation went pretty well, although there minutes is an incredibly short timeframe to talk about anything meaningful.
Finally, at 3:45pm today, our second CS320 (Intermediate Algorithm Design & Analysis) assignment is due. Let me just say thank goodness for my exceedingly intelligent friend Chris Thompson and his infinite patience with me (and his willingness to collaborate). Not only did I get my assignment done on time, I actually understood (thoroughly understood, as in had the whole “aha” moment thing) every single question. It’s always a pleasure to work with intelligent people, and you really do find that two heads are better than one. I handed this assignment in about half an hour ago.
… so, like I said, strangely empty since nothing is due until mid next-week.
Actually, something non-UBC related happened that’s really neat. A friend of mine from highschool has worked at a design firm for quite awhile, and he recently contacted me saying that they needed a last minute illustration for a kids’ t-shirt for Rocky Mountaineer. Cool, right? I generally do little illustrations from time to time, but I don’t have time to be a full-fledged freelance illustrator… pretty nice when a job falls right into my lap! The best part is that there weren’t really any restrictions besides the fact that they wanted one of their trains in the illustration somewhere. Free rein to draw adorable forest creatures- I seriously could not ask for a more enjoyable job! I’m also happy to report that it sounds like both the design firm and Rocky Mountaineer are pleased with what I’ve done. This kinda stuff really makes me miss being a “professional” artist… Maybe once I get a website set up I can more actively pursue some part time illustration work.
I’d also like to make a public service announcement to everyone to remember to wash your hands! Even if you are indifferent to spreading your own pestilence around with dirty hands and not covering your mouth when you forcibly eject fluids (seriously? how hard is it to cover your goddamn mouth), you should probably care about getting yourself sick. I recently got over a nightmarish bout of stomach flu that left me hating my insides for a week- a week of school missed!- so seriously, be proactive in your hand washing. One sick day can be a nice break, but missing anything more than that is a pretty good way to screw up the rest of your semester.
I’ve also been thinking of drawing inspiration from Eric’s UBC 101 series and starting my own set of “how to survive UBC” articles, especially now that midterm season is almost upon us (or already here, for some!). If that’s ok with Eric, of course! Hmm…
