Miss and Diss - 2007F

This year was not exactly the best term ever. I wonder if it's because I took 8 months off of school for co-op .

CPSC 221 (Kimberly Voll): The BEST professor I've ever had! Kimberley is so nice, I don't think I have ever met another professor as cool as she was. She's funny and inspiring, and even though the course ended at 5:00 in the evenings, I absolutely enjoyed attending every minute of her class. She's prepared for class, considerate of her students. I'm gonna crown her as the most favourite teacher of Miss and Diss 2007F.

MATH 221 (V. Vatsal): Definitely THE WORST teachers I've ever had. He was unprepared for class, so he ended up teaching the same things over and over again. He put little effort into teaching the course, and it turns out that his homework (sometimes even his quizzes) end up with many typos to screw his students over. He was unhelpful outside of class. He's unfair with marking exams and it was just funny how he tried to bribe his students to give him a better evaluation when he brought candy for the last day of classes.

PHIL 120 (Leslie Burkholder): The course was not as easy as some people said. I thought it was harder than PHIL 220 because there was a whole bunch of English paragraph analyzing into different parts. The lectures that Burkholder gave was like a lullaby that put me to sleep every class. The good part about this course is that there is no final exams. However, we have a total of 12 quizzes that you have to go do outside of class on your own time. They have designated lab hours that you go to. You definitely have to be dilligent about this course, because once you fall behind, it would be difficult to catch up.

PSYC 101 (Scott Sinnett): Psychology was definitely one of the more interesting courses I have taken at UBC. The only thing I didn't like about it is probably the biology aspect of it. Otherwise, it's all good. Scott was an interesting lecturer. I didn't exactly do spectacular in this course at the end, but this course was taken purely for interest, and I don't regret taking it either. I think I might enjoy PSYC 102 more next term though.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Their Own Secret Language

Dedicated to Lynn:

Inside Lynn's car as she slowed her car down to a stop to let a girl cross the street.

Juli: Oh! I remember her, do you remember her?

Lynn: No, who's that?

Juli: She was a year younger than us... but she was in one of my classes in Grade 9... no wait, 10... no wait, 9... I think. Anyway, she and this other girl was in french emersion or something in elementary school, so they would always speak French to eachother in class. It was like their own little sercret language.

Lynn: What class is this?

Juli: French.

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Mascots

The Vancouver Olympic Mascots were unveiled just a couple hours ago today. Meet Sumi, the Thunderbird, Quatchi the Sasquatch, and Miga the Sea Bear.

What do you think? Personally I don't like them that much, but if I had to pick a favorite, I think Miga is the cutest. According to a survey done by CTV, 93% voted that they did not like the new mascots. (I'm not siding with anyone, but Vancouverites are so hard to impress. First of all, the Vancouver Canucks' jerseys, now this.) The mascots are the creation of Vancouver graphic designers Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy, who own Meomi Design. I kinda feel bad for all the bashing that the designers are receiving for these mascots.

Here were some of the comments posted on Canada.com:

"The mascots look like the Pokemon characters my kids watched years ago, you might as well use a Chia Pet for a mascot." -- Lori

"You must be joking. What kind of mascots are those. First we get the crappy logo, now these. I think I even saw Miga on Pokemon and Sumi looks like a teddy Graham in bastardized native garb. Quatchie just looks like a pile of . . . well, it has boots and ear muffs. I know we have talented designers in this city; why isn't VANOC using them. Fortunately these inane choices won't be remembered a few years after the Olympics, and thank God for that." -- SK

"Now I'm convinced we really are culturally challenged!" -- Ellen Gallant

Bonus!

Have you ever experienced bonuses where you go buy something, but then you end up getting the item for for a lesser price or sometimes even for free? I have. The feeling's awesome!

This one time, I bought a pair of pants from the GAP. Strangely, the label that was on the pair of pants that I took with me to the cashier was $10 less than the other pairs of pants of the same pile. And to my benefit, they gave me the price that was $10 less. I guess they had to, otherwise it'd be considered as false advertising.

There was also this other time. It also happened at the GAP, and I was also buying pants. They were too big, so I had to exchange them for a smaller size. But when the cashier did the exchange, they accidentally did a refund. We didn't realize that they didn't charge me for the pair of pants until my mom checked her credit card statements.

