1B electrical has been a challenge to me.
I never studied this hard in my life. I realized that
I found something I at least enjoy doing.
Midterm week was harsh for me since we did not have a reading week to prepare,
but that wasn't really a big problem. I have also gotten my first rejection.
I knew she was going to say no, but I needed an direct answer. I don't regret anything,
I might have broken our relationship as friends, but it is better than staying together not on the same page.
Apart from that, midterms went decently well and I am surving my overloaded 1B. ! Psychology !
Going back home for reading week felt amazing, I get to relax and do things I enjoy after doing so many problems and
giving my 100% to the midterms.
It felt relaxing and I thought I got over the rejection I got on the Monday (Cal midterm).
Fast foward a week in...
Of course not, after the main round ended I received 3 not ranked from all tech/software companies and only got a merely ranked
for Unilock. Only 2 people actually interviewed for this job, so my self-esteem enjoyed the trip in the gutter.
Indeed, the interview for YUJA, a better version of UWLearn (not exactly but close enough), went very well. I thought I could at least secure a rank.
At that point, I had more trouble sleeping than 3 weeks ago when the girl I liked coldly walked away from me.
I realized that we learn more from rejections than lectures and tutorials.
Students in other universities will never experience this amount of stress and rejection in their first year. I guess that's what separates UW to other universities.
Nevertheless, I got my match 3 days after on the following Monday. I am glad to announce that I will be working for Unilock during this summer
I have also learned about Jia Jiang . He inspired me to dig in to my fear of rejection. I would ask people stuff that I would never ask, looking for a rejection.
I wanted to feel the heart-rate going up so I get used to be more out-going. I guess Rejection Therapy will make you immune to other people's rejection and keep your self-esteem protected
from what other people's opinions.
Only 3 weeks left before finals hit, I hope I'll survive 1B better the same way I did for 1A. I am glad I got everything sorted out, such as renting my UW apartment and getting a place in Georgetown.
I really want to wish RW the best of luck in her job hunt and don't be creeped out when I smile at you. I know it is over.
March 18, 2018
Last friday, spent bunch of time during VHDL in the ecelab, almost killed myself over the bugs I had. Glad I could finish yesterday but I ended upkilling my St-Patrick's.
Ya saw bunch of people partying while I was working on Math119 and ECE124. I at least I get some pleasure finishing the project on time.
Overall a lot of stress since finals are coming up, but definitely worth it. This has been my best year so far. I learned so much. Especially how to deal with rejection and failure.
Hopefully I will hear back from Unilock, because my rommates all signed their contract and I still haven't heard from anyone from Unilock so far.
I really hope the job is not boring since I avoided QA for that reason.
Anyways I should be grateful that they accepted me, a first year with no experience.
March 25, 2018
Did not go to grading today, definitely not prepared. YuJia said
he wanted to start his own company by securing the name first. I'm down,
but I also want to help Weijie or even Jiming and Zhongyu out.
Anyways, Jiu-Jitsu was cancelled today so I went to the gym. My arms
really hurt right now. I am also very hungry, so I'll grab some food and
start ECE108 as2 in latex.
wish me luck
March 28, 2018
to the github stalker
just finished editing the lab report, I don't know why RW
absolutely wants to write the report. It was weird in a sense that she
didn't want to participate in the lab. This lab was definitely one of
the most awkward lab we had so far. Even the lab instructor Frank was giving her a bad time. Oh well! It is over now!
apart from that, I need to finish Ward's assignment 2 soon so I can get back to studying for finals. I am really behind on 140 assignments and also 124. Hopefully I will catch up by the finals, but I really doubt it.
I have a friday off this week, I can definitely use that to study a little bit more and probably finish off 108. Speaking of 108, we did graph theory in less than 2 hours. Well, Prof Ward's lectures are always fking entertaining, even though he argueably can't teach.
I called in CECA to ask if a contract was necessary for my position and she told me it is not a requirement. It is a bit sketchy but I definitely understand her point of view. Anyways, life in university is really demanding and I wish I could have more free time to do more side projects and thingsthat are not strictly academic.
