now vs. 24 hours from now

It is very hard to study when you pass the 24 hour mark. That is, you know in 24 hours your life will DRASTICALLY change.

Right now, I am tired, bored, confused, restless and annoyed. In 24 hours I will be floating on a cloud (WITHOUT the help of any sort of drug... except maybe alcohol). We've all worked sooooo hard this year and when it all hits me when we're finished tommorow I might collapse to the ground and break out in tears. No school for 16 MONTHS... that's a hulluva long time. No PSETs, No BS memorization, No labs, No struggling to understand what the prof is saying.. it's gonna be great.

I think I'll continue ranting.....

After some discussion with mr. beyondschatworth I realize the toughest thing I've had to overcome during these last years of university is learning that I cannot understand everything. I always thought that if I spent the time and thought about if for awhile I could understand any logical scientific argument, sooo has not been the case this year. Coming out of high school I thought the problem with eng sci would be sheer volume, which was mainly the case in 1st and 2nd year.. but not anymore. We have had an abundance of time for this last exam and I feel that this has worked to be a disadvantage. I have had more time to cast doubt on what my understanding is and repeatedly reach different conclusions about certain things only realize a day later that I was completely wrong.

I don't have the energy to construct logical arguments anymore and I apologize if I've written a bunch of garbage but I honestly don't care.

24 hours and it's all over.

ALLLLLLLLLLLLL OVER.

24 was nuts today...

if you're not familiar with the show you won't appreciate some of things I find astonishing and exciting... but I dun care.. it was amazing.. one of the better 24s of the season.

1) the return of palmer...
not just a small role mind you, he's gonna come back and run the country!! the current president is a complete idiot and needs "advice". He's a puppet. You need to have seen palmer in the previous four seasons of 24 to appreciate the leadership he brings as president. One of the best TV presidents I can think of.

2) chloe in the field..
again, on its own a big deal as she's a huge cocky computer nerd. but to have her be attacked then needing to pick up a damn rifle and take down a terrorist is on a whole different level.

I can smell an insane conclusion to 24 coming...

edit: a 24 two-hour season finale costume party is in the works. I'm going as Chase...

why is there still school?

life is messed up right now.

things don't seem to fit. I feel relaxed, I want to chill I sooooo want to chill but I can't. My mind is at a constant war with itself.

There's the responsible side pushing me to study. Its weakness is alcohol.

The logical side, telling me not to worry as everyone else is slacking off so it'll be alright. Its weakness was materials chem, no logic could exist there.

The fun side, who was is in control today, telling me to screw it all. Its weakness is eng sci in general.

sooo.. thanks to fun side, I have sort of written off most of today thanks to the interpreter and trying to find mmm-donut who sort of dissappeared for awhile on our way to paramount.

the movie was okay. Not great but not bad. It didn't have as much action as I would've liked but there was a good storyline if you can ignore a few flaws. It did drag on for a bit with long camera shots directly faced at nicole kidman looking mysterious or something but luckily she's hot so that was okay.

I'm gonna try to get in some studying before the much anticipated return of president palmer on 24.

bye for now

what to post...

not much has been happening over the last little bit that warrants much posting, I am in the study a little, check e-mail, check fark, check msn, watch a movie, watch tv, study a little cycle at the moment.

but I will touch on some of the interesting points.

The Friday morning return to Spadina Towers.

As my previous postings have stated, I went home on Thursday afternoon and returned Friday morning for the nano meeting and to supposedly get some studying done. When I arrived back at the appartment at about 10:00 in the morning I found mr. beyondschatworth singing along with his microphone to his favourite killers songs. Luckily or unluckily depending on what angle you look at it from, his room door was closed so he had no idea that I was even back and continued to sing. He got through at least three songs before I realized that I had to take advantage of the current situation and record him. So, as quietly as I could I turned on my computer and tried to position a microphone near his door. It was all looking good as Indie Rock and Roll was coming and if you're unfamiliar with the song it has quite a few high pitched notes which would "accent" mr. beyondchatsworth singing ability. BUT.... as my computer started up so did my msn. Without any warning I was bolted to the online status and to my dismay the singing immediately stopped. He had seen me come online and realized I was in room next to him..... DAMN!!! that would've been an interesting mp3..

