Back from Alberta

So, I am back from racing in Alberta, I will tell about that, with pictures and results later. Now that I am back I am back to school work, and now I get to write a 10-12 page paper on Anti-State Terrorism and the Jihadist Movement in the United States. On top of that I need to start my CMPT-383 assignment and finish off my CMPT-475 assignment.

Once again I changed my mind on the topic of my classes for the fall. Now my five choices are: CMPT 470 (Web-based Systems), 456 (Web Search + Information Retrieval) and 412 (Computational Vision). CRIM 357 (Forensic Anatomy) and 315 (Restorative Justice). I opted to drop HSCI-120 (Intro to Human Sexuality) but I plan to sit in on lectures. CRIM-416 (Death Scene Investigations) does not seem to be offered anymore and CRIM 451 (Advanced Techniques in Forensics) is at the same time as CMPT 412. CRIM 315 is distance ed and seems pretty easy, just write one paper and do a journal and I decided to take another CMPT 4xx class to finish off the number of CMPT 4xx classes I need and that Brian Funt who is teach CMPT 412, his reviews make him seem not too bad.

I am also looking at getting hosting, I know most of you have hosting (I am just using a free wordpress host) but I woud like to get my own. Who would you recommend (besides Dreamhost) if you have hosting?

But now I am back to homework.

Che Guevara

Isn’t it ironic when people wear Che Guevara t-shirts with designer jeans?

“A long time ago, some college idiots thought it would be “cool” and “rebellious” to idolize Che Guevara. Then some capitalist businessman pig noticed this, and realized he could make a fuckton of money by selling Che Guevara’s image. And since he was a dead communist, Che couldn’t do anything about it. Sometimes you can find a few retards who have Che’s face on a shirt, yet have no clue who he is. These are among the lowest forms of IRL n00bs, and can be disposed of in the most humiliating and lulz-generating manner possible.”

Midterms are Done

I guess this post is going to be a big collection of thoughts on random subjects, this is a blog after all.

A while back I made a post on some basic gym ettiquete but I think it is time that I come up with a new updated list of gym etiquette, maybe people will start following it.

1. After you’re done with a machine, reset the weights. It’s just common respect and courtesy to the next user.
2. Wipe the sweat off the machine when you are done. I don’t not like being covered in a plethora of people’s sweet when I am working out.
3. Don’t bang weights together, it is annoying to everyone else working out to hear how you don’t have control over your weights, and it damages the dumbells as well.
4. Don’t grunt and groan as you are working out, I do not want to know what you sound like when you crank one out.
5. Put your damn weights away when you are done, I should not have to stand around for ten minutes waiting to use weights and then finding out that you are done with them.
6. Don’t spend more than an hour or so in the gym, I should not be able to do my entire workout if I started after you and am able to finish before you. You are not gaining anything you are just tearing more muscle than you can heal.
7. Don’t go to the gym everyday and work on the same muscle groups, again you are not giving yourself time to heal, you are only hurting yourself.
8. Don’t bother trying to lift more than you can, it is unsafe, you are going to hurt yourself, and it is much more beneficial to do less weights but more reps. You need to mix up your hypertrophy with strength conditioning.

I am sure I could give more but those are the main ones that bug me right now.

Friday I had two midterms, CMPT 383 and CMPT 413. Unlike previous years, and I started doing this last semester, I properly studied for both of them and I don’t think I did too bad. All week I had been studying for them so I was well prepared. Last weekend was pretty epique though. On Friday Jesse, his friend Anton and my roommate Robin went to Lighthouse Point in West Van where we did some rock climbing on the side of a cliff on the ocean. It was pretty sweet.

Saturday night I headed downtown where I have never seen such weird shit. It was some random Anime Convention so there were so many people dressed up in the most ridiculous shit. I also met this cool homeless guy who had a sign that said, “I bet you $1 that you will read this sign.” Since I don’t skip out on bets that I lose I gave him a dollar. He told me another line that he uses, “Lend me $20? I will pay you back later.” Sunday morning I went out to the valley where I rode my bike around Barnston Island between Surrey and Pitt Meadows. I also walked across the Golden Ears bridge as it was open for the first day, but only to foot traffic.

Back to CRIM 413, hours before the midterm someone posts on First Class (since it is a distance ed course) asking:

If we have to memorize all these terms and Islamic terminology for the mid-term I’m gonna start my own revolution. Is it necessary to know all this? I can’t even pronounce most of it let alone memorize and rewrite it on paper…

Now this is a fourth year class, and since it is criminology all students have to be declared meaning they have done a number of crim classes. I was completely shocked on how much of an idiot this guy, Michael Lis, was as this is what we have had to do in every criminology class so far. I pointed this out to him and his response:

I’ve taken more crim classes than you so don’t be smug

I really wanted to say that “repeats don’t count” so I chose not to argue back. Yet other people decided that it was completely unacceptable to attack him. I can’t believe people actually agreed with him that we should not have to memorize terms.

