More finals

It's the last few weeks of university before the winter break. It's time for our final exams. I've completed three so far and have two more to go in the next thirty-six hours.

Chemistry was first, and it was by far my worst subject. The exam was difficult for me, although I'm rather sure that I managed more than a pass. Most people considered it too difficult, and some think that the professor was getting back at the class for falling asleep in class, talking, coming in late, and flat out not attending. Either way, I'm hoping I passed, glad it's over, and hoping that some day, I'll understand chemistry.

The next was statics and dynamics. Actually, I probably would have done better to call this course kinematics, but it's over now. I didn't do as well as I was hoping to do on the exam. I just had never gotten the practice I needed with the question types I wasn't used to. It's my fault, and I accept it, knowing that I'm likely to continue using the skills I gained from this course, and thereby, improve on them. Oh, and I most likely passed.

The third, was thermodynamics. This was supposed to be my favourite. It was, but with some minor concessions, like the fact that my alarm was disabled. Or the fact that I woke up at nine o'clock, when it started at eight-thirty, or the seven minutes it took me to dress and run across campus to the examination building. Or when I realized that I didn't have my calculator with me, and it would take too long to go back. To a little surprise, they still let me in, and to my credit, if I'm right, I think I passed that one two, even with a thirty-seven minute penalty and no calculator. I still liked the exam, but that doesn't mean it went easy on me.

Today, I have programming. I aced the two midterms and expect no major difficulty in this one. My heavy logic and mathematical skills give me a nice edge, that, and I payed attention in class and build many of my own programs.

And tomorrow I have calculus, which should go well based on our practice, though I'm a bit disappointed in my calculus marks this term. Honestly, for all my love of mathematics, I thought I could do better, but we'll see how it comes out.

After that I'm free for my last week in residence before the break. That'll be fun.

Finals

We're into our finals* here, which means everyone is studying, trying to study, failing to study, giving up. I had my first exam this morning. It was exactly what I expected: difficult, but I probably passed. Most people described it as having raped them, and people are now more readily willing to agree with me; that our chemistry professor really wasn't very good.

We also had our first Dead Engineers Society** meeting last night. It went well enough and it made for good practice for chemistry, but now we think that the smaller the group the better. I'm guessing that three is optimal. We had a long talk afterward and have many ideas of how to make this work. Oh, and I think we've got the room secured regardless of having it booked or no because the janitor (who secretly uses the rooms computer to watch television shows) let's us get away with it. In all, the session demonstrated that while these clandestine meeting could be useful for study, we've a long way to go to make them work.

On the other side of campus in residence, I'm basically living in our floor lounge. This has been noticed by several people; that I spend most of my time (and the most time of any of my floor-mates) in the floor lounge. I do most of my studying in here (yes, that's implying that I'm here, in the lounge, right now), as well as many of my debates and conversations with Alex and Joël. I cook and eat a few meals a week in here, as well as cleaning the place up. I watch movies with certain friends, and now, the latest addition: I sleep in here.

This came last night, when I couldn't take my roommate's snoring anymore. I think of hurting him every night as I have trouble trying to find some shred of somnus. It usually comes a few subjective hours later, after going insane from the constant noise and exhausting myself from irritation. This cannot be healthy for me.

So, I put on my cloths and my gray hoodie, headed into the lounge, closed the door, lay down on the row a chairs, and slept. It worked rather well. Any time someone enters the room, the loud creaking of the door alerts me (such as when Joël walked in stood looking over me until he recognized who I was), and there aren't too many late night visitors. Surprisingly, the light from the hallway and the noise of people going about their late night affairs, as well as the refrigerator, don't bother me all that much. I slept well, even for the few hours I was left with.

Now, I have to confront my roommate about his snoring. I HAVE TO because I know that if I don't, I'll let these types of issues slide in the future, and I don't want to set such a bad precedent. I'm just having trouble because I'm not usually direct and up front, I dislike confrontation, and because our quiet disregard of each other makes him seem unapproachable (especially since I know he doesn't want a roommate to begin with).

Anyway, moving on. I had a call from home a few days ago. These are usually somewhat inconvenient and frequently involve several failed calls back and forth before I'm in a place where I can take a call (id est, not class or a library), and people on both ends pick up. It's nice to hear from the other side of the country, but the calls are usually hard to hear. My parents live on the edge of cellphone service and know how to use Skype very well. Still, it's nice to know what's up on the other coast.

