Teh College Life of Teh Bren

Back, after a long time

2009-01-28T16:14:00.001-05:00

Alright boys and girls.. we finally made it to 3B :)

Here's a post after a long hiatus.

.. :D

CUTC Parts 1 and 2

2006-03-07T22:21:00.000-05:00

So I totally forgot to post about CUTC. Here it is, ganked from my LJ.

@__@ Fweee. I wasn't actually expecting to get subsidized for the Conference, but half of the subsidies are left for the ME dept. O_o;

*insert love for Blackberries here* (I've quickly decided against getting one though @_@ Service is pricey)

The first keynote was from the Director of Tech Dev at Yahoo, and his presentation on the future of search, and I suppose that Yahoo!'s philosophies contrast to Google's (seminar today).

Lunch was served, although I wasn't really expecting it to be XD The best part was pulling Coca Cola cans out of a Pepsi cooler bin. I ended up eating lunch partially again with my mom... we had green curry.. I've never tried that before ^^ and I liked it O_O

I went to the ATI techshop and and that was interesting, played around with RenderMonkey (and watched people sitting beside me play Castle Wolfenstein and Need for Speed Underground II lol). Learnt a lot about Xerox and "big I little T" from the VP of Xerox Global Services.

The Microsoft Pavillion fairly impressive (NO BLUE SCREEN!! j/k xD... although there really WAS no BSOD) and we demoed Vista beta and were shown some of the code in the second part, which I didn't say for. Vista still looks pretty as ever, except everybody agrees it ripped off macs. But still pretty. And sluggish .__.;

TechShow was hilarious. Impromptu PI-offs xD

Today was similar. A little more technical than yesterday, but more peptalks, advertisments (PROPAGANDA!) and nanos. Yes, Nanos. The ENTIRE class of 2010 Nanotech Engineers came from UW today to attend the conference and the NanoTalk. O_O overwhelmed by Nanos. I met Michelle from that class ^^

Mike Lazaridus from RIM spoke about his company, the testing and technology that goes into making Blackberries and such. We were shown the Oprah video of everybody screaming and jumping up and down when she was listing off all the functionalities of the Blackberry "it's like a cell phone" *screams from audience* "you can check your e-mail" *audience screams and jumps up and down* etc. They looped the vid at the RIM info booth, too.

Seminar #2 was Google; the jist of their search algorithm and hardware; interesting facts about Google (free gourmet meals! on site massage parlour! flex hours and 20% of those you can work on your own project! ride bikes around the Googleplex! Google began with LEGO! <-personal favorite); blinky pins that read GOOGLE and light up with LEDs.

Lunch was good today, we got hot pasta intead of cold sandwiches like yesterday--the drinks were actually Pepsi, though :( Lunch was accompanied by a presentation from a Civil prof from UT regarding creativity.

...then Microsoft got on the stage and the video they showed was absolutely hilarious XD *shot of microsoft employees playing beach volleyball outdoors* commentary: "See these people, sweating away! Microsoft is, really, a sweatshop...!"

"You mean... you actually expect your employees to work for.... *gasp* free soda?!"

The presentation itself was very propagandous towards MSN. The speaker claimed how MSN was strengthening relationships between people and pretty much how it was making our lives better. :/ I sorta zoned out after that. ... I guess I *COULD* anecdote on how I met my estranged cousin over MSN last night, lol. Alan L (I actually DON'T know how to spell his last name, even though it's the same as mine Oo) attending SFU [(S!) F U! (S!) F U!] and is two months younger than me O_o although he looks about two years older.

...but I digress. xD

Seminar #3 was about Clockless Circuits. Not much more I can say about it except the demo was pretty funny, and I'll probably learn more about it in upper year ECE courses.

TechExpo was really interesting, but it seems like the majority of the tech sector is looking for softies. (WOE.) NORTEL seemed to be the only one looking for hardware engineers. Got lots of information on the other companies though :D

Tomorrow's got Keynotes from ATI and Amazon, and I have a seminar by Jim Elliott about Open Computing and Linux. xD

In summary: HILARY DUFF. xD

"Oh, and make sure you try out IE 7 and check out the new feature of 'tabbed browsing'!" - Microsoft speaker.

______

The last day of CUTC was fun, but I think most people were tiring of the Keynotes and seminars. I got a cute foam plush of the Linux penguin dressed up in a blue tux (hence it's called Blue Tux) to represent IBM.

