Category Archives: University

My time at the University of Toronto at Mississauga.

Panic Supression and Firefighting

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Day 3 of Hell week #1.
At least the security assignment is out of the way. I wish I could say the same about the library research assignments. Moral of the story: Don’t take too many assignment/paper courses in one term, and verify that the courses assignments are before the frigging midterm comes. Well too late now.

Got back to writing/editing articles today. Writing free-form seems to give me a morale boost, whenever I do so. So does blogging apparently. Only 5 more classes, 10 more assignments (half of them from writing), 3 more exercises and 3 exams. Then a nice break, from school.

I wonder what I will do during the break. Working part-time definitely. Partying? If I am lucky. Maybe I will get some book writing or coding done. But first things first, assignments. With those out of the way, the panic and constant firefights will all go away.

Hell Week

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Sigh… so many assignments all due this week. And next week. And then it is over. I feel excited, anxious and tired just thinking about it. These next two weeks will be hellish. But if I make it… I will regain my sanity.

Why I am blogging this… right now… I guess… I don’t know. I wonder if I am up to the task. Fortunately, today, meeting people has spurred me on. Well… we will see if it works out.

Article A2 Done

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Relief! I managed to edit that article that kept on bugging me all weekend. The article deals with a brief introduction to quantum mechanics. I managed to bring it down to a 5 page rather then a rambling 10 page one.

That leaves me with 5 more articles to write and edit for my professional writing course. A warning to future science writing students, find a topic that does not require a full gigantic explanation. I did my entire project on quantum computation. And yes, explaining quantum computation to a bunch of university level non-scientist, while keeping the entire thing flowing and entertaining… well I found it challenging.

Anyways, I sometimes wonder if I should not become a writer after all. Maybe it will be easier to get bread on the table then a programmer. Shocking.

Sleepless Night

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I meet with my good friend Dima today. While the meeting itself, was nothing new, it sort of got me thinking. Maybe my envy speaks here, since he has a nice house, car, girlfriend and finishes school this semester. I have one more semester to slave through. Yes, Sara was there too.  What got me thinking, is sometimes I feel mature. Other days, like today I feel like nothing more than a 23 year old immature kid. I don’t know how much of my current life I can attribute to luck, conditions or my inactivity.

Needless to say, I did not meet up with Amanda this weekend. Judging by the number of assignments I have and papers she needs to write, I doubt anything will come of my “dating”. Hardly dating, other than a few casual meetings. No other girl currently holds my attention, or seems interested in the slightest. Its not that I feel today, as I used to in the past. Its just that I feel kind of left out.

I can not sleep right now. Too anxious about my assignments. Another 6 due a week type of deal. I can hardly wait for this semester to end, the final assignment submitted. I understand the material well. I just am un-inclined to write the papers.

Better work a bit, before my brain demands sleep.

Long Day

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Wow, today seemed to drag on forever. Assignments, assignments and more assignments. Good thing I am behind in only one class now. I look forward to doing a real push into this week’s work. Well at least I finished my writing.

My mind is empty tonight. I can only think about sleep.

[Edit]I looked at my Technorati rating… and it is low. Oh and I hates bots that do comment spam.

Return to Blogging? And Life?

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Its been a while. I left blogging expecting to find more time for writing. Did not happen though, it seems that deadlines work better for me. I hate deadlines, and I have two of them today, and three of them tomorrow. At least I finished my edits for my scientific article writing class, for tomorrow. I have to thank Amanda for helping me out with those on Friday. And we went to a movie together with some of her friends. The movie was augh… but I enjoy Amanda’s company for some reason.

Anyways, instead of a long back story of what happened since the last time… I will try blogging one day at a time. And maybe work on my old projects too. University is a real drag nowadays. Can’t wait until the semester is over.

I need some sleep… before I get started on those two other assignments. Joy. Maybe when I feel rested and can catch my breath, then I can write about some of the neat writing I am doing nowadays.

But first… sleep… *plop*

Stepping Mania

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Life has been pretty hectic recently. I guess basically it always was but I was too busy gaming to notice it. Talking about gaming I bought my first new game recently, HL2 Episode 1. Excellent game and loads of fun. Strangely very re-playable and Valve has worked hard on making the game believable with good AI and HDR. Without spoiling the plot too much, the best parts of the game were: a new enemy, HDR (kept on blinding myself with a flashlight against a white wall) and the story.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am busy working on a new project recently. Basically a minimalistic web framework that you can drop into a website or extend to your heart’s desire. The only real problem recently was getting the Subversion repository working, and finding a new name for the project. It seems that at least two other open source projects have the names simplesite. I choose a new and original one. I am not going to release it yet until I get the SourceForge admins to change everything around properly.

I have been searching for jobs recently for PEY (UofT’s version of an internship). I need the money and the experience is welcome. Besides I want to decide upon my career path before I finish university. Might be a dev, tester, admin or a researcher. Right now I applied to two different places. We will see how it goes. Also I can’t get the courses I want either (might need to ruffle some feathers in that department).