And the last one that I remember is when I was buying Rurouni Kenshin mangas in Seattle. My dad paid for it with his book. They put all of the books on top of the de-magnetize thingy. But the cashier was too busy talking to his friend, so instead of beeping the barcodes of *all* the books into the machine, he just beeped in my dad's book. I saw the price and watched the guy put our books in the bag but I didn't say anything. I end up getting my mangas for free!

Logic Puzzle #5

This is more of a brain teaser than a logic puzzle. But it's all fun, so let's try it!

Light Switch Problem

A downstairs panel contains three on/off switches, one of which controls the lamp in the attic—but which one? Do something to the switches, and then determine after one trip to the attic, which switch is connected to the attic lamp.

Automatically Empty Your Gmail Spam

You can't deny that Google's Gmail has one of the best spam filters. However, I'm getting annoyed with seeing the spam counter grow bigger and bigger numerically by the second. There's a reason for this, but I won't bore you with it. And no, it's not because I've been surfing porn and it's now tracking me down to be one of their viagra customers.

Anyway one thing that they've missed out on including in Gmail is an option to automatically delete spam mail from the Spam folder. I have this weird obsession. I need to read all my emails. So in my inbox, there are never any unread emails; therefore, no counter saying that I have unread emails. However, I dont check my Spam folder all the time and it just bothers me that the counter beside that particular folder is always there. I know they have a button to delete all the spam in one click, but I don't even want to see my spam mail. It's SPAM!

But... Rejoice because I have found a way to get rid of Gmail Spam automatically! For all those people who have a similar "sickness" as I do, follow these simple instructions to creating a filter in Gmail:

[Has the words]: is:spam
[Check] Delete it.
[Check] Also apply filter to * conversations below.

All spam messages will be moved to your trash where you can still view it.

When you click on "Next Step" you may encounter a pop-up message saying this:

Warning: Filter searches containing "label:", "in:", or "is:" criteria are not recommended, as these criteria will never match incoming mail. Do you still want to continue to the next step?

Click on "Yes" and you'll soon be on your way to freedom!!

My Car Door Ate My Suction Cup

On Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007, Juli and I were leaving the north parkade on our way home, when disaster struck. I was approaching the exit to the north parkade where I scan my pass to get out when I suddenly got the billiant idea to remove the pass from the windshield and stick it on my side window. As I slowlydroveupto the scanner thinger, I accidentally pressed on the button that rolls down the window. I watched with horror as the suction cup disappeared with the descending window.

At first, when the window was just beginning its descend, I thought about how I should do something to prevent what was about to happen, but the key word is "thought". Yes, even though I was in shock, I still had time to think about what I should be doing instead of actually doing it. It was as if my body was immobolized with horror as my suction cup with a screw attached to it descended into the abyss.

After I recovered from the incident, I found my parking pass across my lap, suction cup less. Now there's a suction cup with a screw in it inside my car door and my parking pass is a mere round disk with a hole in the middle.

Thank you for tuning into Story Time with Grandma Chang.

Bachelorettes

Kimby says:

haha. im looking at the recap of the bachelor.. you know what i found so funny

Kimby says:

look at the first 3 names

Kimby says:

"Which means that Jessica, Juli, Kim, Lori, Melissa, Morgan, Natalie, Rigina, Susan and Tauni are going home."

So I'm just sitting here at my mom's office on a cloudy day today since I didn't have school. However, I need to study for my Math exam. It's only 2.5 weeks into school and I already have an exam, can you believe it? Anyway, I'm just waiting for my friend, Ian, to get out of his Chemistry lab so we can study together.

While waiting for him I'm partly studying and partly surfing the web for interesting reads and came across a list of "25 Skills Every Man Should Know" published Popular Mechanics.