And that's about it. I have some more I could say about my (lack of) love life, academics, or conversations, but I won't bore you with that.

*Final exams of the term.

**The name comes from the Dead Poets Society. It's a bit morbid, but the whole thing is a work in progress.

And since I've not place to go...

As I've mention, I won't be home for the holidays. I've decided to stay in Vancouver. This is partially because I think it would cost too much (even though my parents would pay, I still factor this in). It's also partly because I want to be independent. Another factor is just that I want to see what Christmas is like in Vancouver. I'm also hoping to get some studying done over the break (this is fun for me). And finally, it's just to avoid the minor nuisances of moving around.

On the other side (literally, of the country), it means that I won't see my parents, my friends or my co-workers. I would love to visit, to just drop in to Boston Pizza, order a dirty Keven* and make my own pizza. Have a few rounds with friends, share an appy platter. Play a few rounds of Halo with my friends. It's very enticing, but sadly I don't see it as worth the cost, the effort, and all the little things. I plan to be back for the summer thought. It'll be nice to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.

Instead, I'm staying in Vancouver. The university kicks us out for the break, so I've been looking into places to stay. I've talked to my family in the area, found a few places to stay for a few days. I'll be fine, and hopefully even get to meet up with some people over the break.

But the fire is so delightful,

There are a lot of details I haven't covered, for example, food. And then there are a lot of major items I haven't covered, like my debates with Joël and Alex.

I'll start with food. It's an easy topic. I mostly eat cafeteria food, but that gets boring. I mix it up with Pizza from the local pizza place, pi*r^2. If I'm lucky, I'll find an excuse to go into Vancouver for a meal, like the chocolate. Mostly thought, I eat food from my own stash in residence. I bought a rice cooker, have a constant supply of chopsticks from the cafeteria, and bags of rice from the local grocery store cost twelve dollars for eight kilograms (a 30 gram bag of chips costs a dollar, one kilogram is one thousand grams). I also have nachos with cheese, (a grater, ) and salsa.
I spend most of my time sitting in the lounge, which is also the closest thing we have to a kitchen. We've added several chairs to it from other floors, filled the fridge, and burned many bags of popcorn in our broken microwave. The engineers of our floor often use it for group sessions, and Alex have many of our debates in here. It's also where many a drunk party have happened, and where I often clean them up. I don't mind, having worked at a bar, it's not bother to me and I enjoy cleaning.

As to the debates, anything less than a whole entry wouldn't do it justice. So I'll leave those alone for now. I am working on typing them up formally either way, so I hope to have something to post soon.

I also spend some time on third floor (I live on fifth). There're some cool guys and some hot girls. One in particular has caught my attention. I remember meeting her after a night of failing to find a party. Ever since, we've been friends. Mostly, we watch movies together, chick flicks, classics, and winter themed movies. She knows that I'm attracted to her, but... I don't know. Maybe I've made a fool of myself in front of her too many times, maybe (definitely) I've been way too obvious while never actually having the courage to ask her out. She's funny, nice, attractive, and I just like being around her.

I don't think I love her, I don't even have a meaning for the word love (well, I do: undefined*, but that doesn't help). It's more than attraction, which is simply seeing someone as being beautiful. The word I use is affection**, although my meaning for the term may be different from what you'll find in a dictionary. It's the same feeling I had for a girl in pink shoes from a few years back, though I purposely let that transform into friendship. This... I don't know. I want to ask her out, but...

Part of the problem is that I value her too much as a friend to risk it. Another factor is that I keep hear about the boys she goes out with. I hear so many girls talking about how much of a jerk their recent ex-boyfriends are (actually they just say that all guys are jerks, or assholes). This doesn't make me feel very good about my gender, actually it makes me feel like crap. I think about it and wonder how I would compare, how much of a jerk would I be. I would like to think that I'd be good to her, that we could get over any issues that come up, and that if it were necessary, I could break it off without breaking her heart (of course that's assuming I would get close enough, but even causing turmoil from a break up is undesirable to me).

Anyways, you're probably tired of reading about girls from me, so I'll stop myself there. It's three-forty-five, and I use a twenty-four hour clock. Good morning, I'm going to sleep.

*Undefined means having no definition, but it also means limitless. In mathematics, it's often used to represent infinities caused by dividing by zero.