March 30 2018
to the person maybe finishing 1B
Today is Easter friday. We have the day off to relax. I really hope I will be productive and finish up 108 as2 since i really don't want to work on it on the weekend
Anyways, 2 days ago, I asked RW if I could join them on their Niagara trip. I was surprised she didn't say no rightaway. I guess Jia was definitely right.
We would be very surprised how easy people will accept your request, provided you ask them.
Anyways, finals in a week of time, I shouldn't care about my grades anymore. Prof Saini was right yesterday when I showed up to his office hours. It is really
about how much you learn than how high your grades are. Reaching for that #1 spot is useless and you will break yourself doing so
April 1st 2018
to the person making tons of mistake
So yesterday was a hell of fun writing my 108 assignment in LaTeX. I especially enjoyed the K-map package with all the flying colors.
so I went in to Bilun's room to grab his bowl that he forgot to bring down. That completely triggered him. He was unusually upset for something that could be settled in a more calm manner
I guess it something that he really dislikes, I should be very careful next time and ask for permission
I am going to get sushi for lunch with all my roommates, Daniel and Tingwei if he decides to wake up at a reasonable time.
I kind of relaxed this morning, didn't feel like doing any problems and studying for anything.
instead I decided to chill and install another version of linux on my old pc. It felt like Ubuntu 64x was a bit tough and constantly will lag the poor machine
Also, the chinese friends posted bunch of photos of them going to Niagara. Looked like they enjoyed themselves. I am kind of jealous since I stayed home all day doing "work". But a rejection opens the door to other opportunities. I went to Mel's with other ECE friends (shiv Ilya and Kate). It was fun
anyways I also want to know if this distro runs atom better since I could not open Atom on 64 bit Ubuntu.
Finals in exactly 7 1/2 days from now. It is going to be a long week of studying. I'll keep my journal up to date, see you soon.
April 2 2018
to the person that typed 28 pages of LaTeX
I am not math student unfortunately, but I still enjoy the shit out of LaTex. The thing is so powerful it is amazing
just finished the 108 as1 this morning, will be working on as3 tomorrow
1 week left before MATH119, I need to start studying, I won't be doing the lab 4 extra project because I don't have the time for that
other than that, I think I need more practice with 124, but I am super lazy to study because state machines are super long to do. I haven't done a single state reduction on my own and I can't draw a flow chart.
I enjoyed my long week-end, food was really good yesterday. Reddit is correct
That's it for now, I have Saini's help session to attend this morning. Enough with fidgeting with CSS
April 04 2018
Just saw my assignment 1 grades, it went decently well, although people such as Daniel and Aditya are still upset...
First thing that Jason asked was how high is the average...
Why do you give a shit?
Why? Why am I not upset that I didn't get the 100% I wanted?
well, because grades are just numbers, if you think they should reflect on how hard you worked on the assignment, you are only partially correct, only very partially
I think that you should evaluate yourself on how much you learned spending a decent chunk of your time doing this assignment. Personnally, I gained knowledge of VIM, LaTeX and set theory. Everything is a learning opportunity, expecting an external award will make you disappointed. I had a lot of fun learning these new tools and a 87 is very good.
In psychology, this is the difference between an extrinsic and intrinsic reward. People that think they deserve a 90+ for their work in order for them to justify spending a shit ton of time on an assignment is trying to validate their effort with with an extrinsic reward, grades. Prof Saini is correct,
We are here for the knowledge and
we are here to learn how to learn No one will give a shit about your grades
don't make your grade define you
people in ECE need to change their mentality, that includes myself. Hopefully more and more people will start caring about what they are learning in class and not about the exams that are just there to verify if you have learnt the material.
April 7 2018
Totally too lazy to write anything, really should get studying.
oh, I got my picture with all the profs, except Kennings
I really enjoyed my 1B term, especially 108 with Ward.
Unfortunately, this opinion is not very popular, as people really hate his teaching style and classes. I really enjoy it so...
I am indeed a pretty weird person.
April 8 2018
To the person that will never be a frosh again
I am writing this at 9 54, waiting for ZW to finish his long ass shower. I am super sleepy so I need to make this concise.