Idiots…

Fall Enrollment

So I got my enrollment date for the fall (July 8 @ 9:30 am) so I decided to quickly take a look at the classes I want to take that would fit in with my schedule. So far I have:

• CMPT-431 Distributed System (with Vaughan, he’s a good prof).
• CMPT-354 – Databases (Will be easy, but I don’t want to do it).
• CMPT 456 – Web Based Retrieval (I think it’s like a search engine class)
• CMPT-470 – Web Based Information System (Websites with PHP basically)
• HSCI-120 – Intro to Human Sexuality (Apparently it’s a really good course)
• PSYC-X99 – Mind, Brains and Society (I need it for CRIM, and part of the grading has a debate portion )
• CRIM-312 – Criminological Perspectives on Sociological Problems.
• CRIM-357 – Forensic Anatomy
• CRIM-384 – Crime and Literature (It’s a W course and at the same time as CMPT 470 )
• CRIM-416 – Death Scene Investigation
• CRIM-451 – Advanced Topics in Forensic Sciences

I will probably find more that I will want to take. Currently my top 4/5/6 choices, I think, will be from CMPT 431/456/470, HSCI 120/PSYC X99, CRIM 357/416/451.

Twatswatter

If you like Dave Matthews Band you are what is wrong with this world. Someone has a difference of opinion as you and you feel personally attacked instead of dealing with the bigger issue: you listen to shitty music!

Well I sure have been busy the last few weeks with school, work, and rowing. I managed to get a new PB on the 2K erg test, 6:45.4. It is ok but I know I slacked a bit and I think that I could get around 6:39. Only 20 more seconds till I am in the competitive range for Worlds. We are going to Calgary next week for the Alberta Opens; I will be racing there in a single.

I hate coaching adults. Adults do not listen, they think they know everything so there is no point in coaching them. Adult Recreational rowers are the worst. Not only can you not coach them, they don’t do anything you tell them. If you do tell them something they just question you, and if it is not something to prevent them from getting hurt they won’t do it. They don’t care about the club’s equipment, going faster or other rowers in their boat.

Americans also like to be different in every way, even in rowing. In rowing there is a category called Novice which is for people who have only rowed for a year or less. That category is standard around the world, that is except for America. Novice rowing there is for people who have only been at university for a year. This means you can have olympians in the novice boat, such as the two german medalists in the University of Washington Novice 8+.

Of course Americans also call rowing, “crew”. They say they do “crew” and that they are on the “crew team” (which is a contradiction since the word crew implies you are on a team already). UDub does this, Cal Berkely does this and so do the Ivy League schools like Princeton (just to give a few examples).

Well I need to go hack up an old 8+, pics for that will come soon.

For the Fat and Lazy

I behold to you, an instrument that allows you to wipe your ass with a stick.

I’m not shitting you (pun intended).

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

While I am not in Europe right now, seeing a lot of cool cities and exploring all over I am still keeping busy, mostly with rowing.

I recently bought a bike so I could ride a lot more and so I wouldn’t have to drive anywhere. It has been only a week but so far I am quite glad that I have. Now it seems that the three of us in Das Rowhaus have managed to collect six bikes among the three of us.

That means between the three of us we each have one road bike and one cross country mountain bike.

Clearly in the picture there are only five bikes, but we do have six.

Update de la semaine.

Well today had two interesting set of races, the World Rowing Cup and the NCAA finals. Canada did decently, taking 2nd and 3rd in a number of races, the Lightweight Women and Men’s double, the Men’s Quad and the Men’s Pair. Great Britain wiped the floor winning every race. While in the NCAA’s Stanford won in their Varsity 8 which allowed them to win NCAA’s.

Which leads to the SFU Rowing Club, some interesting stuff happening there. First of all, because SFU is *trying* to get into the NCAA (which I don’t support for many reasons) they need to balance out what they spend on the football team as a result of Title IX. This means they want the Women to become a varsity sport. This is pretty cool as it will mean we will get more money, better equipment and dedicated coaches. While the men are not going to go varsity, this is not a big deal since men’s rowing isn’t in the NCAA. That is why there are the IRA’s and the ACRA which is something I would like to see the men in eventually.

