Papercrafts

So during that almost year long hiatus, surely you would think I did not just spend all my time at school.

An example of the many things that can be built from paper

Paperwork was something that I was brought into as a kid, through origami. It all at a summer camp where a group leader taught me how to fold a star. I instantly gravitated towards this new found hobby and went on to explore more origami models.

Small star, meet big star

Eventually, I moved on to papercrafting. The main difference is that papercrafts involves the use of a paste or glue whereas origami does not.
And within the community of papercrafts, there are two main roles, the designers and the builders.

The designers are the ones that create the templates, design and make the model look fancy and nice.
They utilize various CAD programs to do so, but I haven't had much experience in this department yet.

The builders are the ones that do exactly that, they build. They take the template, cut and score it and so the problem solving begins. Note that a lot of templates don't include instructions like the order of the pieces to build (which is really key and important) so it all becomes a huge puzzle, with a rewarding end.

Read, once in a while...

Well, listen AND read (for context, see the previous post).

You have no idea how much this peeves me (well not really, but still). So due to the sheer size of the course, there is a page (on the front of the exam) for students to circle their lecture section to more easily sort exams. Instructions are displayed on the first page of the exam indicating that students must circle a lecture section, and failure to do so will result in lost marks (I think 5 was the case). So not only are instructions explicitly written down, we also do the courtesy to read out those exact instructions.

So during the mid-term exam, while collecting signature forms (basically stating that you were at the exam, and that you are who you claim to be on your photo id), I decided to spend a few seconds for each person and check that they circled their lecture section. About half of the people I checked did not. I'm sure they can do the math; losing 5 marks (on a section of the exam that's worth 20 marks), is a really big deal.

No seriously, we assume you are at least half literate, so READ.

When it came to final exam time, I figured that these people probably know their lessons by now, but I'll still read out this specific set of instructions. And luckily for people who handed in their exams early (of which I could check if they circled, as opposed to everyone rushing to pile in their exams at the end), I caught a few that neglected to circle. I even chased one of the students who was outside the classroom to get him to fill it out.

You may think this isn't a big deal, but there are two major reasons to follow said instructions:

1. To not lose marks:
   Note that the exam indicates that you'll lose marks (5 in my case), but when we actually mark your exams, somehow, we get too soft and end up only deducting 2. Either way, you still lose out.
   
2. Making TA's lives and your lives easier:
   Realise that there are ~1500 exams and TAs need a systematic way to mark them. By writing down your name and lecture section, we can categorize and allocate exams accordingly. In addition, when it comes time to inputting your marks into the system, all the exams are nicely ordered. So if you neglect to write down crucial information, you waste our time attempting to figure out what lecture you belong to and will delay the return of your exams and marks.

So if you can read carefully and follow instructions correctly and write (well legibly, we do try our best to decipher what you write, but try not to give us a hard time doing so...) you are already off to a good start.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please contact me.

I'M BACK!

Hope everyone's first week of the year has been a blast so far.

A very late, but happy new year to all you followers and people
that have stumbled on to this blog

So after a long hiatus, I'll be back for the foreseeable future. Feels like it has been 2 years 2 months (high-fives for those that got that reference), but no, it has been just less than a year, but a really jam packed year.

Going back to "2 Years 2 Months", a pathetic reference to FOD's - 2 Years 2 Months for those that remember the song from AuditionSEA (one of my favourite ones, considering the winter season and the incorporation of a variation of Pachelbel's canon). Had a huge trip down memory lane when I stumbled upon an actual functioning site that archived all the old songs from SEA and KOR (and still is updated with all the new stuff). Also taking a second to pay my respects to xeanz, a site that has seemingly disappeared without a trace. Kudos to Veiss for running it as long as he could, it was also great working with you.

Now back to my "year-in review", which will be spread out through many future posts and at random times of the year.

I guess this is a good time to talk about it since a lot of people are starting school again, but I'd like to share with you my experience being a TA (teaching assistant).
A quick disclaimer to cover my butt so I don't get into legal trouble or whatnot: The words, views and opinions expressed on this site DO NOT represent the view and opinions of University of Toronto, the CUPE/Union, and any of the University's employees and staff members and related organizations.