The banquet was pretty good. Nice food xD Ceasar salad, chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed veggies, and a mousse thing with fruit in a martini glass for dessert. There was no dance this year though, because apparently some bad things had happened at the dance last year with alcohol. :S

All in all it was a good experience and maybe I'll go again next year, but that really depends on when and where it is, and if they have more non-software sponsors x3

CUTC 2006

2006-01-14T01:08:00.000-05:00

O_O Since when was Blogger a Google Tool?! O_O wow.

Attending CUTC. Will post more about it later :D

Re: Being Sickly

2005-12-03T22:28:00.000-05:00

So the doctor wasn't so sure that it was a virus after all, since I was still sick on Monday, and a virus should've been taken care of in a couple of days.

[EDIT: It was salmonella.]

Or, maybe my immune system is just that weak.

Anyway, it did eventually go away on it's own; they thought it might've been bacteria, or parasites though. :/ I'm glad I'm better now.

.__.; I failed both Module 4 and 5 of PDEng 25. The resubmit for Mod 4 was yesterday, and now I'm working on the Module 5 again. :3 Not really sure how I can make my response better... as I'm already rapidly approaching the word limit.

Work term evaluations have been completed! =)

Making plans to eat ramen and watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with Alex and Nikki and Sarah next next weekend XD It's gonna be great.

Sickly

2005-11-26T14:25:00.000-05:00

Sick, with a stomach virus this time. I've missed so much work x_X

I'm not allowed to eat any solid food for the weekend. .__.;

Oh... And I finally failed a PDEng module. Infact, I failed two of them...

Winter Again

2005-11-16T12:23:00.000-05:00

What're the chances that I need to contact the only professor on campus who doesn't have an e-mail address?!!

...Ironically, he's the one who teaches Intro to Society, Technology and Values.

Who would've ever though I'd wanna take that course ;)

Spring housing!

2005-11-15T17:48:00.000-05:00

It looks like I'll be living at MKV next term :D

(It has air conditioning :D)

PDEng!

2005-11-11T20:45:00.000-05:00

Three down!! (I passed Module 3!! XD) Six more to go!

To Do List... or lack thereof

2005-11-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

During the day when I'm at work, or even after work when I'm out somewhere, I'll think to myself, This is really something I should learn more about, and then make a mental note to look it up on the internet later...

But of course, the second I get inside my residence building I forget all about it, even if I remember that there was something I wanted to remember.

:/ I need to start keeping a to-do list, for work and for personal reasons. I guess the closest thing I have would be my 43 things.

New Glasses

2005-11-05T18:08:00.000-05:00

So, the day AFTER I made my last post (last Friday), my glasses broke during lunch time @_@ So I ended up going up to Optometry where they made me a new pair. $344.95!! My parents yelled at me for that. :3

I'll post pictures of my new look :D

I can't take Anthro 102... I e-mailed the prof requesting a course over-ride but he said that the class limit is firm. :( Hopefully I'll have better luck with the legal studies courses. I'll look into any thing else that I may take...

I also now have a part-time job on top of my full-time one... hehe the guy who was going around campus every week cleaning overhead projectors quit, so Abraham and I split up the work now and are paid extra for it.. something like 16 hours between the two of us, to clean about 100 overheads each... :3 I was hoping to get some done today, but it was UW Fall Preview day for the high school students, so Tony and I met up with Tony K from MTE2010, Geoff (Cervantes), and Dilan for wings at Molly Bloom's. Afterwards we gave Geoff a tour of some of the campus. Hehe.. it was good... although today was raining a bit, and Tony K was sick with a cold :(

Supposed to go to Mike's tonight for a pot-luck... but now Tony isn't feeling well either, with a stomach ache.. so I think I'll just stay at home for a while. :)

Non-Degree Strengthening Term

2005-10-27T16:23:00.000-04:00

So I can't take MSci 261 (Econ for Engineers), because it's already been included as one of our "core" courses... boo. I've requested if I can take LS 101 (intro to legal studies) instead. I'll have to get course overrides for all of these courses (except for Math) though, since they're all reserved for arts students... O_O AND ANTHRO IS FULL. O_O. LS102 is nearly full, too ;____; Sheesh. I'll be needing ANOTHER job next term just to keep me busy, if I only take the one math. Maybe I'll look into KIN classes.

Went to check up on Eric today for his first job, in OPT 347. He did alright, but seemed really nervous and I had to remind him to turn the amplifier on for sound ^^; There were four videos, and the prof (?) just kinda handed them to him and told him to play it in order, not too much guidance there.

I saw Jash today at work!!! It was really nice talking to her again. She got her hair styled and her new look just looks amazing xD She's such a gorgeous girl. Really saddens me when I'm reminded of the wonderful people who I won't be graduating with. But it'll be alright, the Peeping TRONs have some really nice people who have welcomed me. Maybe I should invite some of them out for dinner one day hehe. But right now everyone is busy with midterms.