Other than that, we have been doing some fund raising recently and so we have some money, there has been some discussion on what to do with it. It has been decided that we are going to buy a brand new Hudson Middleweight Coxed Four with Pair Riggers. This will set us back about $20,000 but with the money we have earned last few months and the fund raisers we will be doing we should be able to pay it off in a few months. We get to paint it however we want and I am pushing to have flames painted on. We did a liquor store this weekend, basically all we do is sit in front of a liquor store, smile at people and say hi, they feel bad and give us their change. We are able to make a lot of money out of it. We only spent a few hours on Friday and Saturday and made about $500.

I also got a job (that’s non-military). A local rowing club, the Inlet Rowing Club has hired me on to work for them, as well as another rower on my crew. It’s a pretty easy job, basically all I do is odd jobs around the boat house and coach. Last few weeks we have been cleaning and fixing boats, sandpaper-ing an old rusted boat rack, repainted it and put padding on it. Now we are supposed to recruit high school students to start rowing so we have to go to a bunch of schools in the Tri-cities area. Throughout the summer I will also be coaching learn-to-rows so I am going to try and earn my National Coaching Certificate Level I.

In terms of rowing personally for me, it is has been great. I row at Burnaby lake still five or six times a week (I should be in bed now as I row in seven and a half hours). I told the coach there that I want to do U23’s so he has been giving me more attention this last few weeks which is great. It has been really warm lately so I have been practicing in my uni-suit and soon I will have a really awkward tan-line. With summer comes summer racing and in four weeks we will be going to Calgary for the Alberta Open regatta. That will be a fun trip, plus I am going to do a side trip down to Drumheller. My last race I did really bad because of the weather, only being able to get a time that is 75% of the olympic standard. I am hoping the weather will be nicer so I can get a much better time and podium.

On top of my rowing, running and weights I bought myself a bike.

It is a Kona Shred with the large frame. I was originally going to go with the Kona Blast but it was not able to handle any abuse and knowing me I am going to want to drop off of stuff. Now I got to start getting some bike stuff, like gloves, tools, and a playing card in the back wheel. I plan to try and ride everywhere I can instead of driving.

Froshweek is going pretty sweet, I am done all the major stuff for now, just got to start doing the little stuff and wait for money from the Sponsors.

Speaking of the CSSS, on their forum there was a thread where all the older members were complaining that there are no pictures of events from the last semester on the website. After their going back and forth one member writes this line:

If you’ve been to the common room, you’d know why.

You’d find either a load of nerds who stare at laptops, or jocks that make conversations annoying.

This statement is quite funny for a number of reasons. First of all the person who wrote this is a huge nerd himself, and whenever I have seen him in the common room, he has been on his laptop. So basically we have an example of the tea kettle calling the kettle black. Secondly, there are not jocks that hang out in the common room, let alone in the department of CS.

But school is going pretty well, English has some interesting books, CMPT-383 has really effed up programming language, CMPT-475 is boring and Terrorism has a lot of reading that is not too interesting. But I keep busy with rowing.

I also plan to try and get in a few trips this summer when I have time. VIA rail is giving out free passes to all military members so I am going to try and go to the Rockies. I have trips to Victoria and Calgary for racing. I want to go to Kettle Valley or other places for biking and then I would like to go to Baker and hike the crater. Of course there are many local places I want to hit up too: Grouse, Seymour, Lynn Valley, etc.

But now it is time to go to sleep for rowing.

Till next time, Keep on Keeping on.

Rowing Updates

Given that it’s my blog about me, I have been rowing a lot lately so there are some neat things happening there. I told my coach that I wanted to do U23’s next summer. He is the type of coach that will straight up say the truth, so if you suck then he will tell you. His response was that I just need to keep lowering my erg scores. This means he thinks that I can actually do it. He has also been coaching me a lot more this last week so it feels like I have a real coach.

Being part of the exec we have to come up with the budget for this year, next year and the year after. Apparently we have spent around $16,000 from our own pockets. I never really realized that rowing costs so much for the team. Next year we want to buy a coxed four with sculling riggers, (which will cost another $20,000), a full time coach at $25 an hour and a new launch with a four stroke motor. We are applying for a grant from the city of Burnaby for the amount of $100,000 so we really hope to get it.

I am looking at buying a bike too, I went to a store and rode the Trek 4300, it was pretty sweet. I looked at the North Shore Mountain Biking Gear Swap but they only had medium sized bikes and I am needing a large one. I am going to try out a Norco Kokanee and a Kona Blast.

Here’s a funny video to end off the post.

Interview With a Scientologist

So back in January I interviewed a Scientology at the Church of Scientology for my Intro to Religious Studies Class.

Here is the paper I wrote up post-interview on what went down.