Nanoclub meeting

Besides the $3.75 all-day breakfast the meeting itself went very well. It seems as though we're on the right track and have a great base of people who are willing to put in a lot of hard work. We all share a similar vision and I am certain next year will be a success.

Movie watching that stems from procrastination

If you haven't watched the 9th gate (johnny depp), I highly recommend it. Besides its natural thriller appeal, the storyline is insane. There are many small details in the movie that one can easily miss if you're not paying attention. I consider myself a person who usually follows movies quite well and I only knew what was going on after reading through some of the insanely long discussion thread on imdb. So, watch it, get confused, then ask me or read up about on the net...

that's all for now.
if you're a nano.. get back to studying, we'll meet up later in the week to go through exams, if you're anything else, SCREW YOU.. stop reading blogs and go out and enjoy the summer you bastards..

the akward transition period.

Yesterday brought some more relaxation.

following my watching of a random teenage british movie that was supposed to be Spanglish (damn Ares) came some random naps then the voyage to good ol markham for some R and R only truly capable to be done at one's own home.

fresh off the purchase of a new TV, we took advantage and got one of those roger's hd boxes. I gotta admit that the picture quality is pretty nuts but it turns out very few channels are hd compatible and those that are rarely take advantage of it. For instance, the only show that was in hd that was of interest to me was the OC. A big show like the apprentice doesn't even come in hd. complete BS. I only really see a huge benefit when it comes to watching sports, but it's too bad the raps are garbage, the nhl is a piece of crap and the football season is long gone. So, in conclusion, hd is not good... at least not yet.

onto the title of the blog, the akward transition period. I am now in the middle of my conversion from lazy bum back to hardcore student. Not an easy task. This is where the closeness of the nano group really pays off. I won't have the ability to slack off any longer as the group will push me forward and encourage me along the way. I still believe we are in one of the toughest options in n sci and the only reason we haven't all broken down and gone crazy is the faithful support group.

gonna get some breakfast.
bye for now

roman vs. saigin

I thought I'd put up a side by side comparison of these two guys, who took VERY similar pictures of themselves.

blog after part deux

MSE was..... unexpectedly difficult. Not good difficult as in challenging problems based on sound fundamental theory we understand but rather by asking random points from obscure lecture slides that force you to pull out a random acronym.

and.. as mmm-donut mentioned, prof. nogami consistently held a smirk on his face for the entire exam. Not sure what this can be attributed to but you've got to be scared by it. It reminded me of the smirk that Sipe always gave, something along the lines of "I'm smarter than you and you're getting owned on the final".

Following MSE a bunch of us headed over to paramount to catch the amittyville horror.... a pretty scary movie. Not just BS random ghost scary but consistent relentless terror. They didn't let up. It was sort of along the lines of the exorcist but change little girl for scary house and brave for "I'm frightened by your house" get me the hell out of here, priest.

I now look forward to some much needed rest and studying for a course that has some substance.

bye bye

blog before part deux

.... 30 mins before the exam, got that relief/nervous feeling going on, kind of hard to explain.

I can't help but think about 3 hrs from now when it'll be over and I'll have time to finally relax. I did not have the time to come down after the railing that was materials chem and I've been kind of screwed up ever since. Two days of intense memorization cultivating to the realization that it was all a waste of time has a lasting effect on a person...

whatever... gotta go..
will blog after
bye

the blog after

it was baaaaaaaaaad... but it could've been worse.

so... looking at my winning strategies

1)

manners puts an upside down paper on harnik's desk. Since it's double sided he can still read the questions. Manners continues down the row.

me: So how does it look?

harnik: what the hell, GIC batteries

me: it's okay... there's choice

harnik: wait.... no it says ALL

me: shit..