I went to the gym today... It really hurts your body, but it does release stress and make your body tired so you don't think of anything too stressful
I stopped trying to get rejected by people the past week so I am really shy. I saw a classmate in V1 today and I simply said a Hi. I also wanted to do squats using the squat rack, but I was too shy to ask.
hopefully I will get back to where I was weeks ago. Weijie bought masterclass. It would be interesting if I also could learn from that website since I'll be pretty much free during my summer time.
April 9 2018
to me in the future
1 Down, 5 to go this is what S.Page would say if I was still attending his lectures in Marianopolis.
I am done with calculus today... I realized I made one silly mistake,
but I am proud of myself. I think I understand all the material of the course. Hopefully I won't forget them as fast as I learned them.
I am worried of not finishing my reading in time. I want to finish studying for psychology before tomorrow afternoon so I can study more circuits(ECE140
We will see how well I do tomorrow, but I still have to finish 2 chapters of reading material
I ordered a drawing tablet and cialdini's book on influence. I plan to do a lot of reading in the next weeks or so.
April 12 2018
to knowledge and the person who thinks exams are fun
3 Down, 3 to go We are getting close to finishing everything and go back and relax in Montreal!
4 hours ago, I finished my 140 Final. Just yesterday, I actually bought the textbook. It occured to me that I care enough for the course that I want to read it over the summer. Anyways, it is a required textbook for 240. The next-level circuit next year. Not saying that I will study that hard, but I felt like buying the textbook because I realized how ironic the situation is.
indeed, we had to pay 10K per semester for everything and we can't even pay for a well-written textbook... Prof. Dabbagh is right on the fact that people don't read as much as we used to. We are a lot more on laptops and cell phones. I still find it funny that he is saying that we are living in a microwave. He is right on that since all the cell towers emit high frequency signal that damages our brains and is slowly cooking us.
Anyways, I realized also that I am more prompt to commit on my studying if a buy a textbook since I will care about it far more than if I got it off online as a pdf. I actually want to get my money back in terms of knowledge.
Also I realized we only have a week left before we start packing up for Montreal. Time flies so fast here. Really, I feel like I only spent a couple of weeks here in CLV. Hopefully my summer coop will be enjoyable. I don't really care about the pay as long as I enjoy the job and have a good time.
Oh well, We'll see what is going to happen with my finals and hopefully I'll get to go to karate tonight. It has been at least 2 months before the last time I showed up. Time is precious here in Waterloo, I feel a lot of people don't care as much.
April 15 2018
to Prof Ward and Saini
I am at the end of my before last week in UW. Things are closing off. 3 remaining exams and I am done with 1B ECE.
After watching videos from Matt from Engineered Truth, Inoticed that people think that university is something mandatory in a successful career. It is good to challenge this thought because we are putting so much value to a college education when 10K per semester could be spent somewhere else.
I honestly think that it is up to the student to make the most out of his undergrad studies. The degree we get at the end of the 5-3 years of studies is just a certification. The value relies on how much did you learn in these years.
If you could buy a degree, or Prof. Saini hands you a bachelor's degree, would you take it? I wouldn't because I don't deserve to be called an ECE graduate. The struggle in these 5 years makes you an ECE graduate.
This brings back the point that you need to struggle to succed. We learn from failures far more than from spoon-fed answers and lectures.
That is what I think people don't get from Prof Ward. He is not the typical lecturer who will give you all the information and hold your hands in a lecture. you have to follow his thoughts and keep up with his ideas. .
People seem to be unforgiving when he is not posting the answer to the assignments. They never put themselves in his position. We took 5-6 hours to complete that assignment and he hasn't done the problem himself yet... So as we all are lazy and procrasting, we should understand the reason behind the delay on the solutions.
I'm not saying that this is the correct way to handle assignments and logistics in general nor am I saying that Prof Ward is not to be blamed for his lack of organization for ECE108.
What I do know is that Prof Ward has a teaching style that is slightly different than other profs we ever had. This could be big change for people that didn't have ECE150 with him, butI honestly enjoy his teaching style.
Also Yesterday I was trying to chat with Saini. He is obviously really tired and exhausted in the past days holding help-session. He wasn't really eager to engage in the conversation.
Hopefully I can catch him in a better mood and shape after 106 and have a good chat with him then.
in the meantime, of course I am going to show up to Ward's office hours next week.