1. Patch a radiator hose
2. Protect your computer
3. Rescue a boater who has capsized
4. Frame a wall
5. Retouch digital photos
6. Back up a trailer
7. Build a campfire
8. Fix a dead outlet
9. Navigate with a map and compass
10. Use a torque wrench
11. Sharpen a knife
12. Perform CPR
13. Fillet a fish
14. Maneuver a car out of a skid
15. Get a car unstuck
16. Back up data
17. Paint a room
18. Mix concrete
19. Clean a bolt-action rifle
20. Change oil and filter
21. Hook up an HDTV
22. Bleed brakes
23. Paddle a canoe
24. Fix a bike flat
25. Extend your wireless network

How many of these skills do you know how to do? How many girls out there know these skills? Are you more manly than you're boyfriend? If there are guys reading this blog right now and there's a whole bunch of these skills that you don't know how to do, don't fret. You can find the handy "How-To" guide right here.

ImagineUBC 2007

So yesterday was Back-To-School, and I probably haven't mentioned this before on my blog, but I volunteered to be an orientation leader for a small group of first-years yesterday! At UBC, they have this large first-year orientation called ImagineUBC. Each group of first years is called a MUG (My Undergraduate Group). Originally, I had six Muggies, one of them didn't show up because she was on a vacation in India, and the other one never replied to any of my emails nor did they have a phone number I can call. So, in the end, I had 4 people in my group - which is actually considered pretty small since most other MUG leaders manage approx. 8-10 students; however, Computer Science is a special bunch, we only had around 50-something first-years and 9 MUG Leaders.

It reminded me a lot about my first year experience, and now I know how much work Nancy (my MUG Leader back in my first year) put in to make the day as enjoyable as she can for all of us. I had a great time at ImagineUBC yesterday and I hope my first-years did too. I really wish to do it again next year! We also had a new cheer this year... 3 new cheers to be specific:

We are Science UBC.
We're as smart as you can be.
But that's not everything we've got.
We're also really really HOT.

3.14159
We are science, we're so fine.
Physics, bio, chemistry.
You can't handle our degree.

We are, we are, science at UBC, and there's no greater faculty.
We've got the smarts, the looks and class.
We've got the spirit to kick your ... BOOT-Y.

The first two cheers were call-backs, so the Imagine Leaders yell out first, and the first-years follow during the pep rally. It was really difficult to follow because most of the MUG Leaders couldn't even hear when the cheer started. We were definitely drowned out by the Engineers. So in the end, we just started yelling "Sexy, Sexy Science" along with the commerce people who were actually cheering for all faculties for some reason- hahaha Commerce made a cool cheer for all of UBC and it goes something like this:

UBC We're hot to go!
H-O-T-T-O-G-O
(Awoot!) We're hot to go!
(Awoot!) We're hot to go!

Promiscuous

Juli says:

I think Anto is the very first guy I met who doesn't mind sharing a drink with people who he hasn't met for a really long time

<(aNDREw)> says:

i guess i'm like anto then

<(aNDREw)> says:

i'd share my drink with anyone

Juli says:

I see

Juli says:

Wouldn't it be like kissing them... but indirectly?

Juli says:

sharing drinks and stuff

<(aNDREw)> says:

lol... are u against this promiscuity?

Juli says:

what's that?

Juli says:

hahahaha

Juli says:

You use such big words... haha

<(aNDREw)> says:

promiscuity is an adjective associated with a player

Juli says:

am I against being a player.... hmm....

<(aNDREw)> says:

"indulging in promiscuous (casual and indiscriminate) sexual relations"

<(aNDREw)> says:

so that includes going around & kissing everyone in sight

Juli says:

I wish I could do that...

Juli says:

Go making out with everyone

Juli says:

hahaha

<(aNDREw)> says:

then share your drink

After realizing that Andrew has broadcasted our Conversation on the Co-op Mailing List…

Juli says:

What are you doing?!?!?!

Jessica Naturally Smells like Mashed Potatoes and Perfume

Juli says:

I smell mashed potatoes, is that you?

Jessica says:

HAHAHAHA

Jessica says:

right before you sent me that, priyanka messaged me with this:

Jessica says:

~*Priyanka*~ says (11:04 AM):

sumthing smells good...is tht u? which perfume is it?