Okay, now that I got that out of the way, back to the topic at hand.
TAing, above anything, is an interesting look into the logistics of how those stacks of paper that magically appear on your desk come test time and how that big fat A is spat back out at you.

Not sure how this works for courses that have a small amount of enrollment, but for the course I TAed (~1500 students), we go through a process to sort and divide exams. A tedious, but necessary task since the appropriate amounts of test papers must be allocated through the 10+ classrooms the test papers written in.

Now here's a thing for all you first years out there.
When the TAs or professors say something while you are writing the exam. LISTEN UP.
You have no idea how important this is. There may be an error on the exam paper (blame whoever wrote them), or special instructions or even dictating instructions that are on the first pages of your exam.

More of my banter and ranting on this topic for my next post. So stay tuned folks, and I hope to see y'all in the very near future.




I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please contact me.

A Damn Cold Day

With the constant fluctuation of temperatures, there wasn't a lot to look forward to until...

Fancy some food trucks?

After months of eating the same old on campus, I was elated to hear that 4 food trucks would be making their way to UTSC. Oh, how I've dreamed of finally being able to savour various tasty morsels of pure gold that I've only been able to witness on TV (We don't get food trucks much, or even at all where I live; they only frequent downtown).
For those that aren't local, we've had flucuating temperatures like you wouldn't believe. Yesterday, it was 20c+, today was only 4c, and this didn't help me on the day the trucks were visiting. Needless to say, I wasn't the only one tired of our food choices, so it was no surprise that the line ups were going to be long, but I should've known it would take some time for food to actually get out of the trucks.

You know you want some sammies

I think I lined up for just over 1 hour to place and receive my order. Was it worth it?

Behold, BBQ Brisket sammy and...wait, what is that?

And here we have Beef-Bacon Maple Doughnuts

First, with the BBQ brisket sammy. The slaw was a nice and acidic contrast to the smokey beef, but the beef itself, once you get deeper into the sandwich, was very dry. I also think the brisket was not tender enough. At first, I thought these beef-bacon doughnuts were something special; what a letdown. These doughnuts had a nice crispy shell, and a nice doughy centre with bacon bits spread about. I feel that these are very comparable to fried Timbits with bacon bits stuffed inside.

So was it worth it? Well, definitely not for the 1hr wait in the cold, but would I visit them again, given what we have on campus. Maybe

Have you tasted any fares from your food trucks? Anything special you've seen on food trucks that you've tried, or have been dying to try? Let me know in the comments below!

Here Comes "The Governor"

With the conclusion of season two of "The Walking Dead" (which just aired a few minutes ago as of this post) we finally get closure to the cliffhanger from season one and a whole new cliffhanger for season 3.

Introducing Michonne

For the peeps that remember from season one, we finally get to know what Dr. Jenner told Rick at the CDC in the last episode, which Rick was able to confirm with his own hands (I'll try not to spoil too many things in this and future episodes). We also get introduced to a new character (picture above) who rescues Andrea (you know this is going to be a great character for the next season). We also get to see a helicopter fly across the sky a one point...who knows what this means.
I really can't believe how closely they are following the comics with the series (although I am not caught up with the comics, I am guessing that I have read far enough to probably where season 3 will end) and for those that know what happen in the comics, I wonder how they'll be able to interpret that on national television.
And for those that couldn't make out the structure that was shown at the end of this episode, it is a prison facility.

As always, leave a comment on your predictions on the next season or comments on this and past season!

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Back from the Dead

Wow, it has been weeks since my last post and I have to say, it has been one of the most difficult weeks ever.

Just one of the few things I missed because of my midterms

 Well continuing from my post a few weeks back, I basically isolated myself from the online world, which ultimately meant that I wasn't on Steam for a whole week. I also abstained myself from fun things, which included things like the second season of "The Walking Dead". (I can assure you I'm catching up on all the episodes now.
     But what I'd like to talk about the most, is that Steam is offering a free weekend (till Sunday) of Payday: The Heist. For those of you that are new to Steam, this basically means that you can play the game for free (full access, single and multiplayer) for a full weekend! For those that already have steam, just login and click the link below to start downloading the game! (For those that don't already have an account, you'll need to create one first by downloading the Steam client.)

steam://run/24240

Have fun guys, especially since middterms season is coming to an end for most of us.
Maybe I'll bump into you guys in a game!

