Hey everyone!

I thought I’d write a little bit about scholarships and bursaries for my fellow university students. When costs get so high, it’s nice to have a few awards to keep you going.

Canadian Scholarships– http://www.scholarshipscanada.com
Here’s the easiest jumping off point regarding any and all scholarships for Canadians.

Passport to Education– http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/support/provincial-scholarships/passport-to-education
In order to qualify for Passport to Education you need to have an overall high GPA on provincially examined courses. If you do, you receive $250 for grade ten, $250 for grade eleven, and $500 for grade twelve. That means the BC government will give you up to $1000 just for getting good grades in high school. It was a huge help for my first year at UBC. Click the link for more details.

Flight Network Scholarship– http://www.flightnetwork.com/pages/scholarship/
This scholarship is given every year and seems pretty cool! You need to have a 3.0 GPA and write a short entry on a positive travel experience you’ve had. After that, tweet a photo from the trip. I’ll be sure to apply this year.

Student Life Network– https://accounts.studentlifenetwork.com
This site acts as an all in one place where you can enter for a lot of different awards and prizes. The only thing is they spam your email with a lot of junk but it’s probably worth it if you win. One of my friends in first year won Canada’s Luckiest Student and got all her tuition paid for!

That’s all I have for you guys at the moment.
Thanks for reading!

What up guys!

Haven’t been on here in a while but now that I’m starting up fourth year I thought I’d share some of my favourite spots and resources around Vancouver as well as the best ways to explore outside of YVR. Some of them are places I go for deals (#studentbudget), some of them I go for leisure, and some of them are just straight up awesome.

Employment
UBC Careers Online- http://students.ubc.ca/career 
If you’re a UBC student looking to make some extra cash during the semester I recommend this site. It requires a UBC CWL username so you’re already on the top of employer’s lists.

AMS Job Postings- http://www.ams.ubc.ca/jobs/employment/
More basic employment opportunities through the AMS, a lot less like the odd-job list above. Still worth checking out, especially for flexible work schedules.

Food
The Templeton- http://thetempleton.ca
One of my favourite little diners ever. It’s got great food, retro decor, and jukeboxes at every booth. I highly recommend you check this one out. They also project movies on some evenings.

Olympia Pizza- http://www.olympiapizzakits.com
One of the best pizzas I’ve ever had, hot pepperoni, great service, and fair prices for such a classy restaurant. They also do take-out! I also recommend the lasagna. It’s tops.

Cool Spots
Ecomarine- https://www.ecomarine.com/our-locations/
Super cool kayak rental place with very affordable prices. A friend and I rented a double for a couple hours and had a blast. Give it a try even if you’re not super outdoorsy.

Top of Vancouver- http://www.topofvancouver.com/index.html
I couldn’t file this under the “Food” section solely because I’ve yet to try theirs. This is a really neat spot just for having some drinks. It’s a revolving restaurant 550 feet high above Vancouver! Be warned, the prices are going to be steeper than anything else on here.

Travel
Flight Network- http://www.flightnetwork.com
An awesome resource that guarantees best prices and specializes in airplane tickets. It’s likely I’ll be using this one next time I book a flight to visit my sister in London!

Discount My Flights- https://www.discountmyflights.ca/travel-tips/vacation-cost-index/
A handy site that bundles flights, hotel, food, transport, and activities into one figure. Definitely worth using to skip the headache of coordination and overpaying.

KAYAK- http://www.ca.kayak.com
A travel search engine that seems pretty useful. I haven’t used it yet!

I’m back.

Second year of university proved to be the craziest year of my life, living more independently with roommates, taking harder courses, and applying to majors made for a hectic eight months.

Sure there was a lot of leisure time spent with friends, family, and roommates. Roommates fall under both friends and family at this point. I think the things that you love to do with your free time should affect your future career decisions. I’ve decided to major in both Creative Writing and Film Production. I was amazed upon my acceptance into both and feel truly grateful. I think the two go hand-in-hand quite nicely.