there was no choice and all of it was concentrated on the second half. Kai is a bastard. my strategy was based on choice and I was gonna choose questions from the first half. sooo.. my strategy was TOTALLY WRONG.... ah well

2) Manners was not a bastard... good. his part was actually okay. besides asking for a structure that wasn't even the notes... which I luckily randomly looked up on google a few hours before (thanks to mr. beyondchatsworth)

3) Marking? I won't know until that faithful day on ROSI

X-Factor
- the exam ended bout 10 mins after 9
- random talking and complaining for 10 mins
- getting subway 5 mins

got to 24 at about 9:25. I still continued ahead and watched. Probably not the greatest idea but I did want to get onto studying for MSE sometime soon.

that's all for now.

bye bye

the blog before

I thought it might be interesting to try a quick blog before and after the exam.

So, I'm gonna go through the IBM winning strategies (for those who watch Raptors games)

1) Choice in the Solid State materials section. ie. something like do 4/6 or 3/6 of the following questions. I honestly don't know much about phyllosilicates.

2) Manners not being a bastard. If he doesn't ask very specific reactions/structures I might be okay.

3) BS Marking. After it's all said and done I'll have no idea if I did well. I can tell if I've done bad, but there's no knowing if they'll take a bastardly marking position.

and the Gatorade X-Factor.

Not finishing early and cotemplating leaving for 24 when I should be checking my work over.

We got owned / Memorization Problems

Vince destroyed us yesterday. Although we seemed to double him whenever he had the ball he managed to break free and put up big numbers. The raps suck. Here was the most anticipated game of the season and the raps came out with little to no energy in the second half. I admit that Jalen can be clutch but he needs to pass the ball if things aren't working for him. And Rafer has got to cut out those pull up 3s if he can't hit them. The only bright spot was some solid play by Pop So (or whatever the spelling is). It was great to see him alongside bonner in the front court actually holding their own and doing some damage. They better make some big changes in the off season and get some support for CB4.

Now onto memorization problems.
So, if you ask a typical nano these days if they understand something in materials chem you'll get the line

"Not really, I'm just gonna memorize, that's all you need to do"

I agree 100%, and I'm sure I've even said that line.. BUT.. there are different levels of memorization.

1) Understanding and hence minimizing the amount of memorization to be done. Eg. the molecule is in a tetrahedral shape, with the pz orbitals overlapping dz^2. The dz^2 and pz are below the other orbtitals on the MO diagram and are filled with space between them and the other orbitals. Creating a large bandgap and hence an insulator.
OR
Since the molecule is tetrahedrally shaped we have overlap on the z-axis. The orbtals in this direction will have lower energy than the other directions. Therefore, lower in energy than other orbitals creating a bandgap on the MO diagram.

The second method entails VERY LITTLE memorization, perhaps only that of the shape of the molecule.

Understanding... ANY sort of memorization does help.... Try memorizing a bunch of slides in the very piecewise manner described in the first case and you'll go crazy.

2) if understanding can't happen you can turn to the acronyms. Another sure fire way to make you go crazy. I find it helps to develop acronyms that may relate to weird or interesting stuff, it'll go a long way in helping you tap into some otherwise vaccant memory space.

For instance, I STILL KNOW the charater of rights of canada I learned in grade 11 because of a good acronym.

MOM FED AL

Mobility rights
Offical languages
Minority rights
Fundamental freedoms
Equality rights
Democratic rights
Aborginal rights
Legal rights

okay.. I admit I looked up a few of them, but you get the idea.

that's all for today. have fun memorizing and if you come up with a killer acronym please let me know!

I'm not good at drawing...

I need help!!! I suck at drawing, which can be a serious pain.

examples..

1) playing online win, lose or draw type games. if the clue doesn't involve some sort of stick person and possibly a three-dimensional cube (which I have perfected), I'm in trouble.