Tell me what you like (or don't like) about the game in the comments below.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Dead Week/Hell Week/Reading Week

Oh, here we go once again!

I'm going to be way too familiar with this by the end of this year.

It's that time of year again for most college and university students, MIDTERMS!

Gosh, this term is turning out to be my most hectic one (even thought this is only my second term). Although reading week is coming up, most of my exams and quizzes are after it. And in addition the TAs may go on strike, which means that most of our quizzes, labs and midterms won't be marked (unless our professors want to do it).

Anyways, I've heard that some colleges and universities in the States have certain traditions or "rituals" during reading week. At UTSC, I know of no such thing so I'm interested in on what things you do during reading week. Let me know in the comments below!

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

More Goodies - Round 2

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Week 3 - Winter Semester + Goodies

So a semester and 3 weeks into university, I finally seem to be finding my groove.

Stocked up for winter

Everything seems to be going well so far. I'm keeping up with readings, doing practice questions every now and again, but most importantly, I've finally found time for anime. Being able to watch 2 episodes almost every day during my commute has really helped me in catching up with a bunch of series that were on my backlog (including: Witch Hunter Robin, Ore no Imouto, Highschool of the Dead, Gosick, TTGL...).

Recently, I finished Witch Hunter Robin (as you've seen in a previous post), HOTD and I'm working my way through Gosick, so expect a review pretty soon. 

     Another thing I've been doing is finding and gathering all the goodies I can get to last me at least a few weeks though this semester as picture above. My inventory includes:

4 x ValNature Roasted Amond Bars

9 x Small Pocky Packets

1 x Reg. Pocky

1 x Empty Pringles Can =P

3 x Biscotti dipped in cholocate

1 x Milk Chocolate Candy

1 x Lotte Fruito Gum

1 x Atkins Adv. Bar

4 x NutriGrain Bar

1 x PreSk8 Energy Drink

1 x Nestle Instant Coffee

8 x Stride Gum

2 x Trident Splash Gum

A lengthy list, but I'll probably have to restock soon as I'm munching on Pocky like crazy.

For this post, I'm going to bring back something I did way back when I started the blog in May/June, which were reviews on foreign confectionery goods, mainly Japanese goodies. (You can ready them by clicking the links below)

Japanese Treats (1 of 3) - Kompeito

Japanese Treats (2 of 3) - Lotte Black Black Gum

Japanese Treats (3 of 3) - Melty Kiss Chocolate

This time, I review a Japanese Milk Coffee Candy from Tokuno. I picked up this piece from a local Asian market instead of ordering from J-list this time.

How can you go wrong with anything coffee for university students?

Well apparently, you can. The flavour and aroma of the candy is nothing mind blowing; it taste like any other coffee candy I've tried before. The "milk" aspect on the candy didn't really add or take away from the candy either. But my biggest pet peeve about this candy was the texture of it when it starts to dissolve. From the picture above, it's basically a puck shaped candy, but once it starts dissolving, cracks develop on it and the texture of the candy becomes awkward. For the Asian readers, it feels like dried scallops (pictured below). 

Anyways, this is not one I can recommend, so I'll just suggest people to stick with whatever coffee candy you regularly buy, and stay away from this one.

What did you crave during your university/college studies? Do you like coffee candy? Any preference to a brand? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you guys soon!

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos

The second, long awaited FMA movie finally makes its Canadian theatrical debut in Canada.

