King  Gary 

Here are some highlights of 2006, grouped by month:

May

• mesh wrap-up

June

• What’s wrong with formal education? (and I’m finally studying now)

July

• EdgeFest 2

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The past four months have gone by so quickly that they seem to be a blur. I’ve spent that time at university for the first time in my life, and I’ve met countless new people, some whom I’m certain will become life-long friends.

I have also learned a lot about myself while at university that I wouldn’t have otherwise figured out on my own. This list is in no way comprehensive, as I’ve definitely changed in many more ways than I can count (primarily in a good way), and I hope that spending more time at university will help me to better figure out who I am. Here are some things that I’ve learned about myself and about life in general:

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Popularity: 15% [?]

During these past few days while exams have been running on campus at UW, I’ve been going in and out of the campus so that I can go home to Toronto and have a change of scenery to see if I can focus more on my studying. Whenever I leave any location, the first thing that I always check for is if I have my laptop with me. Well, during one of my quick trips in and out of the campus, I did manage to bring my laptop, and yet, I somehow managed to forget my power adapter for it! This essentially meant that I was SOL and had no laptop to use until I returned to campus! That’s, let’s see… 4 days without a laptop. This marked the first time since I even GOT my laptop that I ran more than a day without using it.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

Okay, so it isn’t such a big question to ask; but, work has, for a long time, been something that people did in order to pay the bills and to buy the occasional item that they desired but didn’t require. It wasn’t something that they were supposed to enjoy; no, instead, the very idea of work as something that people could love doing was just out of the question.

Why, then, do people today still choose to work in professions that they don’t quite enjoy? Stereotypes shouldn’t be applied, and yet, even without trying to, they are seen all over university campuses everywhere. Take the University of Waterloo, which is where I am currently enrolled. Programs such as accounting have a much higher ratio of Asians-to-Caucasians than, say, engineering. Even gender stereotypes still exist; the male-to-female ratio in the Faculty of Mathematics is 72:28, and in the Faculty of Engineering, it’s 78:22. But in the Faculty of Arts, the ratio is 29:71. One of the primary causes for this huge imbalance is stereotypes.

In my English course that I’m taking this term, we’re doing research projects on one of four topics; one of the topics is ‘women in mathematics.’ The goal of that topic is to come to a conclusion of why there are such low enrollment numbers of women in the Faculty of Mathematics, and how this can be resolved. A good chunk of the women in mathematics are in it because - surprise, surprise - they actually love it.

I just came back from my English class today, where all the groups did their presentations on what they’ve learned and researched. One of the groups that did their presentation on Women in Mathematics mentioned that what we should do to increase popularity and change the views of women about math, is to make bigger changes at a younger age. So for instance, in pre-school, girls usually play with dolls, and the boys usually play with building blocks (a stereotype, yes, but one that’s pretty accurate.) The boys building blocks is more than just a way to spend their time; it also helps them with their analytical and problem solving skills. They figure out where blocks go to build the desired object that they wish to build. Girls play with dolls, and the primary thing that they get out of it is creativity, but in a very limited way, because dolls aren’t as abstract as blocks and therefore can’t be applied to as large a field of subjects. Blocks are very abstract, and so boys can take the knowledge that they learned in pre-school, build on it and hone their skills, and then apply block building to, say, building computer software, or constructing the next Eiffel Tower.

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Now isn’t this the best dorm room carpet or what?

Popularity: 17% [?]

I just found out right now, from my mom, that my grandfather had passed away yesterday. I’ll be going back home to Toronto from Waterloo for the funeral service, which will be on Friday…

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Here’s how my first day in university went:

2:00 pm: Arrived on campus, removed my belongings from my car, and unpack them in my residence.
4:30 pm: Don’s chat, pizza dinner, and then outside for some fun and games.
6:00 pm: Meet up with the other 3,000 or so freshman students outside, and cheer for our own respective teams.
8:00 pm: Do our own thing; walk around the campus, or continue in other campus activities.
9:00 pm: Ice cream sundaes are served across campus residences.
9:30 pm: Walk around some more; find my high school friends.
12:00 am: Return back to my residence with high school friends. Chat a bit, then they leave.
12:30 am: Prepare to go to sleep. A visitor of my roommate’s comes in and we chat for a bit.
2:00 am: Prepare to go to sleep.
2:30 am: Type this blog entry. I’m going to sleep now!

UPDATE:

3:30 am: Awake again to get a snack and watch some television.

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I went up to Sundridge, Ontario yesterday to a friend’s farm. There were fireworks, camping, and a great big feast
Photos to follow!

UPDATE: I also want to mention, that during the fireworks, one of the dogs there (there were 4) ran up to the fireworks and almost picked one up with its mouth. Someone managed to ran up to the dog in time, while it was within 5 meters of the fireworks, to drag it away.

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2 days ago, I received an email from Waterloo’s Admissions Team, saying that:

“The Admissions Committee for the Faculty of Mathematics has received and reviewed your final secondary school grades.”

and that

“The conditional Offer of Admission to the Honours Computer Science Coop program at the University of Waterloo, you received earlier, included conditions that have not been met.”

(There is more, but these are the main points.)

My immediate reaction? Well, you can imagine the rage, anxiety, and whatnot.

I emailed them back immediately when I read the email. Then I received a reply back:

“It has come to our attention that you have been contacted in regards to having a final average below 75% in one or more of your required courses. I wish to apologize as your grades are ok and your offer to the Faculty of Mathematics is not in jeopardy.” … “Again, I apologize for any anxiety this has caused you and we look forward to seeing you in the Fall. “

Anxiety, indeed!
At least I’m back in now (although I guess I technically never wasn’t), so I’m fine again. A small roller coaster, and I think my heart stopped when I read the email.

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I arrived home just in time to miss the ‘airline terrorist plot‘, which greatly delayed a lot of flights - especially to and from London and England, which was where my airplane was going to and leaving from (Heathrow airport in London.) Thank goodness for that, although for some of my friends that I met in Europe, it won’t be as easy, because some are leaving to go to home sometime today.

Popularity: 15% [?]