I don’t watch art films and I don’t write poetry. I really love storytelling in all different mediums, so I look forward to learning to write better in different genres such as prose, screenplays, and graphic novels. On the film production end of things I want to learn how to create a visually interesting story. I made a short film with some of my friends this year which got me into the film program and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Life can get busy though, and it isn’t always easy delegating things. Sometimes I found it a challenge just to wake up, or feed myself, or even manage to go buy more more bowls of microwaveable kimchi. I think students have really chill parts of the year, and extremely chaotic parts and it’s really just a matter of trying to balance those times. It’s amazing how important it is to have people around you act as a family away from home. I can’t believe how fortunate I am to have the people I have in my life. They’ll be there when you’re pulling all nighters writing, when you’re going for the girl of your dreams, when you’re grieving over deaths, when you’re applying to majors, and when you’re singing in the shower is waking them up.

Who knows what direction I’m headed in now, or what direction anyone is actually headed in. People make plans, but plans get revised all the time. I’m going to keep at it, because all of this craziness is probably good for personal growth. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Well this week is the last week for blogging, so I felt the need to write a final entry. I’m going to miss the relaxing feeling of being graded on whatever’s kicking around my cranium. Blogging is a really enjoyable experience where you can talk about whatever you want and not necessarily back it up with sources and extra information.

Maybe I’m just procrastinating doing my research paper, who knows. I really enjoy creative writing and opinion papers more than research papers. I should probably go to some Arts Advisors to see about my major. The courses I enrolled in for my first year ranged from snooze-worthy to jumping-out-of-bed-to-go-to-class worthy. The courses felt a bit like Grade 13 at times but I think it’s a good way to ease you into University life.

I think the courses encompassing a CAP stream help you realize what matters most to you when it comes to learning, and what you’re most passionate about. I look forward to concentrating my studies more next year. Film Studies, and Music History were fantastic courses, especially due to my keen interest in them. ASTU was always jumping around with subjects that interested me, and some not so much. I really enjoyed reading Watchmen, for some reason it resonated with me. Women Studies felt a bit negative toward a lot of the things I love, like film, television, and video games, but still was interesting. Journalism feels a bit needless to me, I had hopes for more actual journalisitc writing instead of just the concepts of journalism. Oh well.

I have about two more months left of school after this upcoming reading break, and this blog will be really cool to look back on in the future. Hopefully I pass Psych, and enjoy the rest of my first year. Blogs have a capability to connect with not only yourself, but with others. I think that’s a great thing to encourage in a University environment where connections are fundamental for learning.

Advertising is a massive component of everyday culture. Ads have been a part of cultural history for many years, however it seems that we have reached a point of extreme commercialization today; superficial and unnecessary. I remember watching plenty of action figure and super soaker ads back on Saturday mornings as a kid, but in the past few years ads have made a successful attempt to dominate the internet as well.

Most media is now digital, people watch TV shows through free streaming websites that post ads all over your screen or even through free TV network apps that give you regular commercial breaks. The DVR gave people the ability to record shows and replay them later, giving the ability to fast forward through commercials, however more TV shows that I watch implement product placement as a way of unavoidable advertising. This is also present in many films I have seen in the past year, The Amazing Spiderman and Wreck It Ralph were notoriously ad-heavy although they were both great movies.

On my Xbox 360 Dashboard, a hub for downloads and gaming news, I had to update my Xbox so now ads stream on the main screen, even if I don’t choose to sign into Xbox LIVE. There’s no alternative to these ads. The most saddening and frustrating examples of commercialization have surfaced very recently on both Facebook and Youtube. Facebook suggests Pages I “might like” such as Target, Walmart, or Nike so I can receive “new deals” which really means you volunteer yourself for more ads. Additionally, when looking at someone’s photos, they advertise right by the comment bar. It’s not even subtle anymore! Youtube, which was once ad-free and growing in popularity, was bought by Google and had ads implemented on screen once your video has played 10 seconds and before the video starts! You have to wait five seconds before you can skip the ad.

Pop culture is becoming addicted to its own past in more than just musical aspects, Mad Men is an extremely successful television series about advertising during the 1960s. Ads are definitely a part of our lives that may be unavoidable, but is it really necessary to be smothered by them, and if so where will it stop? Although ads remain to be interesting parts of our culture, I feel overwhelmed and out of control with them.