Tony already became the site administrator for their website O_o; Everyone go visit, although we may soon implement user-authentication to ensure only Trons are allowed on the private forums --> www.tron2010.com (Domain generiously supplied by Jarek). If you want to see the flash animation, go to the original URL www.tron.co.nr.

My eyes look really freaky. I went to my follow-up optometrist appointment this afternoon (an intern named Andra saw me), and had my pupils dilated. Now my eyes are mostly black with just a hint of brown trim. My "spectacle prescription" (that's what it says at the top of the paper!!) has changed a bit since the last time I got my eyes checked. Maybe I'll get a new pair of glasses.

Feeling kind of badly because I had a couple of people on my floor fined for missing my mandatory floor meeting last night. ._.; Oh wells.

More to come soon, I promise. :D!

Posting more often for D <- :D

2005-10-22T15:29:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it turns out that my first payment wasn't lessened for the sick day I missed, but because I got taxed. CPP and EI. >_> I shall try and claim that back if I remember to.

D said I should post more often so here is a post :P Convocation is ending in half an hour and Abraham is working today to go help the tear down for the A/V equipment.

Other than that most is quiet on the work front... On Thursday I went to check a first time operator (for the first time lol) and got to sit in a third year Kin class (I don't remember which one it was) but it was interesting, makes me want to take Kin courses. Speaking of that I still have to go choose some back up courses in case Karen Dyck can't get me the ones I want (LS 102 (criminology); MSCI 261 (econ for engineers); ANTH 102 (anthro) ).

I'm going to be taking MATH 137 for voluntary strenghtening, since it's the equivalent of MATH 116. ;__; Stupid calc >_>

Breakfast

2005-10-01T13:48:00.000-04:00

... I haven't eaten today yet. Trying to con D into going for lunch with me, hehe.

I left my brownie from a few days ago in the fridge at work >_< I may go retrieve that, I don't want it to go bad.

First pseudo-paycheck! Well, payday. :D I got pay docked for that sick day, though :(

I now know how to operate a 16 mm projector! _A_ projector. Haha... Apparently that one is a little different from others.. ^^;

Before I go, I'd like to take a moment to redirect you all to My Engineering Blog and My Engineering Forum. It's our pilot project to promote Mechatronics, and Engineering in general. More details to come about the MAP!

Rankings & Floor Management!

2005-09-17T15:40:00.000-04:00

O_o; Surprisingly enough, it looks like about 14 or so other people failed with me. I suppose some of them will petition and be grated a conditional promotion, or drop out of the class altogether.

Life in the WCRI is QUIET. I usually leave around 7:30 a.m. in the morning, and I'm not back until after dinner, around 9 or 10 p.m. I've become Floor Manager for North A4-1!

We had a meeting on Thursday to discuss our duties. It seems like I'm the only new member amongst the FMs. o_o! Hopefully it won't be too stressfull ^_^. My roomates and I have divided up the Can Cleans as well--we'll each contribute to a small portion of the cleaning duties each week.

Nya~ I goes back go PDEng25 now. >_

Roomies

2005-09-11T15:12:00.000-04:00

Ohh.. I think one of my roomates is moving in.

o__o

2005-09-08T23:55:00.000-04:00

"That's very um. bizzare" <- Derek M. in response to me telling him about what's in OPT o_o;

OneweekonthejobandIhavealreadyseendeadbodiesatwork

Whee new job!

2005-09-03T13:41:00.000-04:00

Rawrwr this job requires me to get up uber EARLY. At least I'm living in the WCRI right beside campus. I've probably already told those of you who are going to bother reading this blog about my job, lol but I'll do it again just for the sake of having it in print.

This fall term I'm working for UW's Audio-Visual Department, as a maintenance technician~ I've been given a MAGICAL KEY. :D First couple of days I followed people around and became more familiar with the podium equipment. Derek had to run off due to double booking, and I even got to show a prof how use the equipment all by myself :D I was told I'll mostly be working with Keith.

There's a blackboard in the office right beside my desk (YES I GET MY OWN DESK!! And my own computer!!!) that has everyone's name on it (Derek, Keith, Randy, Marcel, Keyvan and myself) so we can let everyone know where we are at all times.... not that we really need it, since we each carry a walky-talky (sp?) anyway.

I'm currently sharing the desk and computer with the previous term's co-op student, who's going to be around at least until Friday, when he has to demonstrate to some professors how to use the new podiums. The other co-op student is going to start work on Tuesday I believe.

