I will be honest. I have not being doing the best at school. Not perfect at least. I have missed some homework and classes but I believe that I will be able to perform as I need to.
The first of a wave of midterms (Differential Calculus) was today. I think I killed it, taking only but a few wounds.
(I always love to portray my tests and exams as battles.)
Looking forward to slaughtering the armies of Digital Logic, Electric circuit analysis and Physics.
I am also taking a course on Object-oriented Java programming but that’s more an ally than anything. I battle not with it, but welcome it to my modest castle of interest, learning more of it and enjoying every bit.
Signing off now to enjoy a night of unproductive activities (with a bit of reading). I will write back with joys and woes of second year engineering and winter.
It’s a matter of few days before the grind of the school days return. I’ve never awaited schooling so eagerly as I do now. (Maybe I did as well in grade four, but that was because I never went to a real school before that, I was an on and off student, learning mostly at home.)
I am eager because of the courses I will be taking and the concepts I will be learning. There will be Java (Software Systems, as it’s called) to indulge in, Digital Systems and Electric Networks (circuit stuff, awesome stuff) to discover, Solid State Physics (ie sexy physics) to explore, Differential Equations and Vector Calculus (yeah!) to master.
Stay tuned for updates as Fall 2009 begins (and ends).
Friedrich Nietzsche is quote to have said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” And I curiously ponder now about what my why to live is.
The first thing that comes to mind are my friends. I have been blessed with great friends (even though my parents think I have no good friends!). My friends genuinely like me for who(ever) I am. And they take a real interest in my life. I probably don’t do enough to show my gratitude and that is one of my whys. I want to live to do what they’ve done for me ie to be a true friend.
Then I think of what I do. Most of the times I am on my computer, browsing the Internet or writing this piece of code or the other. If I am not on my computer, I am either fixing or building computers or doing the same things at Hobby Computer Club. And if the computer is not the focus, I am either doing math or building and programming circuits. I know my life sounds geeky and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being able to study Computer Engineering in an awesome place like Ryerson is probably the best thing to have happened to me. Of course for that, I am ever indebted to my parents because this is a why to live and a way I would never change.
I recall what my good friend Victor who writes at I Dream of Pi.. once, so correctly, said, “I dont know, I feel that as long as the universe exists there would have always been a purpose to my existence: maybe it is to reproduce, maybe it is to pursue knowledge or even the desire to find a purpose.” Philosophy and the pursuit of reason and knowledge is the greatest why. To think, to examine, to question life in all its magnitude and magnificence gives life its purpose.
One of these days aliens are bound to show up in our skylines. They will come down to us and greet us. And hopefully we will be courteous enough to welcome them as well. Then we can finally have our first contact.
Soon enough we will get around to going sightseeing, showing them around our civilization, our planet and our people. And it is then we realize we have nothing to show for all our ages. No achievement that impresses the intelligent beings. All they see, as they pass through our streets, are exhibitions of a world so arrogant, so divided and so banal.
Maybe if these don’t impress them, we can blow them up with with the big bombs we have made and send them all to the moon in our shitty little shuttles. Our closed world has made us pathetic, it’s better to leave that list out because either way, the aliens will put us to shame.
Money could not buy you happiness a few half decades ago, and rightfully so. A loving family takes a long time to build, a unbreakable relationship needs tireless effort and hard compromises.
But welcome to now!
Happiness has changed its form, it’s defined by a sexy car, a huge house, work with little work and a lot of pay. All of that orbits around money, everyday orbits around money for the average person. Sad.
What more has changed?
I recall the time I used to be younger when I am playing in the field and watching and listening to kids in the playground, I was like them but nothing like them! I was like them: climbing trees, bars, swings, running after each other, just like it should be.
Shock? The worst thing I recall telling a friend at that age was “shoitan” meaning evil. And these kids fluently curse in the full vocabulary of the Urban Dictionary. Making fun of others happened on the basis of bad hair style and dirty clothes, all I heared from the kids I observed were comments about girlfriends, family and body parts. Not that I myself never do so but I didn’t at that age! What happened? It just seems so wrong, kids commenting on things they are not supposed to be aware of. Losing their childhood before it’s supposed to be over.
Again, sad.
[Edit]
Evidence of this is everywhere, especially the news. I just read about Junko Furuta and it’s a shame that laws and society are lacking in judgement of justice and fail to recognize the underlying problem of a lack of civility and kindness between one another.
Wow, it’s been so long since I posted, I didn’t even feel this time pass by, thanks to the great time I am having being busy with life. Ah well, since I have a test tomorrow, this is the perfect time to post!
I am taking a management course for this spring, and I thank all the deities that ever existed that I did not end up in any management and business related program.
Previously, any comments I would have made could be called an unjust and unlearned view, but since I am taking the course and working through it (I am a decent student, if I may boast) I can make my views heard. So far, all has been based on common sense (with a bit of studying, of course) and I have noticed a lot of effort from the maestros of management to structure the science so that it may be called one, and they have succeed, as we can all see. But the real world impact of learning all this is minor, at times, negligible and I debate with myself, if this science is required at all.
Managers all over the world work hard, no doubt, to make an organization efficiently function. But when looked at the bad apples of management I see really bad apples that fell from good trees. I choose not to mention names of companies where the management have gone wrong, being students and apprentices of great minds and schools. Surely, they were taught all that is required of a manager (as I have learned): planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Surely, they were aware of having strategies and goals, and surely they designed contingency plans.
Look at the World economy now, is this the result of being taught so well? Maybe they did not follow the science as they should have. Or situations prevented implementation of their learning. Whatever it may be, Management Science needs more weight in itself. An engineer would never leave out error analysis in a report…err what of that sort does a manager do? Let me get to reading, I’ll find out…I hope.
After finding out how to keep my Mac clean and figuring my top five applications, I’ve been wanting more and more wallpapers for my beautiful Apple, so here are some that I think are beautiful and/or AWESOME!
Friedrich Nietzsche is quote to have said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” And I curiously ponder now about what my why to live is.
Being able to study 