Jessica says:

quite different reactions lol

Jessica says:

but no... no potatoes

Jessica says:

and no special perfume either

Miss and Diss - 2007S

STAT 200 (Eugenia Yu): You know, everyone told me that this course was so easy for them, they didn't even have to study. So... I decided to take it over the summer while I was working in co-op. Oh-my-gosh. It was not easy at all! At least not for me. I swear, I'd never take another math class during the summer while I'm working, ever again. I didn't have enough time to study or do the practice questions when I got back home. It was late and I was tired when I got home. The labs were so useless, I didn't like them, but unfortunately, lab participation counts as part of the marks. The portable where the labs were held were all hot and stuffy during the summer- it smelled too sometimes. Overall, this course was a lot harder than I thought. And unfortunately, I will have to take further STAT course (STAT 302) because I took STAT 200 instead of STAT 241 (for those who don't know, it just happens to be one of the requirements for computer science).

Short Hair for the Summer

For most of you that have seen me in real life lately, you would have noticed that I cut my hair short again for the summer. My hair was just too long and thick for the summer, so I decided to chop it all off. However, my haircut came out a lot shorter than I was expecting. Once again, not very pleased with the person who cut my hair...

However, it's not as bad as last time though I guess. Last time, they cut it way shorter. I remember crying that night.. This time they actually it looks more like the haircut I wanted last time (although I didn't ask for it).

But yeah, I think next time I'm just gonna ask them to layer my hair. No more funky stuff..

---

A little conversation piece that deserves to be remembered:
Juli:Yeah, I know, my hair is poofy
Hanson:
Juli: Oh yeah, that's because I slept while my hair was still wet. Plus the fact that I changed shampoos. The one that I normally used ran out while I was already in the shower, so I just took whatever that was there and used it. It just happened to be "Head and Shoulder's Extra Volume".

Rain Makes Me Stupid

Wow it's been like a month since I've posted anything. It makes me curious to know who actually missed reading my blog entries.

Anyway, yesterday was a pretty interesting day. When I left for my night class, it was pouring down rain, all I had was a thin jacket with me, so I went back into the office and asked Lance if I could borrow his umbrella. He said that his umbrella was in the car, so we both went upstairs to the roof to get it. We borrowed Wayne's umbrella for going up on the roof so we wouldn't get wet. The parking lot was practically flooding and Lance was wearing flip-flops so he asked me to get two umbrellas from his car -- and I did.

After I got the umbrella, I left for UBC. When I got to UBC, my cell phone kept on ringing. I didn't recognize the number so I didn't bother answering it. Because that's just me. But the same number called over and over again, so I was like "OK, fine, maybe this is important" and I answered it. On the other side of the phone was Lance -- apparently, I took his car key with me.

So after class, he got his girlfriend to go to UBC to get his car key from me, and then had to go back to Business Objects to get his car. I felt so bad... but it was still funny at the end

Nat and Drew are back!!

I'm so happy to hear that Nat and Drew are back on the radio waves again with the new 95.3 FM radio station called 95Crave. I've been boycotting that station since they've fired Nat and Drew and now I can happily make this station my alarm clock station again. This morning, I recieved an email saying that Robert has wrote on my facebook wall. When I went to check it was his notice that Nat and Drew are back! I was in disbelief and so happy at the same time! (Now, I don't have to listen to Kid Carson go "wassup dude".) I love you Nat and Drew and I'm glad you're back on the air to make my mornings enjoyable again!

Also, as a side thing, since I've mentioned "facebook" I'd like to thank everyone who wrote on my wall wishing me a happy birthday . And if you haven't added me on facebook yet, please do!

RIP Z95.3 (Thanks for The Memories)

Today is a very sad day for me.

I wake up every morning to the energetic voices of two radio hosts called Nat and Drew but it has changed today. Z95.3 has been announced that they have been bought out by Astral Media THIS MORNING. Most of the hosts and staff were dismissed on Friday afternoon saying that their service is no longer needed at the station.

I loved listening to this radio station since I was in grade 3… I used to listen to the radio station because of its music, but then I stopped for a while since the genre of music they started playing was not exactly my style anymore. Since I started taking the bus and working (January 2007), I’ve been listening to the radio station more for their host than the music itself.