Teehee~~ Random things I've done is learn what soldering is (O_O and my dad apparently owns a soldering gun thing....) been told some things about Audio-Visual equipment (duh.), some AutoCad (guh I forgot most of it...) and learn where random rooms like MC1058 are. xD

Hm... Learnt a lot of people's names @__@ half of which I keep forgetting XD Some I haven't even met yet... Our "big boss" came in yesterday, and he gave me a UW lanyard :) Everyone's been taking me around showing me this and that.

Next week's frosh week, and there are bound to be presentations and things for which I will be needed muwahaha. It'll be busy all next week to prepare for the start of the busiest term on campus. We were all anticipating a half day of work yesterday, but that didn't happen as there was too much work that still had to be done.

Looking forward to the start of term XD

Note to self: visit the bookstore and buy an agenda...

Zomg

2005-08-22T23:31:00.000-04:00

1B is over and I have failed Circuits with a final grade of 32 and I have a 55.5 average and thus I'm failing the term.

Bai bai MTE09.

One Week

2005-05-11T12:13:00.000-04:00

One week back at school, and I've already pulled an all-nighter! Fixed up the work term report a bit, took a cab to Staples to get it bound (since Kinkos was overwhelmed with requests for orders), and then took a cab back to campus to hand it in, and promptly slept through all of Monday's classes.

Yesterday was much better; I hope the circuits quiz answer was acceptable. The psych lecture last night was pretty enjoyable, given mine and Matthew's quite.. random thoughts.

Missed this morning's classes though--I think I'm sick from stress. >_<

Off to materials. ~ bai bai

1A Complete.

2005-04-28T00:50:00.000-04:00

Friday was the last day of work, and we finally got our photograph.

From left to right: Arnold, Keith, Timothy, Jim, me, Richard, and Calvin.

:D I stayed up all night on Thursday to finish my work term report so that Danny could have a copy. I think that I may edit it a bit before handing it in to UW, though.

Bye-bye Tatung of Canada~ I will miss your kitting~

Because I don't want to forget

2005-04-11T23:59:00.000-04:00

..and party because I find it hilarious. XD

Me: *mentions something about the band member bios* <- bio, as in biography
Timothy: BIOS? <- refering to the computer BIOS

Calvin: It's stuck.
Me: Use WD-40!
Him: ...Western Digital 40 Gig hard drive????

Me: *says something about Half Life fanfics*
Him: ...fics as in fiction, right?
Me: Yeah.
Him: ...about.... Fans? OHH! I thought you meant FANS! *points to CPU fan on table*

The job's totally killing us with horrible references to computer things.

2005-03-30T14:43:00.000-05:00

So kitting is over. Maggie treated Arnold, Keith, Jim and I to BBT *__* so nice of her.

Danny approved my proposed workterm report topics. :S He wants the work term report by this week, haha... but not like that's about to happen. Since I had two of my wisdom teeth extracted on Monday, I won't be going back to work until at least early next week, either :S

;__; PDEng Module 7 is due tonight.

Kitting is ba~ck

2005-03-15T20:17:00.000-05:00

So for the next three days, I'll be kitting~ ;o; I asked Timothy to take over the three computers that I haven't finished testing yet, and I won't be doing repairs until at least next week.

We hired two 'kitting professionals' apparently... Instead of the originally intended 7 or 8 :S

Only 12 computers

2005-02-28T22:47:00.000-05:00

Only a dozen were received today >< And we finished them ALL. I only completed five today (+ one on hold.. DAMN YOU BEST-TEK (sp?) SPS.)

Eh.. So tomorrow morning I'm guessing we're going to be making... boxes... for.. skidding.. :S

Boxology here we come!

Skidding is Back!

2005-02-27T22:30:00.000-05:00

...well, soon to be anyway. For the past two days at work, Jim's been counting and quality checking the keyboard labels. :S At least we have different.. models this time...? Maybe we did last time too and I just didn't know.

But yeah... Boxology!!!

Oh, I have to add. We've made amendments to the way we fill out our daily reports--not only do we have to state the S/Ns, we have to include the Models, and CSO #s. I usually say which ones are on hold already, so that isn't something new that I'll need to remember for tomorrow.

The report sheets need to be changed so that all this information actually fits on the lines--and more lines need to be added (but then Timothy would be compelled to fix more >< !!!)

I was so stressed at work on Friday that my hands were shaking too much for me to even use a screwdriver properly. I can't keep up...!!! >_<

Revised Work Hours

2005-02-17T22:54:00.000-05:00

Instead of 8:30 - 5pm, we're now in from 9 - 6 .__.;;; The number of working hours is still unchanged (7.5 hours), we just have an extended one hour lunch instead of half an hour.