**My use of affection is the state of having someone's emotion and mood directly affecting one's own, a feeling of strong empathy. Which usually drives me to try to make such a person happy, if I can.

Forty-Eight Hours

Yesterday marked the last of my computer programming classes. I finished some code for a scrolling display that morning, then talked to Alex about our the engineering study group we're trying to start. I then made it my mission to learn about booking classrooms, taking me to the other side of campus. And while I was there I visited the wellness center.

I want to go into detail, so I'll add that Alex and I are trying to organize a closed group for engineering study sessions. We've found that we work great in groups, and that empty classrooms are a lot of fun, so now we want to combine the two. I love the idea.

It's similar to what I think universities should be: people working together, sharing ideas, and learning. We're taking out the professors and taking their places ourselves, teaching and helping each other. There're no pressures for doing well side from some friendly competition and our own desires to learn.

Ales is also keeping it closed, which is probably a good idea starting off. We're trying to keep the group small (smaller groups are more effective), and avoid parasites (people who take in all they can without giving back). It'll be nice to test out this method of study, and if it works, maybe expanding on it.

So, after talking to him about that, we also talked about one such parasite. Earlier in the year I had taken on tutoring a few people. I thought it a great way to practice what I know and help someone out. It was, until I found someone who was too far deep in work and stress to help. I tried, and did have some success teaching her some physics and mathematics concepts, but it became too much of a time sink, and she created too much stress for myself and Alex. The situation isn't over, but I hope to resolve it soon.

These were what I was thinking about as I jogged across campus. I got the information I needed, then visited the wellness center. While heavily oriented towards sexual wellness (a common theme in university health), it also ha lots of information on eating, sleep, stress, religion, an much more. I basically let them show me around to all the different resources, information, pamphlets et cetera, taking it all in. Then I had a chat with an engineer, mentioned that I'm thinking about engineering physics and had a talk about it. He was the first person, who after hearing about my interest in physics, agreed that I should be in eng phys. I left the place feeling informed and content.

Then I came back, finished an online physics quiz in ten minutes (due in thirty), and took over the floor lounge, playing video games and watching movies.

Around four or five, Joël's girlfriend came by. I thought it strange to see her without him, but then I found out why. She was here to fill his room to the top with balloons. We had a little over an hour before he would be back, so we set to it.

We got to his room and started blowing up balloons, which soon covered his floor. I tried calling a few people to help, but no one was around, and we eventually decided to stop, hide the balloons (in my room), and restart later on that night.

Joël came back, we had supper, and soon after they headed out together. His girlfriend making sure to lock up, or that is to say, to forget to lock up. I got the balloons back in his room, and started getting as many people as I could to help. It wasn't long before the balloons were up to my knees and people were getting bored and tired. But about a half hour later, Alex showed up.

We got it up to waist height, turned off the lights, hid beneath the lake of balloons, and waited. It was honestly the best expression of pure joy I've ever seen. Better than any walking-down-the-stairs-on-x-mas-morning-to-find-the-red-bicycle-you-always-wanted smile I've ever seen. It was awesome, and the fun we had playing around in the balloons was well worth the hours of blowing them up.













It was probably the best idea for a birthday surprise I've seen, just enough scale, creativity, and childishness to be amazing. (I should probably explain, it was actually his birthday three months ago, but he was on his own in the dorms at the time, so now that people are here (myself included), we're celebrating.)
After much balloon fun and silliness, I went to bed.

Then next morning (THIS morning actually), I woke at six-thirty, dressed in red and got read to spread some holiday cheer. I had some three-month-old energy drink and found the last of my Jack Daniel's and with some engineering buddies, headed for the Cheeze (the engineer hangout). There, free alcohol and eggnog were provided, and would be needed for the next four hours.

Fueled by drink, a mob of engineers then began storming through the buildings of UBC, caroling, spreading x-mas joy, being belligerently drunk, and singing classics such as "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" and "Frosty the Photon." For four hours, I kept drunk enough to be among the loudest and most joyful caroler you ever did see.








Then I had to run back to residence for my stuff and headed for the latter half of my math class. I fell asleep and probably almost passed out, but somehow managed to take notes and learned something about remainder theorem (always find the most you can be wrong by).

Then I went to thermodynamics. I was intelligent, but got a question wrong because I was too bored to count the number of waves in a question. * I was still able to participate in class even while drunk.