Other than that nothing much else to say. I might say some nasty comments about one crazy nation doing “preemptive” invasions of another country. Looking for terrorists they say. What a pity most of their kills are civilians. Meh that what you get when you have one state-sponsored terrorist group going out to defeat another private one. Idiots.

On a brighter note, might go clubbing sometime soon. Continuations in writing, coding and other mad activities will also follow. Stay tuned for more.

Finally Peace?

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Hehe I hope so. The peace part I mean. Err… I’m getting ahead of myself…

Finished my second exam today, this one being for Programming Languages. Not pleasant, since there was a good degree of Scheme on it. I actually hoped for more of a theory exam but no… mostly Scheme, Prolog, a BNF, and implement pseudo-language question thrown in for flavour. I finished in the expected time, a good chunk of my answers felt weak, so not too happy. None of this means that I will fail the course. So far I have not failed a single assignment or the midterm. In fact I’m expecting a 55-65% mark overall. Nothing to balk at in general. Still I learned alot of what makes a programming language, a language. I learnt about 3-4 new languages: Scheme, Prolog, ML and C++. Overall a pretty good achievement.

On Monday I had my Operating Systems exams like I mentioned. One word says everything about the exam: cakewalk. I got every question, finished a 3hr exam in 1.5 hours, and nearly all my answers were as airtight as… well… think of the most airtight thing… and then take that to the exponent of 100. Oh yeah! I must confess that I am bit of an expert in operating systems, being overexposed to the topic by playing with Gentoo Linux, Minix and reading Andrew Tannenbaum’s Operating Systems books. Yes I read both of them. Anyways I am a bit of a freak in that sense. Come to think of it, many of my classmates consider me to be an expert in a lot of the theoretical-technical part of CS. Being a host for an oversized ego, I neither admit or deny the honour.

Life otherwise has been placed on hold. With one more exam on next Friday, I can finally get back to doing StudentABC work. Since Keith asked me… please, please go visit his site: StudentABC. Its an excellent resource for citations especially for websites. Works near flawlessly for MLA and APA. Heck, I helped do the research and test cases for it. In the near future we will have support for parenthetical citations too. Once I get my lazy butt over there to work on the test cases. And its a totally free service. (Probably should convince Keith to get PayPal though for donations. ;-))

The real progress has come in brainstorming for my novel, Beneath My Icy Cloak. I have come up with a real basic plot, a few characters, and have done most of the research about technology, etc. When I started on the project, I decided to cut out the fantastical “technology” most sci-fi has. I even scrapped all forms of FTL travel. Why? Cause its extremely unlikely to happen anytime soon (read as before the next millenia) and its probably not physically possible. I actually nearly got bogged down on selecting suitable starship drive technology. I finally chose a combination of solar/magnetic sails and nuclear propulsion drives for travel. After some tossing and turning, I decided to keep some warp tech. Yes it helps travel somewhat. But I made it that it is so unpredictable that its mostly used for… other uses. I guess I need a tiny bit of artistic license. Anyways, I have a location, a back story, and now all I need to do is to solidify my skeleton of the story. A select few friends will get the honour of helping me edit it. How long all this will take? I’m not sure. One thing is for sure, I will publish this one. I doubt it will make its way to your local Chapters-Indigo or what-not. But you never now.

Gotta run.

Easter… and Life After School

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Happy Easter! I would say more, but it seems awkward. I’m try not to flow all over the place with emotions if I can (Yeah, whatever dude one glance at your blog is like listening to a emo-kid.), and so… If you are not the religious type, I hope you enjoy your time off and that one day you find the meaning for life. If you are religious, I hope you find the way for a peace-filled, prosperous and happy life. If you are Christian (just like me bro…) well we already know about God and Jesus, and how cool He is, and is love… in that case may He bless you and keep you this coming year. After all Easter is about His undying love for humanity. (And if you feel awkward, and are looking at me awkward, then go read G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. And stop looking at me that way.)

This Easter was a time of contemplation, self-reflection (Hey, its dark and empty in here!) and a soul-washing. Needless to say, after some scowling from my folks for past wrongs, an awkward confession with a priest, and some quality sulking (And depression) I feel much more empowered and tranquil. I know exactly what I need to do and how about dealing with my issues. So I’m in a bit of zen-like state. Only its not Zen, Buddism or anything resembling an Eastern philosophy. Nope, it good ole’ bible thumping (As if he reads the Holy Scripture.) Christianity. Now if only I could stop feeding myself on cake, and bouncing of the walls long enough to actually, like concentrate on prayer and stuff…

Its been 6 days since the last day of classes, and 5 since my last assignments. I feel very, very relaxed by those thoughts. I mean I just have 3 exams to deal with and then I will be done by Computer Science major. I’m debating whether or not to do either a major in Biology or a specialist in Bioinformatics or just finish university already. I’m leaning toward bioinformatics though… cause micro/cellular is flipping cool.