So in relevance of celebrating our longer lunch, we've gone out to McDonalds and FMP to eat lunch 8D Yey! No more fighting for the microwave~ There aren't even enough places to sit in the lunch room now that EVERYBODY has lunch at the same time :s

I no longer have to deal with high school traffic. However, the time I leave my house just about coincides with the time the school bus arrives just outside my street to pick up the elementary school kids. >_< If I don't beat the bus, I'll most likely be late for work ._.;

Co-op Interview. Pwnt.

2005-02-11T19:37:00.000-05:00

Ms. Joan Lam came and visited us on Wednesday, and saw each of us in turn, alphabetically ordered by last name. All I have to say is.. wow.

She asked the usual questions about PDEng, work, what I liked, what I didn't like, work term report, etc. Here's the catch--PDEng staff asked each co-ordinator to ask the students for feedback on the program, but she didn't know anything concrete about PDEng. I don't really blame her though, she's just doing her job and asking us about PDEng as instructed.

A little while later, she continues on to ask me about the work term report, and I tell her that I've gone through the outline, but not very thoroughly--There were still things that I was unsure about and I didn't want to make it seem like I knew the manual inside out-- and she retorts that I'd have to do that before we can have an 'intelligent discussion' about the work term report. -_- well, *pardon* me that PDEng links me to something/gives an assignment extraneous that doesn't pertain to the MAJORITY OF FIRST YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS. I asked her why the link was there, and she couldn't really give me an answer other than "I... don't know about... that."

Besides. I'm the only person that I know of who even REMOTELY knows that the manuals exist. -___-

Well okay I just double checked, and I'm wrong. The links are just to the manual, not to the specific first year section. However--if she wants to discuss PDEng with us, she should at least know what it is. Or PDEng staff shouldn't ask lackeys to figure out their problems for them, when there are about 800 dissatisfied students with the program.

But it seems that professor MacGregor is taking our complaints lightly. I'll have to see the result of the meeting she had with Mike.

Don't get me wrong--I actually kind of like PDEng. I like how it's practically a guidance system to help us through our work term. There is material in the courses that I would not otherwise have the initiative to learn about on my own, and it's not enough pressure to make me absolutely loathe it. I've passed each of the modules on the first try (with the exception of the first forum errors) .

My only concern is that it is *way* too time consuming. It's taking up much more than the 2-3 hours/week that we were lead to believe it would require.

However, there seems to be some backwards correlation between a person's class ranking and his module completion success rate ;)

Am supposed to go to David's today with Isabel after dinner, but when I called her after work today she seemed really out of it, and then I didn't catch half of the conversation due to poor reception and co-workers yelling right beside me >_< I'd call her but I don't want to bother her if she's doing homework or sleeping. I'll get ahold of her later ^^;; or we can not go out tonight.

Ohhh and PS. new CAH is blue and shiny. And 300 GB hard drive is silver and shiny. 8D (who says nobody needs 300 gigs of pr0n!)

Two for Two

2005-02-03T19:20:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I last updated, ne? A lot of things have happened, and yet not in the sense that I've realized anything new that I didn't know a month prior to. Getting over the finalisation of my break up, with details that I shan't divulge into here.

A lot of music that I've been listening to lately contain this... monotony and I'm still looking for a new beat, something different to listen to--so if anybody has good music, please pimp it my way 8D

320 GByte HDD coming soon. 8D

Byte me and RAM it

2005-01-23T17:06:00.000-05:00

That ingenious little dorky website made me realize just how much I regret not having many mementos from my 1A term. I only have a small handful of polaroid photographs of Derek, Tony and Irwin, (and Pink-chan) and if it counts, I may still have those digital photos that Tony took of machinery in the shop for one of the final MTE graphics assignments.

I'd like to buy a digita and/or film camera sometime this term, so that I don't miss any more important moments.

Oh, and I never knew what the giant digital countdown in POETS was a countdown to the IRS until I noticed it on the BMARI site 8D

... I can't wait 8D That is, assuming MTE 08 passes CEAB accredation standards >__<

It's Saturday

2005-01-22T12:34:00.000-05:00

My alarm woke me up at 7:30, and it took me a little while to register that today was Saturday, and that I didn' t have to go to work. >_< So I found Tony's SMS message that I managed not to notice even though my phone is *on* my bed and set on vibrate mode, and then rolled over and went back to sleep.

Weekends are good 8D It's snowing pretty heavily outside, and I don't think mum's going to work today--which unfortunately means that I probably won't be able to go out, either :S Oh well, everyone's either far away and/or busy.