After thermodynamics, I walked to HEBB with Alex to show him some prospective classrooms to take over, ones with chalkboards the whole way around the room. And while in HEBB, I decided to show him then eng phys penthouse.

We went up to the top and talked to some eng phys students. We talked about what eng phys entails, what type of person should join, and what cool stuff you get to do. One guy showed us a video of robots designed for rescue, and while still drunk, I was criticizing and commenting on the different designs. Then we talked about what type of work "fizzers" do, and talked to a guy who worked at Activision (a major gaming company) doing eng phys. All in all, I'm now pretty much set on engineering physics.

We then left to go to my next class, for which Alex stayed for a few minutes. I didn't do very much in it. I just say there and wrote stuff down.

Finally, it was time for chemistry. I walked into class to find one of my friends not there, and in his place, someone saying that I would probably pass out in class. I disregarded his comment and paid much attention to the lecture. It really was entertaining, with our professor ending it with discussion on how entropy can be interpreted as a valuable life lesson and referencing many inspirational works. The class ended with much applause.

I went for a slice of pizza, came back to residence, and finished my last physics assignment, ending all my work for this semester. I then went to the laundry room, where we stored all the balloons, and started playing around. A few people joined me and we had some fun sticking balloons to the roof. And that's when I started typing. Still slightly drunk, but well in the mood for writing.

Bt that's not where this ends. I then joined Joël and some friends for supper to celebrate his three-months-prior birthday, at an all you can eat buffet of chocolate. We caught the bus downtown, walked a short ways, chatting all the way and soon found ourselves in a very nice restaurant of chocolate. Excellent food, great service, and a wonderful time. I recommend the place to anyone who enjoys chocolate and thinks they could eat a limitless supply**.

We caught a bus home, chatting about surreal concepts and hive-mind-ism. Now I'm tired from the best forty-eight hours I've spent in university so far. I love times like these. I've filled a room to waist height in balloons, been merrily drunk and enjoying myself, spread x-mas cheer and holiday spirit with the engineers, and had more than my fill of fine chocolate desserts. I'm not sure how this can be topped.

Thank you and good night.

*Note: I was still in the process of sobering up while writing the above portion. From this point on in writing I'm sober. Do you notice any difference?

**But I forget the name. It was in an equally nice hotel.

Well, the weather outside is frightful,

Vancouver weather is pretty simple. There's rain, rain, overcast, rain, a chance at sun, and more rain. Every time you head outside in Vancouver, you just hope you get to where you're going before it starts raining again. You can wear your rain jacket and cover your backpack, or you can just chance it, either way, you're just going to have to get used to getting wet.

That said, most of my time is spent inside. I like running around, but I mostly move from building to building. I spent a lot of my time walking around campus. I often explore the SUB, looking for new places, things I've missed, or things that've changed each time. I walk around the academic buildings, looking at classrooms. On dry days I travel farther and explore the gardens and the areas up North. Basically, if I've not studying, tutoring, talking to a girl, or having a debate with a friend, (sometime even when I am,) I'm walking around campus.

I've always liked exploring, finding new paths, making mental maps, learning the lay of the land. In Japan, I probably spent twelve hours a week just walking around. In Sydney, I was a delivery boy, a cyclist, and a long distance runner, often optimizing routes or finding new places to go. Even now that I'm living on a small campus, I'm still trying to explore the edges.

In addition to simply exploring, I also like to see what I can find. There're stores and shops that are almost hidden in the SUB, if I find a group of people standing around something, I find out what they're looking at. I look through the bulletin boards for events and opportunities, I peek in at classes and labs, when I see a vantage point, I stand on it and look at the view (and take pictures).

This is useful for a few different thing. It's great to clear my head, to just get outside. It helps me find my way around. I find all the cool restaurants and shops. But most importantly, I find places to meet and study.

Most recently, I've started taking over empty classes. I have yet to find out the official process for this, but I've found that as long as you're ready to move out when someone who book the room comes in, you can get away with going from class to class to auditorium. One friend and I took over one of the large auditoriums for two hours. We used the chalk boards to write out our formulae, derivations, calculations and proofs. We would work on questions, then take to the other's work, looking at it, correcting it, making sure we agreed on our conclusions. It was hilariously funny, especially when we would take turns teaching each other all professor-like.