Debuted on Jan. 15, and will be back on the 19th for an encore viewing

Yesterday marked the Canadian debut of FMA: The Sacred Star of Milos (excluding the "private" subbed viewing in 2011). For those of you that missed it yesterday, certain cineplex theaters will have an encore viewing on Jan. 19. The movie made its first appearance in Japan during June of 2011.
     Well yesterday, the anime club at UTSC went out and watched this movie, and being the FMA fan that I am, I also tagged along. The movie seems to take place before the finale of FMA:B, but also taking place in its own universe thus having no real continuity with FMA:B. The movie plays more like a side-plot to the main story of FMA. Most of the animation seems to follow the same style with the main series, although the eyes seemed to be much more defined and coloured a bit differently in the movie. We watched this movie dubbed, and as usual, Mignogna and Dismuke did an amazing job. However, the voice actor for the leader of the "Black Bats", Miranda (done by Shelley Calene Black) felt very monotone and scripted, offering no flow with her delivery. Now I'm not sure if that was the intended effect, but for me, it wasn't too appealing.
     As always, no spoilers will be given with any anime-related post I write up. The movie revolves around a fugitive that has broken out of an Amestris prison, even through this prisoner's sentence was due soon. The fugitive also seems to be able to use some new type of alchemy. Ed and Al are assigned to track down the fugitive. Ed and Al's search lead them to Table City, Creta where they meet Julia who reveals the story behind Creta and Milos.
     My synopsis ends there, much shorter than I'd like it to be, mostly because if I say anymore, it will detract from the movie. Not because it's suspenseful, but because it was very predictable. The felt more like an OVA and had no reason to really be on the big screens. It's also disappointing that Hiromu Arakawa did not take part as a staff member in the movie (she did the manga for FMA). If you're also expecting lots of Mustang, Hawkeye and Armstrong action, you'll also be fairly disappointed as their screen time is next to nothing. Now I'm not saying this was a terrible movie; the movie just felt underwhelming when compared to the animated tv series.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Have you watched the movie yet? If so, what do you think of it? For those that watched it but haven't seen the original series, what did you think of it? What do you think of FMA in general? Let me know in the comments below!

Witch Hunt!

Hopefully everyone's winter break went well and year got off to a good start. Hopefully, I can find my groove after by first semester of school so I can make regular blog posts again. (School starts on the 9th!)
Well, back to your regular programming and a promised post (from 2 posts back), an anime related post.

A "childhood" anime for me

    For all the local readers, you might have heard of YTV (a Canadian youth entertainment TV channel) that used to (and still does to some extent) broadcast many cartoons, teen targeted comedy shows and at one point, anime. Let's go back to late 2002, which is when Witch Hunter Robin ran (for 26 episodes). Well back then, YTV used to have a late night anime focused programming which included: Zatch Bell, GIST: SAC, Reboot, Samurai Jack, Witch Hunter Robin and much more. I remembered that I had to stay up to the wee hours of the night (well, it was late for me back then) just to catch a glimpse of these shows. I was much more young back then and I don't think I understood anything that was going on when I was watching Witch Hunter Robin but what I do remember was that YTV was notorious for airing older episodes. Sometimes, they would do reruns, and other times, out of no where, they just air a random episode which made it near impossible for me to follow any series. Before actually being able to watch it, this "Witch Hunter Robin" show always remained a mystery to me, almost like a show characterized by "the one that got away".
     Well, let's skip to 2011/2012 where I finally watched the series. The first thing I noticed was the unique character design and the art style of the show. The style truly held up, and aged very well. Now veering off topic a bit, I am not the biggest fan of episodic/"monster of the week" shows. I might complete a series that runs like this, but it is very unlikely that I would watch a sequel that would follow this format. But Witch Hunter Robin did follow a "monster of the week" format, but strangely enough, I wasn't bothered at all by it. The show had a nice flow to  it (almost like a CSI style, where every episodes they work on a new case and there are small segments where we get to see relationships and drama between the main characters develop).
     Well, Witch Hunter Robin initially revolves around Robin, a "craft-user" (who is a person that can utilize special powers) who is sent to STN-J the Japanese child branch organization of SOLOMAN. We don't learn much about either of the organizations except that STN-J focuses on monitoring "seeds" (which are people that have dormant witch/craft powers) and on hunting witches that actively utilize their powers. Note that the existance of witches is kept from the general public, thus the operations of STN-J appear unknown/mysterious to the general population.
    The hunters that work for STN-J mainly include: Robin Sena, Amon, Haruto Sakaki, Michael Lee, Miho Karasuma and Yurkio Dojima. I won't really discuss about each character as they're pretty much cut and paste characters (at least for the first half of the series). As mentioned before, the series takes on a case each episodes, for about the first half of the series. We get little character development until after the first half where we find out the motives of each character and of the organizations (which I will not spoil).
     All in all, this show felt very satisfying, even if I didn't have the urge to dig this series up just to see what it was about. The art style, and surprising plot (although other may disagree) really made it for me.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

If you watched Witch Hunter Robin, what was your opinion of it? Any childhood shows you'd like to revisit today? How was your New Years? Let me know in the comments below!