:(

But Calvin and his affinity for kittens is cute. ^^

I passed out at work >_<

2005-01-20T23:04:00.000-05:00

...Yeah :S Everything went all yellow-ish and tunnel-visiony and I felt all numb... and when I couldn't stay focused enough to test a floppy drive and didn't have enough motor skills left to take a CD out of an optical drive, I went to call for help.. (I later found out the CD was Half Life 2. XD!!!!)

and went to Timothy, him being the closest to me, and I told him, "Tim, I'm gonna pass out..." and he kinda looked at me in disbelief and said something along the lines of "O_O You're kidding" and VOOM down I went :S I came to and everybody had come out of the office, and Maggie got me some hot water and pain killers. Arnold and Jim missed the whole thing.

I took the rest of the day off ^^;;; Took a three hour nap when I came home.

Hehee.. on another note, Timothy forgot his lunch today, so we went to McDonalds for lunch with Arnold and Keith... XD Learnt that Keith is from Jamaica and has a Jamaican accent (I wanna hear a Chinese kid speak with that accent!) and that Timothy went to a private school :P Prep. XD

Oh, and Danny gave us an actual quota today for how many computers we have to fix.. We're not allowed to spend over an hour on each machine -_- so we have to fix over seven a day now :S

Pah.

I can barely manage that, and I don't even have packing or shipping to do like everybody else. Richard's workload has just doubled now that John is gone (oh, and I think he's Shu Jin, since that punch card was blank for today and yesterday was his last day) . So now there's an extra repair bench, and I'm thinking that either Keith or Arnold are going to get ... de/promoted to repairs, most likely Arnold since he'll be free after the LCDs. Keith I'm not sure, b/c now that Dick's gone, Maggie needs someone helping her with the data entry.

I don't want to get fired. :'(

This makes Seven

2005-01-19T22:57:00.000-05:00

Uggghhhggles to PDEng. That's the "Professional Development for Engineering Students", if I haven't already bitched to you about it yet... It's basically an online course that engineering co-op students have to complete during their five work terms. It includes material on engineering laws, ethics, professionalism, etc. that's supposed to help us become professional licensed engineers.) I finished Module 2 yesterday though, and it's due in an hour-- and I've even completed one of the activities for Module 3. 8D but yeah apparently there are more modules to come this work term still >_< Pah.

Ahaha.. Danny hired ARNOLD! He started yesterday around four o'clock, right after his interview. He's been helping Jim, so he's getting OT too.

Spent three hours on the phone with Tony helping him with PDEng-- and he still failed the first quiz XD The only other person who passed it on the first try was Jon (Er, Bily tells me so--I don't know who Jon is myself.) Helped Bily over MSN, too.

I think I dozed off at work today while running the super long tests :S People really need to stop sending in their units for "service" when their computers work just fine >_< The 'more info' on-holdcart is already full, and Frank even had to put a unit on the very top of the running cart... haha..

And so this makes seven.

(Er... Someone got... fired yesterday. .__. I really really hope he doesn't start firing the co-ops. :: scared ::)

CS co-op :)

2005-01-15T16:12:00.000-05:00

After interviews all morning, Danny hired Keith yesterday, a co-op student also from computer science at UW. That makes two people in each department now-- two mechs, two CS and two comp eng... He's helping Jim with his work, and I'm kind of jealous that they have access to restricted areas lol... but not by much since it's just a couple of rooms and the 'cage' area where they lock all the things like computer parts and instruction manuals >_<

Hehe. So far all the guys at work have been really nice. Some are obviously more.. outwardly ambitious than others, I guess I could say. They're really helpful XD

Especially Tim and his l337 hax0rz skillz in taking off CPU fans. XD

Blah.

2005-01-13T20:04:00.000-05:00

screw.. unscrew.... screw.. unscrew. screw.. unscrew.

repeat.

PC Repairs!

2005-01-11T19:26:00.000-05:00

Spent part of yesterday afternoon training with Frank, but he had to finish some priority machines so I ended up changing my first mobo by myself XDD

We finished the last eight skids today, and then I started repairs on a new computer. Other than the power supply being blown, I had to replace the mobo as well >_> after spending three hours determining that it really was the mother board, since we don't have a spare to test for that and I had to isolate that it wasn't the RAM or the HDD or the CPU that was faulty >_< Rawr. And in the end the tests took an hour, and the unit is on hold currently while I wait for a shipment of power supplies to arrive. -__- Oh, and I found a StarCraft CD in the CD drive XD Owner may have burnt out his power and mobo playing SC :P

I spent the rest of the day helping Calvin with receiving, since he had two cartfuls to receive, and we never did have time to receive the parts.

