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.

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.

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!

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?

 

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?

Back to School Laptops

It's that time of year again, on for this year, my supplies list includes a laptop.

For the past few weeks, I've been browsing various laptops, and so far, I've come up with 3 laptops that may fit my needs.

The Asus A53SV-XN1

1.) Newegg.ca - ASUS A53 Series A53SV-XN1 Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1333 750GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
ASUS A53 Series A53SV-XN1
Price: $750.00
CPU: Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz)
RAM: 6GB Memory DDR3 1333
GPU: Nvidia GT 540M
HDD: 750 GB (7200 RPM)
Screen: 15.6"
Res: 1366x768 

The MSI FX620DX-256US

2.) Newegg.ca - MSI FX620DX-256US Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory 640GB HDD DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
Price: $730.00
CPU: Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz)
RAM: 6GB Memory DDR3
GPU: Nvidia GT 540M
HDD: 640 GB (??? RPM)
Screen: 15.6"
Res: 1366x768

The Asus A53SV-XTI

3.) Buy the ASUS A53SV-XT1 15.6 Laptop Computer at TigerDirect.ca
Price: $770.00
CPU: Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.0GHz
RAM: 4GB Memory DDR3
GPU: Nvidia GT 540M
HDD: 500GB (5400 RPM)
Screen: 15.6"
Res: 1366x768 

I guess the differences are the CPU (i5 2410 vs i72630, and the ram, 6 GB for i5 vs 4 GB for i7, and the HDD 5400 vs 7200). Anyone care to comment on these things?

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

Which laptop out of the 3 would you choose? What laptop do you use? Any recommendations for any specific laptop or brand or specs?

Tuition Fees

After a day of panic and distress due to course selection, I now have an invoice on my tuition fees.

For my first year at UTSC (University of Toronto Scarborough for those that haven't seen my previous blog posts) tuition is based per course (and all those extra fees) + co-op fees since I'm in the co-op program. I heard though, for next year, tuition will just be based per semester, not per course, but anyways, for this year, it is $545.00 for a half year course. I'm taking 5 courses each semester. Adding this up with all the fees and then multiplying it by two comes out to be over $7000.

I'm not sure how this compares to the tuition of other post secondary schools in Canada and beyond (I heard that Americans pay much much more than this) but the fun part about my program is that in second year and beyond, the tuition is "non-regulated'. My second year tuition is estimated to be over $13,000; almost double of the amount from first year. Thankfully, I can live at home so I don't have to pay for residence.

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.

 

How does tuition fees measure up where you live? How do you manage to pay it?

University Course Selection

Over the course of the week, I've been stressing over possible elective courses I can take for my first year in university. With course selection starting tomorrow, I'm stressing even more than ever!

UTSC (University of Toronto Scarborough Campus)

The way my university does course selection is through an online program called ROSI (Repository of Student Information). Students are allowed to start their course selection on a certain date at a certain time, and these times and dates will differ for every student by years (1st year, 2nd year...).

When I went for an event called "Get Started" they stressed that students must immediately finalize and choose their courses right at their allotted time, but they didn't elaborate why. So I decided to converse with some current UTSC students. Well first off, if you don't take advantage of your allotted time, you risk the chance of not getting the courses and times you prefer, but most importantly, ROSI is notorious for being down due to an overload on its servers.

Okay, so I basically have to be really prompt for my scheduled time, but now for the courses themselves, albeit I only get 2 electives for my first year. The reason I'm stressing over these two courses is because of bell curving, something all University of Toronto campuses are infamous for, so I really want to take courses that wouldn't put a dent in my GPA while at the same time, hold my interest.

Right now, I have a few courses picked out such as EESA06 (Introduction to Planet Earth), GGRA02 (The Geography of Global Processes),  GGRA03 (Cities and Environments)

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.

Any suggestions?
How was your first year's studies for post-secondary institutions? What kind of courses did you take?

Exam Season

This week is the last week before exams, so I'll be studying and do some last minute craming. As an effect, the frequency of my blog posts will drop over the next 2 weeks (Possibly to 1 post every 2 days).

Not much of a post for today, but I'll do another post in regards to a Japanese game shows for tomorrow.

In the mean time, check out some of my older posts about games, food and more. I'll be studying.

Any tips for studying? How do you prepare for your exams?

University of Toronto Scarborough: First Impressions

So for many Canadians, graduating high school students heading off to post secondary school had to choose their educational institution for next year. I for one, accepted my UTSC (University of Toronto Scarborough Campus) co-op management offer. For those that are not as familiar with University of Toronto, U of T is actually made up of 3 campuses, UTM (University of Toronto Mississauga), UTSG (University of Toronto St. George) and UTSC

For the 2015 Pan Am games, an aquatics and athletics complex (such as 2 Olympic sized pool,
runnings tracks and other facilities) will be available for UTSC students in the future

     Well as I said in the last post (Japanese Treats! Meltykiss Chocolate (Part 3 of 3), I would be visiting UTSC today for the "Ready! Set! Go!" event which is to really get first year students familiarized with course selection and the next steps students should take.I also opt-ed to go for a residence and campus tour.

The infamous trios of smokestacks that
towers over the campus

Upon entering the campus, I encounter a figure that my peers have talked about, the infamous smokestack that makes the building look like a factory.









I also visited various wings of the campus and I'll have to say, some of them look really great and others look not too appealing in my opinion.


The one that didn't appeal to me were the ones that were structured by complete concrete (at least it looked like concrete to me). As you can see below, the whole building's interior is just this dull grey and looks like an unfinished basement to me. Another building also looks like this, but at least they painted a coat of white paint to change the scenery.

Concrete, Concrete Everywhere!

On the bright side, this is the new
Instructional Centre/Management building open for 2011

Besides the infamous smokestacks, some people also know UTSC for its lack of social life. Honestly, I really think this is up to the individual and their involvement in extra curricular activities (this university is a commuter school). I'll once again make a post about life at UTSC once I'm actually a student there. I might make another post about frosh/orientation week.

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.

So how was everyone else's first experience/impression of their post-secondary institutional? How did you transition from secondary school? Or how is/was your post-secondary school experience altogether?