Happy New Years!

Meri Kurisumasu and a Happy New Year!

Well I know it might not be New Years yet for some of you (at least not for me) but I'm making this post a few hours in advance since I'll be bogged down by school, which is right around the corner.

Now this post won't be anime related (as I promised last time) nor will it be a rant; just a good, plain old blog entry.

Ever since university started, I never really got the chance to really converse with my group of friends from elementary school (the same bunch mentioned in older posts) and a few days ago was really the first time we've actually met up again.

We'd usually make our usual rounds in the Markham area (sushi, gaming, movies...etc) but the VIVA (the transit system in the York/Markham area) has been still on strikes (been on strikes for a few months now). So we made our way downtown. By coincidence, we ended up doing what we once did a few months ago when we were also in downtown; movies, visit a few places, Eatons then dinner at Milestones.

Prime Rib Roast at Milestones...mmm

Hogtown Poutine at Smoke's Poutinerie on Dundas

All in all, a great way to end off the year; an outing with my best friends and with my family.

Anyways, it has been a great year and I wish all my readers and fellow blog colleagues the best next year.

How are you guys spending New Years Eve? Any New Years Resolution?

Hello World!

So I finally finished my final exams and then someone reminds me...midterms in 2 months.

Me, during every exam

     Well to be exact, I finished my exams last week and I've been procrastinating to make a new post (heh, procrastinating). I also started getting some of my marks back, and for the time being, I'm pleased with them so far, but I think to most important thing for me during the break right now is to pace and change my lifestyle that would be suitable for a university student.
     I find myself time and time again gaming. It's a really bad lifestyle that I've kept since high school, thinking I can still get away with it in university. I think I game so much that I barely have time to watch anime. D: So I think the most effective way for me to really focus is to simply not start my steam (I mostly play games on steam) because those pop-ups towards the bottom right corner that shows who is playing what really distracts me. But for the duration of the break...I'll be gaming =).
     Now off to the anime issue, oh how I've missed you. At least I've finally found a susatinable way to keep this hobby. My morning commute to school is about 25 mins (by car, it's an hour by public transit) and you know what that time is perfect for? Perfect for just an episode of any anime. So that means going to school and coming back, I'm still able to watch 2 episodes, yay!

Anyways, I'll be back next week to make an anime related post and hopefully, I'll be able to make weekly posts when school resumes! Thanks for reading!
    
I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

So what are you guys doing during your winter breaks? How did your exams go? Let me know in the comment section below!

I'm Back!

After a temporary hiatus (and midterm exams), I'm glad to announce that I'll be back on board.

 After getting all 5 of my mid-terms out of the way, I've finally think I've found to groove to settle down and merge into the life of a university student. But just because I've finished writing the mid-terms doesn't mean my worries are gone, it's when I actually get them back and know my marks =/. Hopefully is DWei faring better than I am. Hang in there bud! Sadly, finals are coming up, in less than a month.

And in reply to Shaw's comment a while back
  Shaw said...

I've been meaning to ask you, how can this blog be a NEET corner when you are at Uni?

I guess you're right, it's more of a "Foreclosed corner" because of such high tuition payments.

But getting back to what's current, Payday: The Heist. A FPS released by Overkill, and indie devloper has taken some of the FPS community by storm. It's mainly a 4 person, co-op oriented game where you are in the shoes of thieves (hence, "heist"). It's a really unique concept that requires major teamwork and communication skills. Although I've never had that chance to play it yet, I've seen many game play videos and all I can say is that it's intense. It really is a shame that this game isn't well known. To be honest, I would have never checked this game out if I didn't catch a glimpse of it on the front page of the steam store. Hopefully this game catches on. Props to Overkill, especially for releasing a FPS in the same month as Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. (More than enough to throw any university student off course, am I right?).

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

 Have you guys checked out any of the new games released this month such as the new Batman game?