._. and I realize that magnetized electric screw drivers are teh rockz0rs.

I think I'll be doing my job description soon...

2005-01-08T00:25:00.000-05:00

:S! Over 1200 boxes today... the pads on my fingers are all raw from sticking that many labels on cardboard boxes all day.

Maggie says that we'll continue with the boxes on Monday morning, run the first eight skids in the afternoon, finish the other eight on Tuesday and then after that, Richard and I are to start repairs. O_o she didn't say what I'd be repairing though-- I'm sort of hoping I'll get to help Jim with the LCDs. Either fixing the PCs or the LCDs would be fine by me though-- as long as I'm not folding keyboard boxes or counting French manuals ><

Turns out I forgot to sign out yesterday when I left.... so I had to ask Danny to sign my card again... Thank fully he didn't seem upset by it--he did tell me to talk to him the next time I had a problem with my time card ^^;;

One full week that Eric hasn't shown up for work. We think that it's probable that he'll come back and demand his pay for the four days he worked that wasn't on our last (first? lol) paycheck, though.

Getting a rabbit tomorrow. Going early with Isabel to buy a cage and some essentials 8D G'nite!

Note to self

2005-01-06T19:09:00.000-05:00

First kit:
2500 give or take 1000
1599
971
1080 (today)
16 skids = 1920 (tomorrow)

I want to keep track of just how many of these French keyboards we'll pack in the next four months.

I remember now 8D

2005-01-06T18:45:00.000-05:00

I remember what I was going to write about yesterday XD

Yesterday morning, I was twenty minutes early for work and ended up being the first person other than my manager there. He was busy in the back of the warehouse doing something, so he asked me to unlock the backdoor for the other employees. XD I had so much fun looking through the little closed circuit feed video and pressing the 'key' button everytime someone buzzed the door bell XD The system automatically turned on the video monitor everytime someone buzzed, I just never realized there was a camera right above the door. I also turned on the audio monitor, too XD

So yes. I amuse myself with trivial things 8D ~~When all you do is fold boxes and count booklets at work it doesn't take much to amuse you >_<~~

:( Maggie said that we weren't doing our work fast enough. Not in those words, but she said that we should've been able to finish the manuals yesterday -- she said she spent 10 minutes on every 120, and the fastest that Richard and I could manage yesterday was 15 minutes per 120 >< So today we worked our butts off and skipped afternoon break to continue with our work... we ended up finishing with over an hour to spare before the end of the day, and she told us to fold 180 more boxes ._.;;; Half an hour before work ended though, Danny came over and told us to stop and pack up the cardboard, and (Inesrt Chinese accent here) "clean! clean!!!"

Apparently HP is coming to the factory tomorrow to audit us .... so we went around with cloths and spray bottles of alcohol wiping every dusty surface we could find ^^;; and then Jim did a little presentation on how to use the new PC Doctor software and the new parallel serial port loopback hardware for testing ports. (note to self: Remember to burn something to test optical drives? o_o) and handed out packages to everybody--of course, everybody but Richard and myself >< We all know it's just for show for tomorrow anyway, so that HP will think that we're efficient and all. And that we're actually fixing their broken Compaqs -_- Danny says that we'll get it next time.

... which reminds me, I should tell him sometime that I'll need to start fixing computers before our co-op cordinator comes to visit. He's dealt with UW students before though, so I guess he should know the procedure.. unless this whole on-site visiting thing is something new with the new co-op system.

16 skids tomorrow. .___.;;;; Unless we forego it to please HP instead. It wouldn't do to let them see how much we screw up now, would it XD

I swear, Brampton does NOT need 5 thousand French Canadian Keyboards.

...CANADA does not need 5 thousand French Canadian keyboards, let alone 50 thousand :@ and all only "a utiliser avec le modele Compaq Presario" -__-

"Skitting" at work

2005-01-05T22:06:00.000-05:00

We ran eight skids today... and I must say I'm proud that it's the first time since I've been working there that nothing's gone wrong, NOTHING. No books were misplaced, no missing CDs, no extra instruction manuals or pamphlets. 8D Usually, for the other 4 thousand keyboard kits we've assembled, there have always been one per every 120 that was missing a book, or a CD, or a remote, or batteries (0.100 on the electric scale!), a pamphlet (0.05), a MOUSE (0.200) ... etc.... so today when all eight went without incident, I was all RAWR RAWR 8D 8D 8D!!