I’m gonna miss them and I decided to share my grief with those who still remember Z95.3 from their younger days. Gonna miss their Battle of the Sexes, Missed Connections, How-To Tuesdays, and most of all, their Zpointz Program that didn’t start out too long ago…

R.I.P. Z95.3 (Thanks for The Memories)

Hot Chocolate Broke My Keyboard

I wanted to share this story before it's too late. This already happened a couple weeks ago.

I made myself a hot chocolate, and drank it slowly as the morning went by. It was almost lunch, I just came back from my meeting and my hot chocolate was all cold already. So I decided to take a big gulp to finish it off. As it was going down my throat, I choked. Before I knew it, I spat out the cold hot chocolate and it covered my desk and my keyboard. I cleaned it up quickly, but unfortunately, my keyboard broke like immediately after it touched my hot chocolate.

Come to think about it, it was pretty funny... hehe.

Tarot Obsession

Recently, I've found myself obsessed with Tarot cards. I had my eyes on this deck called "Vanessa Tarot" for a couple of weeks and finally decided to buy it online at TarotGarden.com a week ago or so. I couldn't stop admiring it. Now I'm looking at other tarot decks online; the more I look at different tarot decks, the longer my tarot deck wishlist becomes. I now have my eyes on another two other decks: Gilded and 8-bit.Vanessa Tarot is a very girly deck I admit. The illustrations are cute, sassy and cartoony. Some people might think that it's extremely childish and that the deck is not good looking. But if you look at it closely and know anything about tarot cards, the symbolism behind these cards are so deep! Click here to see the Vanessa Tarot.

The Gilded Tarot deck is very colorful. The illustrations are beautiful. Click here to see the Gilded Tarot.

Probably because I'm a computer science geek, but I thought the 8-bit Tarot is very cute! It reminds me of the old Nintendo games. Too bad this deck has not been finished. The illustrator has not found a publisher yet either. Click here to see the 8-bit tarot.

Number 2

I hate going to public bathrooms. Like seriously people, the handle is *right* there - use it!

One Monday morning, a friend of mine was nice enough to tell me not to use the first stall of the office bathroom closest to where I sit because someone did not flush the toilet. So I just avoided that stall for the rest of the day. On Tuesday morning, when I decided to go to the bathroom, I walked into the first stall of the bathroom and saw something that I did not want to see just floating around in the bowl. I thought to myself that the cleaning lady probably just didn't come by to clean it yet from yesterday and walked out. When I went back out, I thought I'd be nice and tell my friend not to go into the first stall, because the cleaning lady hasn't cleaned it yet and she told me that when she went back in there on Monday afternoon, it was already gone. So that means that the same person did not flush *again*!

I thought that only men liked to compete with their poop since Hanson's personal goal is to flood the toilet. But I guess from this experience, girls likes to leave treats for their gal pals as well. You know, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what the handle behind the toilet does. Is the user interface design of a toilet really that difficult to use??

Also a comment for people who stand on the toilet seat to pee. We're not in Asia, you know? There are no squat-toilets here. Don't try to mark your territory by peeing all over the toilet seat. That's just gross!

I'M Making a Difference

MSN Messenger 8.1 is donating to a charity of your choice every time you send an instant message!

"Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective organizations dedicated to social causes."

You're sitting in front of the computer; you're messaging away with your friends anyway, why not make it meaningful and help out at the same time? For some reason, this program isn't widely known yet, so I'm using this chance to spread the word! This program is currently only available for people in the United States, but I think that if we get enough people to sign up, more countries can become involved! If you're interested in signing up, please click here. You have nothing to lose!

Here are some of the charities that are being involved in this program and the code you can add to your MSN screen name to participate:

• American Red Cross = *red+u
• Boys & Girls Club of America = *bgca
• National AIDS Fund = *naf
• National MS Society = *mssoc
• ninemillion.org = *9mil
• Sierra Club = *sierra
• StopGlobalWarming.org = *help
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure = *komen
• UNICEF = *unicef

Happy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year to all!
It's the year of the pig/boar!!
OINK OINK!!!

This is the logo that Google put out for Chinese New Year - so cute!