If there’s one thing that has changed the way people live in my generation, it’s the Internet. This resulted in our generation being titled the “technology generation” and social networking is now one of the most prominent uses of technology. Marshall McLuhan famously stated that the medium is the message, meaning that a medium, in this case technology, influences the message, which is social networking. To take that a step further, social networking is basically just a filtered view of other people’s lives so really technology influences life. This expression, as stated by McLuhan, basically says that mediums and messages exist symbiotically. The message can’t exist without the medium, however the medium always has an influence on the message.

So what does this mean for social networking influencing life? Being an involuntary test subject as an active Facebook member of almost five years and casual Twitter user I can give my own view of social media. People have an unbelievable obsession with themselves due to social networking, I read countless Status Updates and Tweets daily that don’t really express anything aside from the sharing of someone’s day-to-day routine. It’s a cultural idea that everyone cares about what is immediately happening in your life and that you should care about others as well. Our culture discourages boredom and encourages social media use, we have multiple uses of time-wasting now. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, Stumble-upon, and Pinterest are all frequently used to kill time and entertain others.

Having said that, social media still creates an amazing ease of access the to the people you truly DO care about and entertainment is provided when you want it. What’s important is to keep in mind that everything is best in moderation, and that social media is no exception. The only question that remains is if social networking will die off eventually, or if it will follow the Social Network quote and “never go out of style, like fashion”. Time will only tell.

A while back, our ASTU class visited The Chung Collection. For starters, I had no idea that there was a mini museum hidden under Irving, there were all sorts of different historical items.

Ephemera was all over, which is  basically a paper product used to serve a purpose and then be tossed away, except people saved them and now they’re little pieces of history. There were brochure-like pamphlets advertising West Coast Vancouver Island Tours, Sunset Cruises, The Fiords of British Columbia, and Fun for All the Family at Newcastle Island! These pamphlets all were vintage looking, using bright pastel colors and smooth looking illustrations. It reminded me of World War II propaganda in America. This was a valuable insight to Canada’s rich history for me.

There was also authentic railroad building equipment used for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Lanterns, axes, and elongated oil cans lined a section of the exhibit. There were two large-scale models in the collection as well. My personal favorite was the huge model ship that looked professionally done, I was amazed to discover that Mr. Chung himself helped restore it to its former glory and contributed possibly thousands of hours toward it. The other model was a reincarnation of a train that one of the builders worked on originally. I guess the worker enjoyed making the life-size one so much that he felt like making a smaller scale version. Small is a bit of a misnomer however, for although these are miniature models they remain to be gigantic. These models reminded me of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy where the director Peter Jackson created “big-atures” in order to film detailed and realistic locations such as Rivendell, Helm’s Deep, and Minas Tirith.

Finally, there were all sorts of different propaganda posters advertising The Canadian Pacific Empresses, steamships, and tours and cruises. All of the posters had a clean, cartoon, and pop art feel. Some of these ads depicted Canada’s beautiful landscape, whereas others showed detailed Empresses in different ports of the world. These posters were all tweaked slightly depending on what audience they were advertising to which I found interesting, but not surprising. The CPR wanted to brag and advertise as best they could.

After viewing The Chung Collection my knowledge of the CPR was expanded and better understood due to the visual aids, perhaps it’s just the way my mind works but all of the imagery is retained easily. I’m also glad to have learnt that The Chung Collection is a historical goldmine located right under UBC’s own learning center.

Hello to everyone reading this.

My name is Jackson Runkle, but you can call me The J Doctor, or J.Dr if you prefer. I will be using this blog to discuss the ideas presented in my Culture and Media CAP stream courses, History of Music, Women and Gender Studies, Film Studies, Journalism, and ASTU of course. Next semester I’m going to try and review movies under the Ticket or Skip It blog section so be sure to check that out! I chose the Culture and Media CAP Stream because of my interest and love of popular culture, and additionally because of my interest in taking Film Studies and Film Production courses. Another special attribute of Culture and Media is that it allows you to take Journalism as an undergraduate. This CAP stream is the only way to access the course. I look forward to learning more and discussing ideas through this outlet.

I’ll talk to you all soon!

Jackson Runkle

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