 

Tragedy at Kentland

A deadly garage fire takes 2 lives

A change of pace from my usual posts but this story really stuck home. I still remember the night my dad was driving me home from an evening class from university when there were firetrucks, police cruisers and yellow police tape forming a perimeter outside the entrance to the street from where I lived.
"Probably another gas leak", my dad exclaimed.
To this remark, I thought the same. A year or two ago, there was some sort of gas leak (it could be smelled through the air) and it was taken care of quickly and had the usual police cruisers at the scene.

The next morning while I was off to school, the scene changed and by that I meant I saw additional vehicles: CTV, CBC, CP24, FCTV (local news stations) and I quickly realized it was something more. My dad had the usual radio channel on and that's when we were given a hint to what happened down the street.
There was a fire in the garage of that house of which a female corpse was found on the scene, and a man was rushed to a local hospital where he passed away; no other information was given at the time. This fire was being investigated by homicide detectives due to the suspicious small size of the fire.

When I got back from school, I asked around some neighbours and was told that the two that died were actually husband and wife. They had two children, 19 male, and 17 female if I remember correctly, but thankfully they weren't at the house at that time. I was also told that there foul play was involved between the couple, but I guess I'll know more about it as the story develops.

My sincere condolence goes out to the family and friends of the deceased, and especially to the two teenagers as I hope they are being cared for appropriately.

Link to one of the many news stories covering this: http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/156615--candlelight-vigil-held-for-markham-couple-killed-in-garage-fire


Has anything tragic happened in your community? How have people dealt with these types of situations?

First Week of University

I've been waiting a long time to get here, but now, am I second guessing myself?

Cramming, gotta get that good stuff in

     For those that read some of my recent posts about frosh, you should know that students had a choice to either stay for the frosh events or attend classes. I asked around (espeically asking senior students) whether or not to stay at frosh or just skip the first day of lectures. All the answers I got were on either side, but I guess since I'm paying over seven grand for school versus fifty bucks for frosh, I'll attend my lectures instead.

     And I'm glad I made that decision because the first day of classes in university is nothing like high school. But let's start off with the similarities, the professor will take half the class to introduce himself or herself and their respective accomplishments and go through the course outline. Okay, I guess it's nothing different so far, but after introductions we jumped right into the lecture and textbook material and I guess this is where the two diverge. In high school, we would've probably been holding hands and singing kumbaya for an entire week before we start any course material. I guess my blog will soon look like one of my fellow blogger colleagues, DWei's.

"Hold hands and singing kumbaya", a favorite quote from one of my high school teachers

     Now another difference is that in class, you should never run out of things to do (and that one thing is to listen). And that's another difference, there is no "in-class homework", you literally sit in class for 2-3 hours and there is no time allotted in class to do any readings or homework. Another note is that you have to be prepared going to class, that means note taking devices, textbook readings, printouts etc...because no one is going to remind you or bug you about this stuff. Well it's not that I had any trouble in high school with any of this but it's pretty overwhelming when you have to keep track of tutorial dates, readings that need to be done, quizzes, online assessments... And I'm sure the lists goes on, but phew, I'm just in first year.
 
I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

How was your first week of university or post secondary education? How is it different from high school?

UTSC Frosh Day 3 & 4

 The last two days of frosh week ends in style.

All of frosh week seemed to lead up to the final events for day 4, but let's get back to day 3 for now.

Day 3's main event was "The Ultimate Froshie". Froshie in this case refers to all frosh members (freshmen), and it's essentially finding the most enthusiastic, exciting and fun froshie. This is determined trhough a series of challenges which involve cheers (such as the "I feel so good!" cheer) and more. Sadly, I had class during this event and pretty much missed most of it. Video below for whoever wants to check it out.

Which brings me to my next point, who decided to make frosh week coincide with the first week of classes (most people had classes Thursday and/or Friday). So not only did I miss Thursday's main event, I missed all of Friday, but for the people that participated, I heard that it was a blast.

Friday's first main event was the parade where all 3 campuses (Scarborough, Mississauga and St. George)  convene. As fun as this sounds, there is always compeititoin between all 3 campuses to see who does the best and loudest cheers. See for yourself below.

