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?