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Ah, at 9:48am this morning, I had completed my last exam of my first year at UOIT. What were my experiences? What new things had I seen, heard, learned and done at university? What kind of professors and TAs did I get? …and many other questions. So many things to say, and so much time to say it, finding a starting point is really hard!

What I Have Learned

There are a bunch of things I have learned in these numerous months. I have learned simple things regarding computers, useful things from the world of physics/science, disturbing things in “ethics” and leadership. However, these are all head knowledge things! I personally think that some of the heart-learned things are more important at times, such as

• Always study and review when you have a chance to! – In other words, don’t study for tests and exams a day or two beforehand. This year, my studying habits have completely gone to hell. I’ve had a few occurrences where I would study for a midterm the day before I had it, and just last week…I began my formal review for a final the night before. That’s why first year is usually general and somewhat easier…because its the perfect time to have a transition between high school and university. What we’ve lost with OAC being taken out will never be made up for!
• Friends are few, Acquaintances are abundant – There were only a few people I really had a bit more time to chill with than others, which should classify them as my friends. The friends would usually meet up and eat, chill or study. The acquaintances were usually just a brief “Hello, how are you?/What’s up?”. However, there’s an on-going problem I face where friendships between people are skewed…and obviously this isn’t a problem anyone can fix instantly; it just takes time.

Of course, there are a bunch of other things I’ve learned…especially from my Impact of Science and Technology on Society course. This is ironic, since it was one of those bird courses that everyone loved to hate. From Impact, I’ve learned about bastards known as the Economic Optimists, who believe that natural resources are not needed in this world; who are over-confident in the flawed human lives we live, believing that we can truly solve all of the problems in the world; who skew statistics to hide from investors that the kids in Indonesia who are making their clothes and everyday products aren’t even getting paid 1/100th of our minimum wage. People accuse me of being a Marxist, but I haven’t invested enough time to really find out what this meant. From what I’ve read of Wikipedia though (which isn’t all that reliable, believe me)…it remotely deals with some aspects of communism and “power to the people”, if I’ve interpreted correctly. At this moment in time, I cannot comment on what I am.

What interesting things have happened?

So throughout the year you’ve seen my many posts exclaiming the random things I’ve done. A recap…

• Filming videos! – We’ve got more coming soon! We’ll definitely be working on the DVD version of “Let’s Master Tait” during the summer, and we’ll definitely enter the 2007 Insomnia contest if it happens! Filming has allowed me to release some of my artistic sexual frustrations which rage inside me like a spark to the O2 supply in one of the Apollo missions (…erk). So far we’re mainly focusing on comedy situations, so it’s allowing me to mature in my humor, as well as expanding my scripting and acting talents – accents can only support me for so long. When the time comes to start filming action, dramatic or other genre films…who knows what can happen!
• I’ve probably attended my 2nd real concert! Campus Fest 06 exposed me to the excitement of experiencing bands live, which is kind of different than having a worship session inside a church.
• Rocking the sexyback – I’ve been challenged/encouraged further to expand my musical abilities…as seen from this post. However, what can be said about my advances musically for my faith? I haven’t written a song for/to God for a long time, and I haven’t had the tugging at my heart in a long time. You could probably say that I am dead; there is a high probability that I AM.
• I took the first steps and joined the EWB club at UOIT…kind of. I’ve only been able to attend a few meetings because I’ve been so busy and buses are always so sparse when they have meetings.

Other things?

I believe next year will be an even bigger opportunity to get things done and to have even more experiences. For example…by next fall semester, I should be in a new location. This will open up the doors for so many opportunities to do things, such as actually attending EWB meetings, or avidly attending Campus Church. I should also be able to meet up with friends more often, especially when Will and Aaron will be living in Oshawa as well. What does this mean?

1. Possible jam sessions with Will
2. More artistic opportunities with Aaron, Chris, Will and anyone we can find

Living in the Dirty Shwa will benefit in so many ways…maybe not in the immediate, and definitely not in the eyes of everybody watching my family’s life under a scope, but this is something most people won’t understand anyway due to their arrogance or ignorance (or both).

Best, Worst, Most, Least… (aka Awards?)

I think it’s one of my duties to produce a best and worst list (based on personal opinion) of my (note: MY! I could’ve EASILY put Paula DiCato down so many times…but I didn’t have her!) profs and TAs this year…so here we go! Categories with [P] will designate profs and [TA] for TA…I think that made sense:

Best Sense of Humor [P]: Rupinder Brar (Runners up: Robert Coke, Sean Bohun, Ilona Kletskin);
He was constantly making jokes whenever needed, made constant remarks about his own drawings (ie. “Now THAT is a circle”), and had to endure 3 fire alarms. That should get him the perseverance award too…because it sucked having both physics exams (close to completion) being fire alarmed. Big thanks to him for letting us finish writing on the 1020 one

Best Sense of Humor [TA]: Darlene Griffiths (Runners up: Mihai Beligan);
She told it like it was, constantly made jokes about anything, and made tutorials on technical writing more bearable than they actually were in reality.