GirlSmarts Workshop 2007

For those who don't know, on January 27th and February 10th, I went and volunteered for this workshop called GirlSmarts. It's a workshop designed for grade 6 girls to introduce them to computer science. I had a lot of fun at the workshop, I just hope that they just as much fun as I did. I did something similar back in June 2006, but that was for grade 7 girls (click here to read that entry).

I had fun being a group leader and I also made many friends of my own among the volunteers. There were 4 organized activities: Programming basics, Computer Hardware, Cryptography, and HTML (you can go to the GirlSmarts website to see more details). Personally, I liked the HTML activity the most just because I knew what was going on. But Ken was trying to bribe the girls to vote that Cryptography as the best activity by giving them chocolates - hehehe.

At the end, the girls were asked to fill in these surveys. On our last survey, I found two that had my name in there, so that must mean that those comments came from two girls who were in my group! Here, I'll post them:

1. "Our group leader, Juli, was really nice; I made some new friends; and the teachers were very helpful! Juli was very good at helping us get to know each other."
2. "I think everyone was really friendly especially Juli, my group leader. At first, no one spoke with each other but she tried to make us become more and more friendly. But every teacher in the activities were friendly and made me feel comfortable and not stranger."

These are in their words, not mine. I'm so happy that they had a good time ^_^.

My Days at Business Objects So Far

It's been 3 weeks of working at Business Objects and I haven't done anything that's extremely exciting yet, except play around with Crystal Reports and Business Objects Enterprise. But here are some funny stories that I'd like to share with you.

On my second day:

I got off the bus and started walking along Smithe, which I believe was what I was suppose to do. I kept walking and walking, but I couldn't find the Business Objects building on the side that I'm walking on. And then pretty soon, I reached the Cambie Bridge. I was about to pull out my phone and call my mom, and when I turned around, a giant sign that says "Business Objects" was in front of me! Haha - little did I know that it was on the other side of the street

Then on my way back home, I walked to Georgia and Howe when there was a stop right at Nelson and Howe. If you don't know how big the difference is here's the analysis:

Georgia + Howe from Mainland + Smithe = 3 blocks North and 5 blocks West
Nelson + Howe from Mainland + Smithe = 1 block South and 5 blocks West

I could have walked a bit less but it was actually a lot considering the type of weather we had that day.

On my second week:

I didn't get lost anymore on the second week. But on my way to the building, I tripped over this square thingy that was sticking out from the sidewalk. I fell over like a and scraped my hand. The worst part was that there was a man who was right behind me. No, I didn't knock him down, but he saw me fell over (so embarassing!!). He didn't laugh or anything and he even asked me whether or not I was ok, but he was smiling.... And you know what makes it even worse?? He also works at Business Objects.

First Day at Work

First of all, happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a great new year's day. Better enjoy the rest of the week because school starts again next week! I spent new year's eve with Hanson riding the skytrain for free all around Vancouver and the lower mainland. When I got home that night, my mom told me that my dad was in the hospital. Apparently his intestine got infected from something that he ate. He spent all 24 hours of his new year's at the hospital. So sad..

So my first co-op workterm started today and cut my vacation short by a week. I recieved an email a couple of days ago telling me to arrive at Business Objects at 9:30am. So I thought that getting on the bus at 8:00am would be enough time for me to get there since it only takes 40 minutes to get to downtown. However, I missed the 8:00 bus. I thought that it'd be ok because it's still rush hour and busses come by more. But little did I know that rush hour actually ENDS at 8:00. I waited for the bus for 30 minutes and called my mom. My mom didn't want me to be late so she decided to drive me there.

When I got there, they gave me a stack of papers to fill out. After that, we were brought to the third floor where we (as in all co-op students) had breakfast. We introduced ourselves one by one and then played a celebrity ice-breaker game (by the way, I was Stephen Harper). After that, we were put in groups to come up with a product called "The Mooper Dooper"; it can be anything we want. We were required to be creative. Afterwards, we were required to come up with a skit to promote our product. I thought it was quite fun. Afterwards, I was shown my desk. I have THREE COMPUTERS and TWO MONITORS. At first I thought that I had to share my desk with someone because I didn't understand why I had two monitors. Apparently, one's for email and researching and the other one is for testing. I thought it was quite neat.

So this is going to be my second home for the next 8 months...