April 16 2018
poor ZW having to leave on the 25th
106 didn't go so well. Praise the curve?
2 to go! 4 down!
almost there, I am pretty tired, had a fun afternoon.
should I ask Saini to do the redo just for fun?
That would be interesting indeed...
oh ya ZW needs to stay in school because of the terrible weather. Schools were closed in Montreal due to this bad weather condition
I also just decided on the wimp to pay for everyone bubble tea. I was pretty titled so I didn't give a fk
anyways, the bubbletea I had was pretty decent, red bean is better than matcha?
I took some beer so I am pretty tired... Bedtime <3
April 17 2018
poor me that forgot to do one multiple choice question
I realized that this morning waking up. What a shame.
I felt terrible, but I think what is done is done. I was thinking of retaking the exam, but that doesn't fly with me. Grades won't matter, it is the knowledge.
I just emailed Prof Saini about if I could take the exam just for fun
meanwhile, I'd have to brush up my 108 skills
April 18 2018
to Daniel
spent 5h in Prof Ward's office yesterday? !?
I think now the majority of ECE can agree that Ward is an amazing person to talk to. Maybe not so good as a prof but everyone has their strength.
going to the irish pub with Daniel and Kai was really fun and It really was a good stress relief
Somehow I was feeling the effect of alcohol after 1 pint which is very unusual. Maybe I haven't had Labatt 50 before so that's why.
But the honey garlic chicken was pretty good. I think it was a bit too sweet though.
Anyways I probably should study for ECE108, as I am fairly sure the exam is not going to be as easy as it sounds.
I don't know if Saini agreed to my request of taking it just for fun
Seems so since he sent all of us an email.
I'll also ask Kennings if he is around campus this week.
April 19 2018
Prof Ward and his ECE108 exam tomorrow
We are near the end... I can feel the finish line. Whether I cross it dying or alive, I am glad to finish this term. It was particularly challenging because of the overloading and the more university-level classes we have in 1B. It is almost over and I can go back home and relax for few days before starting my coop position in Georgetown.
Ya I still haven't had food so I'll grab some before heading to bed.
Tomorrow is 108 exam and I hope I'll have some fun in that since I think I know the material pretty well. I still am regretting from that 106 exam but I am confident I'll be fine. Please Lord Ward :)
140 results came out today but I didn't bother checking it. I don't want the result to distract me from studying for the 2 remaining exams.
see you tomorrow
April 27 2018
to my parents and my sub 90 grades
Ya Grades came out and I didn't do so well, I worked hard so that is that. My final average will probably mid to high 80s instead of in the 90s.
I think partially because this semester is a lot harder. We cover materials that are a lot more difficult and that require a lot more work. Getting 90+ is pretty challenging. My exams went all pretty fine so I don't think I under-performed in any of the exams. I am a little bit upset, but I still haven't seen the full picture with 124 and 108 grades not up on learn.
Reflecting back to this semester, it was quite fun and enjoyable. Post-midterm is where I was busy doing bunch of other things and kind of stopped working on assignments. Anyhow, getting good grades was a priority for me and I realized not getting them didn't really affect me that much. Hopefully :)
the biggest feels good moment is that I knew I gave it all so I have no regret that I can think of. If I haven't studied a lot, maybe I would have felt bad.
staying home is pretty chill, a lot of things to get done such as packing up and fixing up the car. I have also arranged with Weijie tomorrow and Zhuowei today for respectively movies and food. Time is precious here, since my workterm starts next Monday. I got my dad's work boots so let's see how that goes.
lata
April 29 2018
to the stalker who still goes on my website
Am I ready to drive 5 hours to Georgetown? Am I ready to face 40h of work per week? One thing I learned is that you are never 100% ready, but you gotta do it regardless.
If you feel ready for something, that means that you are doing it late
So be unconfortable, be brave.
good luck tomorrow
May 03 2018
all the bullshit around here
So why am I not allowed to have a lock when any guy around the factory is first trained to be able to do the lockout procedure to get inside of the machines
I don't totally disagree that the people managing the factory are a bit too disconnected from the workers who have been there for years.