We suspect that Eric's quit already. We received our first paycheck last Thursday, and I wasn't there Friday or Monday, and he hasn't been there these past two days at least. He allegedly spent the weekend with his girlfriend, and Calvin and I were joking around that his disappearance had something to do with that. XD We were all aware of the fact that he was particularly disliking the job, and he had mentioned on several occasions that he probably would quit Computer Engineering and the University of Waterloo all together and go to UT to study social sciences or something, and to eventually study Law.

There was something else that I wanted to talk about to... but I can't remember it for the life of me now XD So it'll have to wait until later. *wavies*

2000!

2005-01-04T21:53:00.000-05:00

;o; I miss the inside jokes we had with the MTE girls.

I'm just _lost_. XD

2000 boxes folded by Dick and Richard today. I put the little French labels on each of them. Six HOURS straight of box making.

>____< I work in a sweatshop.

End of Holiday..

2005-01-03T22:49:00.000-05:00

These past two weeks that I have been working, the high school students have been having Christmas and New Year holiday. Today was the first day back at classes, and since the high school is right across the street from the warehouse where I work, and work starts the same time as homeroom, I'll have to go to work a little earlier to avoid the traffic congestion at the intersections ^^;;

The long weekend's been fun, even though I ended up not being able to see my boy today ;o;

More updates soon!

Third day off

2005-01-03T13:54:00.000-05:00

I have the day off from work today =) I'm being lazy and spending it watching soap operas on TV. And later I will probably continue watching anime from yesterday. XD

Obligatory First Post

2005-01-02T16:30:00.001-05:00

So here is my first post in "teh college blog"... even though I'm technically not in school right now ^^; There's a summary at the end, feel free to read that if you don't want to read the lonoog post XD

The day after tomorrow marks the official beginning of the work term, although I've started working already. For my first work term, I'm working as a PC Technician for TATUNG Canada, a Taiwanese based electronics company. I had originally applied for the job posting on JobMine (the school's employment portal, for those of you who aren't familiar with it) and they had already hired the four people they had said they would. About two weeks later, they e-mailed me personally and requested that I come in for an interview. The Monday after I moved back home, I went for the interview and then on Tuesday morning, I started my first day at work. ^_^ The hourly salary is next to minimum wage, but I have a job and that's all that matters. Five of my co-workers are also students from UW: three in Computer Engineering (Tim, Eric and Calvin), another in Mechanical Engineering (Jim) and one in Computer Science o.O (Richard).

First (1A) term was pretty eventful. It consisted of the expected: met new people, (attempted to) learn some new things, lived on my own away from parents for the first extended amount of time (although they did visit every weekend), grew up a little, gained a little bit of responsibility and confirmed the fact that I can't manage my finances at all, let alone well ^^;

I didn't Frosh--and I don't have the famous yellow hard hat like every other Engineering student, but I used that first week on campus to familiarize myself with the place on my own anyway. Student loans occupied the majority of my time anyway, but that was all sorted out in the end. Towards the middle of this work term I'll have to re-confirm with the government my employment and study status, so that they loan me more money (hopefully!!) for the Spring term.

There are 119 days left until Spring term lectures start. Four months to work, and save a little bit of money, and ... hopefully next term my marks won't be as dismal. First year doesn't count towards our GPA anyway (or so I hear) and thank goodness I only needed a 50 to pass this term. Every subsequent term from now on I'll need 60s to pass ><

As they are now, my grades are: Math 116, Calculus 1 for Engineers: D; ChE 102, Chemistry for Engineers: D; MTE 100, Mechatronics Engineering 100: B; GenE 121, General Engineering Digital Computation: B; Math 115, Linear Algebra for Engineers: B.

:S The average is a C, but that's okay I passed! XD I wasn't really expecting to pass Chemistry, but I believe they bell-curved it. :( Some of my friends didn't pass several courses, and I wish them all the best in clearing those off their transcripts as soon as possible, since our courses next term have prerequisites.

And for those of you who want to read the summary (some of these I didn't elaborate on but I will if you guys request):
- fried rice with some of the UHS gang during Frosh week
- writing the alphabet 14 times as the first homework assignment
- the microwave blowing up
- ELPE
- Math Prep
- hanging out at Martin and Tony's suites
- coming home only twice (Thanksgiving and Commencement)
- getting drunk(? O_O) for the first time from jello vodka and crashing at Tony's place
- living away from home
- going to Timmy's at 4 in the morning
- missing half of lectures after midterms
- LEGO Design Project
- blowing up the microwave AGAIN
- eating Pho with the girls
- Hooked on Tronics/Tron and Quartered
- RezNet
- Chill 'n Grill
- Magical Trevor and Kenya
- dead baby jokes
- Martin's depressing music

Test post Test Post

2005-01-02T13:05:00.000-05:00

TESTING! 8D