I actually have done work since my last post. I’m so impressed. I am productive, things are getting done, and my boss (and good friend) Keith is no longer unimpressed. I just need to keep this up. I got a unique job at my previous employer. Its not a development position, rather an office-rat job but I can try my wings at living/working in an office. Fortunately I already am familiar with the people I will be working with/under, so I will feel like a pea-in-a-pod. Awesome. I am thinking of getting a future job as a part developer/specialist in biology. I think that a synergy of biology, informatics, cybernetics and engineering will happen real soon in the future. I want to be part of it. Either that or get a job at NASA as a mission specialist/drone consultant. 😉

OK, this being my last semester of computing, programming has reached the natural and normal peak of being enjoyable work. I’m no longer obsessed by coding, yet I am still willing to develop useful applications as a hobby. I final realized what I thought was unobtainable. I’m competent in a number of languages, both ordinary and exotic. I can develop complex applications in the fields of Web, Internet, database, graphics and entertainment programming. I can think methodically, in a mathematical manner. I’m organized enough handle various styles of development. However, I still think my talents in biology, and communication could definitely use some work. And my personal and business skills need some polishing.

Talking about personal skills, I’ve picked up some tips and hints about dating. Definitely want to try those out sometime. I may not be a Don Juan (yet), but I think I have enough charm to keep a girl distracted long enough that she might tag along with me. (My calmer and less clingy self has gotten more looks, even from Kat… which she will deny to no end.)

In other news… Rudy wrecked his old Saturn and recently bought a “newer” Saturn wagon. Now the questions are has he learned his lesson (turned over car and upset but mostly unhurt friends inside) about “racing”, will those 6 demerit points make him a cooler headed driver, and how long will his new set of wheels live? My friends are begging me to enroll in a summer course with them, cause I would be ever so cool to be with. My financial outlook is looking very good, meaning I’m seriously looking into getting a car and pay for the insurance myself. I’m going to triumphantly return back to developing one of my started open source projects. Also plans are underway to finally write one or two novels this summer. So things should get interesting very, VERY soon.

Finally a shout to shaka0070. Thanks for telling me about Content-Type.com I will definitely take a look at that site. And thanks for reading! Now I got to run, I need to prepare for tomorrows’ Operating Systems exams. [Dramatic music.]

To be continued…

A Scheme for Work, A Scheme for School

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Sigh… can’t really sleep. So I guess I might as well post a blog entry about this pas week. Funny, come to think of it the reason why I blog. Its not for money or popularity since nobody really comes to see this. In fact since comments are the only really way I can judge things, literally nobody comes. I told my friends, but they probably visited once. Shame really, I would not have to repeat myself in questions like “So how do you feel?”, “What’s up?” and others. Oh well, maybe I’m too whiny or too verbose. Anyways, I just blog to keep a memoir of my own activities, so that I don’t feel like if every week is the same, and that I didn’t do anything in life. So essential a memoirs. (I wonder if I came/come off like a emo-kid…

This week I was sick. I started feeling “sniffly” Sunday evening, and I barely made it through the 324 midterm on Monday. Most of Monday was spent on trying to focus, doing a bit of Datasphere, and mostly feeling bad. The last lecture of the day (Web Programming) simply became unbearably long. Tuesday was abysmal. I just simply slept, ate tiny meals, and force-fed myself Mom remedies. It became painfully obvious this was not going to be a 24-hr disease, like many of the ones I had in previous years. Wednesday things started to level off, and by Thursday I was “able” to do work. Mostly I was so distracted by my attempts (mostly failures actually) of working on a potential commercial project, and by playing the two N64 Zelda titles on an emulator.

So now we are up to today. Today was much more eventful. Started the morning off with a meeting with Dr. Jeff and Arun. Played a bit with MathFactor, and listened to some of the requirements. Actually with Arun all I am doing is designing a bit of things. Completely apart from Datasphere, and can’t even see what direction we are taking. Not to mention, we found out that there is a new product called Blackboard, that might a good chunk of Datasphere redundant. Honestly I feel sortta disappointed, and useless. Or maybe Arun is taking the awkward way of trying to make Datasphere to his own liking. Me, I’m adaptable and I just want to see some results.

I started work on the 309 assignment today in class. Much nicer, and I know my way around web programming in general. I just need to hack some Perl along the way. No issue there.

Later on Rudy, Albert and I went to the Gym. Originally I didn’t want, because of an assignment being due in a few hours, and not feeling especially well. They convince me to go, so I did. We ended up watching the end of the soccer game. We then played a very strenuous round of basketball with some other guys. Not fun, especially I never really had the height or talent for that game. After a short break, I joined in a volleyball game that just started up. Now that was fun. Rudy and Albert unfortunately were the anti-talents of the game. I thought that I would be bad at it. Considering how many serves I had and how many times I managed to get the ball over, I would say I did rather well. Some much fun…

I arrived home with an hour to spare for the Scheme assignment. I actually started it after the “official” due time. I only finished three questions, but this is the last Scheme assignment for this class. Actually I got tired of Scheme, especially since I am finding thinking in it very difficult. Most of the time, dealing with nothing but functions just get in my way. It just a big puzzle that I am stumbling blindly throught. A far better excuse is the mere fact that I was sick this entire week. On that note I am ending this, since I need some shut-eye. The coming week is shaping out to be a busy one, but at least I know where I’m going. Good night fellow blogsphere wanderer.