Friday ended with an event at some event cetnre, and at a club at the Guv.
Hopefully everyone had fun, as I probably had more of it in class. =/

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

How did you frosh conclude? Did class ever coincide with frosh?

UTSC Frosh Day 2

We feel so good! Oh, we feel so good! Oh!

Youtube Karaoke @ AC112

Nothing beats karaoke, especially in a lecture hall singing things by Aqua and Bieber.

Well I'll have to say I had fun during the second day. Just like Ferdinand commented on my previous post, I also consider myself as an introvert. Those that do know me in real life know me as someone who is very quiet, as the type that is cool, calm and always collected. Today was no different? I think not. With help from my GLs (group leaders) I started to come out of that shell and had some fun.

The "Carnival"

For day 2, once of the featured events was the Carnival. Essentially it was 5-6 inflatable play areas (like rock climbing pictured above). Now don't get me wrong, these activities were fun, but when this activity lasted for 4 hours, your patience for new things to do is easily spent.

The long day was concluded with a fun event (for some at least and embarrassing for others), the long awaited hypnotist show. You can see the first part of it embedded above (I do not own the video, it was uploaded by my colleagues).


What quirky events did you have at your frosh? What was the best event?

UTSC Frosh Day 1

First impressions are everything, and today, frosh has definitely made its mark.

Woo! Frosh Week

Frosh, Day 1: All froshies were assigned to groups and separated by departments, marked by different colour t-shirts. Blue for management students, green for science and red for arts. Each group was assigned 2 group leaders which are seniors in the corresponding deparments.

Now I'm not sure how all my peers felt, but I can say I was definitely nervous and my natural personality of being shy definitely didn't help. On the other hand, all the group leaders (GLs for short) were very warm and enthusiastic (whether they were being forced to can be questioned) but the GLs assigned to my group were great.

Ice Breakers!

 For the first day, we generally did a lot of ice breaker related activities to get to know our group members better. We were also taught a number of cheers of which some are unique to each department as departments may engage in spontaneous cheer-offs against each other. Being a management student, some of our cheers would include: "Your test tubes are short" which is directed at the science department and "You talk big, you walk tall, making up for something small!" which can be directed to any department (Yes, a lot of the things were somewhat...suggestive). One my favourite comebacks against the management cheers would be: "Schu-lich Re-jects!" (People in Ontario should get this one).

Party Hard!

 There were also lots of other activities throughout the day, which eventually made me come out of my shell a bit. And to conclude the day, was a foam dance party. (Unfortunately, I didn't stay long enough to witness the "foam" part of it).

Foam Dance Party (without the foam)

I'll be back in a few days reporting on day 2 of frosh.

Do you still remember your first day of frosh? Any cheers that are memorable or unique to your school?

Nodame Cantabile

Gyabo! Classical music and anime? All in one?

Chiaki and Nodame

After putting off this series for so long, and with many recommendations from a bunch of friends, I finally watched Nodame Cantabile (I'm getting to the sequels =/).

Nodame Cantabile mostly takes place at Momogaoka College of Music where our main characters, Megumi Noda and Shinichi Chiaki study. Nodame is a talented piano player, who can play music by ear (and prefers it) instead of reading the score. She also brings in her own style when playing the music, such as adding or subtracting notes, ignoring the score altogether. Chiaki is also a talented piano player (who also plays the violin) and was born in to a musical family. He has a secret ambition of pursuing a career in conducting, but is obstructed to study oversees (he resides in Japan) because of his child phobia of flying and the ocean.

The two of them accidentally meet and Nodame install falls in love with Chiaki. Chiaki discovers Nodame's talent and the series displays the lessons of music and life they give each other while encountering many other students and teachers of the college.

This series is definately a must for any anime and classical music fans (as you may be sitting through half an episode of classical music). Nodame Cantabile is a 23 episode series and was aired in 2007, produced by J.C. Staff. There is a sequel to Nodame Cantabile, which is Nodame Catabile: Paris, which continues right where the prequel left off. The whole franchise then concludes with Nodame Cantabile: Finale.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Have you watched this series? Have you seen any music oriented series? Did you watch the dramas or live action movies of Nodame Cantabile?