2) probably the most famous example, which is ACTUALLY FALSE occured in organic chemistry when I had no clue what was going on during a quiz. Roger D was trying to show my how to draw the chair conformation of cyclohexane but I was so messed up that I didnt even know cyclohexane had multiple conformations. The conclusion that roger drew and continues to propogate to this day is that I can't draw the chair conformation of cyclohexane. When in actual fact I CAN!!!

3) physics oral exam interview. I was being asked bout NMR so I did what I thought was a smart thing, I drew the experimental setup. A BIG MISTAKE. if you're not familiar with NMR there are a bunch of moving rf fields all over the place and eventually my drawing turned into a 2D piece of crap with lines everywhere. This confused the hell out of the examiners and brought on a bunch of questions from mr. crazy guy with glasses. Not a fun time.

4) MSN 7 now has a convinient drawing feature. My lack of ability to draw coupled with the randomness of the mouse makes for bad pictures..

and lastly..

5) all of those crystal structures we draw for mse. I'm not good at them. I can get FCC and simple cubic but that's it. For BCC I just draw a random circle in what I think is the center of the cube and don't even get me started on zincblende or HCP.

.....OC time

fcuk... too much to memorize

damn, damn, damn.... 150 slides... little to no understanding and no room for error.
very, very hard.

the beast that is nano knows I'm leaving and is not letting me do so peacefully.

gotta push through till OC/Apprentice.. will post later.

wtf

it turns out I'm the first hit on google if you type in mie374

that's some weird ass crap

frozen oreos taste good!

some of you may think I'm crazy but you've got to try oreos fresh from the freezer. They taste very good. I stole the idea from Emeril back in the day when I had the time to watch cooking shows. They can be pretty exciting, especially shows like the iron chef.

yesterday brought out some mad procrastination as mmm-donut described in detail in his posting. I along with mr. beyondchatsworth watched napolean dynamite. A great movie. Not much of a storyline but very, very funny characters. The highlight being the pickup line..

"I see you're drinking 1% milk. Is that because you think you're fat? Because you're not. You could probably be drinking whole milk."

if you're looking to procrastinate, I highly reccomend checking it out.

I got a good lesson in the power of google when I was e-mailed out of the blue by a comp eng student at UT. He somehow found me off of google and wanted some old mie374 exams as bertrand also teaches his econ course and as we all know likes to repeat questions. I have no clue how I got searched up... it must have been from a blog... sooo.. BEWARE what your write in blogs and what names you name, you might get someone in trouble down the line.

See what happens when you type in our esc ta's name with dick and blog. You get hornhamster!! very dangerous.

thats all for now

one done, three to go

one of the more interesting times of university is that little bit of relaxation after you finish an exam. It's a bunch of very raw, mixed emotions, consisting of joy, fear, relief, hunger and lethargy. To actually go through an exam without going insane ie. constantly repeating the names of some primates (homodipidae., colimidae.. etc..), we need to to delude ourselves into thinking what we're doing is not that important. When in actual fact a good portion of our lives depends on how we perform in those faithful 2.5 hours. The end of an exam is a signal to let your guard down and embrace the realization of whatever state you're in, be it of a joy or depression. Next time you finish an exam, take a minute and look at the expressions of different people and you'll probably see a side of people you never saw before, when everyone is very vulnerable and releasing true emotions. I specifically noted PO today, who looked like he was coming to the realization that he lost our little bet and would be providing me with some BK. dun worri PO, you'll always be one step ahead of all us nanos, you work on the pico level.