Most Boring/”Useless” Lectures: Chemistry – Mima Staikova (Runners up: Programming – Ramiro Liscano, Linear Algebra – Greg Lewis, Tech Comm/Impact – Alyson King);
Chemistry need not be boring…my grade 12 teacher definitely did not make it so. She came in 10-15mins late for the first lecture, which was followed by somewhat broken English and confusing instructions. I mean, I’m usually highly tolerant of accents and of people who are English-As-Second-Language…but sometimes it was even unbearable for me! Lectures (AND MIDTERMS) had typos, and was usually presented in a monotone fashion, partnered with useless monotone video clips from the textbook. I really wonder if her teaching style is reflective of how U of T’s teaching/style is? Or…maybe she is one of those research-based professors who only teaches because it’s written on their job description? Interesting fact: after the first two weeks, we only had around 20 people come to lecture.

Most “Useless”/Boring Tutorial: Programming – Anand Dersingh;
Anand is a great guy, so this award isn’t necessary directed towards him. However, having UA1220 filled with only 8 guys isn’t too good. That, and it was my first year programming with C++, so whatever he was covering was either presented in a very boring manner (constituted by anal raping long pauses) or was already- nevermind, it’s all because of the pauses. However, it was because of Anand that some of the material was better learned…so this award is more towards “Boring” than “Useless”! GG NO RE!!!!

Most Attractive (Non-gay perspective of Male & Female) [P & TA]: Let’s not elaborate too much, cause I don’t want people to start shifting their seats or closing window blinds. By the way, I added the males because I think its just a humbling statement that they’re regarded as someone who should be able to get a lot of ladies. So in no particular order we have… Olga Bulakh, Rupinder Brar, Ilona Kletskin, Mihai Beligan. Good balance, one of each type of each gender!

Most Stone Cold “I’ll F***ing Kill You” Profile Picture: Ramiro Liscano;
His greying/silver hair with his cool look sent shivers down everybody’s spine…it made us think he was hardcore strict. He wasn’t really, but I think he’s oldschool…so that would explain some of his lectures…

Most Swearing/Lord’s-Name-Taking-In-Vain [P]: Sean Bohun;
All lecture, every lecture.

Most Swearing/Lord’s-Name-Taking-In-Vain [TA]: Mihai Beligan;
Enough said. Probably one of the most down to Earth TA’s ever…

Ok…who wants to go on a smoke break? Anybody? Anybody? Fine…then I will go on a smoke break!

Most Joy In Coming To Class (aka Giddiness): Ilona Kletskin (Runners up: Robert Coke, Rupinder Brar);
if (Ilona_hascoffee == true)
bool giddy = true;
As long as she has caffeinated products (ie. iced cap, coffee), she will be fine.

Most Shaggy: Omer Yuksekher;
Saw him at beginning of year, no beard. End of year…he’s frickin Santa Claus!

Easiest Course: Collab – Robert Coke (Runners up: Tech Comm/Impact – Alyson King);
Open notes+laptop midterms AND exams…

Most Satellites Floating In Space: Ali Grami;
Ok, that was cheating…cause we all know he is elite pro.

Most In-tune With Their Inner Child [P]: Rupinder Brar – Nintendo Wii (Runner up: Sean Bohun – Apple Macbook);
What can we say? He loves his Wii!

Most In-Tune With Their Inner Child [TA]: Mihai Beligan – Nintendo Wii/DS;
Rants about the Wii’s availability, playing DS before class starts, requesting Rupinder’s Friend Code…hahaha.

Most Difference In Height Face-to-Face: Greg Lewis;
I am totally not lying, but we all thought he was pretty tall when he was standing up there in front of the lecture hall…sadly, as we descended down the rows or saw him in person, we found out we towered over him.

Endnotes:

In all seriousness, I think all my profs and TAs have their pros and cons and are all special in their own way. Each of them gave me a chuckle, either from a joke (ie. Ilona, Coke, Rupinder, Alyson, Mihai) or made me laugh from what they unknowingly say (ie. Olga’s “F***torial”, Anand’s “Vector P-P”, Peyman’s “Ohmagah”, Ruth and Anna’s “OK”). Totally looking forward to what second year profs I’ll get!

If you’re reading this and in UOIT, please post a comment here (ON THE BLOG, NOT THE STUPID FACEBOOK NOTE…AND IF YOU CAN’T READ THIS, YOU ARE BLIND AND NEED TO FAIL!!!111oneone PRESS “VIEW ORIGINAL POST”!) with your awards, your favs, who you thought was hot good-looking/whatnot…best moments, funniest moments etc!!