I was dissapointed to hear that our faithful study group did not use our full proof JPPOR (Jobs, Pollution, Profile, Obesity, Road Rage), one answer fits all acronym! c'mon guys, we don't just make up this stuff for fun..

hmmm.. what else...
there was 24 yesterday and the BS use of the name "nuclear football" to describe a briefcase that controls all of US nuclear arsenal. It looked nothing like a FOOTBALL!! I wanted to see some football shaped object that somehow opened up to reveal a high-tech screen and control panel. It would been nice albeit a little OC like to see someone through this "nuclear football" in an act of desperation. neverthless, it was still a good episode as I believe we have moved onto the last part of the terrorists plot. Ex-president palmer is supposed to show his face soon and I have no idea in what capactiy he'll return. It could be anything. 24 is not predictable. Anyone can die on any night (minus Jack of course), so we might even see Palmer as a terrorist or something. That's what makes 24 good.

that's enough for now... see y'all later.

it's over. it's all over.

my post from this morning.. damn blogger was down.

It's hard to believe that I won't need to attend class for a full 16 months... no random funny comments, no quick naps, no chance eye contact with other people who have no idea what's going on and want reassurance that they're not alone. I don't think I'll miss the teaching, but I'm sure I'll miss the people. That's the problem with eng sci.. we're used to seeing each other everyday and don't realize what sort of friendships we've had until it's all over. I hope I can stay involved with school activities ie. Nanoclud during PEY so I have an excuse to drop by ever so often. I also hope I can throw together a party on the date of the last exam so some of the nanos can get together before we all split. I am in desperate need of ideas. I'm looking for something that is fun, inclusive, social and able to handle 20 people. Let me know if you have anything in mind.

okay.. so it's been awhile since I last posted so I'll touch on some of the key items of the week.

There was the much anticipated 24 on Monday. The show did live up to the hype. Lots of insane action, Jack killing a bunch of terrorists and even the possibility that the president is hurt or dead.

I had the pleasure of watching Sin City with hornyhamster and beyondchatsworth earlier in the week. I thought it was pretty good. It was very different and I respect that. Movies continually seem to be recycled garbage nowadays. For instance, take the movie Sahara. It's gonna be one of those let's run through the desert looking for treasure with hot girls who are wearing some not so authentic revealing native clothing. It's been done a million times. Creativitiy is key. Even though they may be pretty screwed up sometime like some Charlie Kauffman movies (adaptation, eternal sunshine .... ), they're pretty cool and interesting.

Moving on.. there was the concert on Wednesday. The venue was a lot smaller than expected, which made it seem sort of OCish back in the days when Seth was with Alex and Ryan with whatsehername. The only difference was there were 14 year old girls pretending to be 18 instead of 20 something girls pretending to be 18. That forces one to be careful where the eyes wander. You don't want to put yourself in a situation where you're one step away from being in immediate legal trouble. Overall though, it was a lot of fun. Bowling for soup was really good.

Lastly, yesterday brought the OC and apprentice. The OC was okay. The comic book storyline is developing which seems interesting and there was a climactic hail marry crystal egg toss to seth who came through in the clutch.

k.. enough out of me, I'll try to keep up with more regular posts.

bye bye

Uncle Moe

That's right, I'm now officially an uncle. Actually, I'm sure that some distant cousin of mine in India has children but that doesn't count.

I went to visit the very little 6 pound 5 ounce Aditi (I know it's like mmm-donut's name!) at Scarborough General Hospital today. She's sooo small, and I was quite afraid to hold her, but luckily there were about five well-experienced inlaws, uncles and aunts instructing me along the way... this leads me towards a case for semi-private healthcare in Canada.

My cousin, Richa, had the baby yesterday at 3:00pm and in accordance with hospital rules, she's out the door exactly 24 hours later. And since she gave birth on the weekend her personal doctor won't get a chance to take a look over the baby before being released. That's seriously not right. At some places they don't even give you a private room. I mean come on already. If you've worked hard and made a decent amount of money you should at least be given the option to be more comfortable. Take a few days in the hospital, have your own room etc... This won't cost the government a cent and it'll make people a lot happier. The major counter-argument to this is that eventually we'll enter into a well-defined two-tier system. One being the nice semi-private system, the other being the not so good public system. It's a very tough debate and there are no clear answers. But unless the healthcare system in Canada improves drastically, a semi-private system will definitely emerge.

k.. enough for today, I gotta back to econ.

bye bye