So who in their right mind sends someone parking on the street knowing that they could be ticketed and when confronted, has only one defense: I want to keep my driveway clean of your oil spill. Why? because it costs money and effort to clean. that is some next level bs when you don't give a shit about your tenant and you only see that $$.
learn how to be a good landlord DUDE.
and in the meantime, I need to do my best to avoid that leak on his driveway
biggest bullshit of my life
bye world, i am fking tired. heading to bed asap
May 07 2018
to Unilock and to myself
A week in Unilock now. A good time to give my appreciation of the place
first of all, this place is loud. If you are not prepared to work in an environment where dust and noise is the biggest factor, don't ever work in a factory
second, I feel pretty useless and start to wonder why they hired me. It is common perhaps but I haven't done anything productive for the company. Should I take initiative or should I just sit and wait for assignments like I did in school. I am thinking of taking inititative since working on the floor is pretty boring.
lastly, I am grateful I am learning more about "soft skills" such as how to interact with people and how to manage/organize people and stuff. Indeed, my direct supervisor is the maintenance supervisor and the person that hired me is the plant manager.
By the way, it was great fun driving to Toronto last Sunday, it was a big challenge for me since I hate Toronto traffic. 4 roads (or lanes) and different exits make driving a lot more difficult around Toronto. My mom was super proud of me and I was pretty surprised myself.
Challenges are good indeed.
May 10 2018
to who(m) it may concern
almost 2 weeks in Georgetown. I am just mostly tired when I get back home. Things are going decent.
today Jeff showed up in our plant (plant #1) to look at stuff and he told me to get back in the office starting next Monday. I'm happy to change from throwing bricks around and operating a pretty basic machine, but I kind of enjoy it now. It requires little to no thinking and is a pretty good full body workout when you have to move around very heavy bricks when throwing out bad products.
in terms of cooking, I have done 3 good dishes: stirfry with bacon and every vegetable, not very spicy chilli and a chicken thigh stew.
today I was in Walmart and they couldn't tell me where the tofu is. I guess they don't even have tofu.
I was telling my mom that my job is pretty boring and she was expecting it to be. I am also pretty sure that only a few people have a lot of things to get done on their first days/weeks in the company. It is always a learning curve and they also don't trust you as much as full-time employees.
anyways, it is a shame that I cannot share pictures inside the factory
I also went to the Halton Hills library to borrow 22 Jump Street when I realize I didn't watch the prequel. Bought it off youtube -_-.
May 13 2018
to ECE 1B
Holly shit I got 100% in ECE108 wtf! I checked my grade yesterday. WP Prof Ward. However, I didn't do so well in other courses so no dean's list for me.
Anyways, it was a fun 1B experience. Yesterday I drove to Waterloo to see Yujia, Saini and Mingo. I stayed late so the driving back was scary af. Ehm... I almost got in an accident twice since there was construction on the 401. Feels bad man.
I even put on my UofT sweater to trigger some people
May 14 2018
to the shitty Excel worker
Today I was told to catalogue all the press molds. I thought it was pretty straight forward so I did it pretty quickly. I realized later on I forgot a few. When I was asked to compare it to a database, shit hitted the fan because it was just chaotic tracking stuff. I didn't finish it today. Nevertheless, I learned that I was pretty crappy with excel.`
On a happier end, I wasn't doing any production work because I was too busy trying to figure out all the mismatch in the database.
I am thankful that no one got mad at my lack of productivity today
I am thankful to all the drivers that didn't get pissed off at my bad driving
May 21 2018
to the guy who hasn't updated his journal for like ages
holly shit I didn't know I missed so many days.
here is what happened during the week with a long weekend :
called my supervisor fat
kidnapped Zhuowei on my car to UW
failed to go to Kinkaku since we couldn't make any reservation
spent over 200 bucks on my oil leak repair
a new guy called Nick with French origin came in on Saturday
doing a lot of CS50. The course is pretty well taught
getting paid minimum wage for some reason
getting roasted while driving bunch of monkeys on my car
my parents are saying I am going out too much with the car. I am a bit of a show off with my newly acquired vehicle that has leaks all over the place. sure.
not proud today, I woke up at like 10 bro. 4:30 late from expected
June 3 2018
ok we are in June now, I need to get my driver's license renewed
bought bunch of computer parts yesterday and finished my first month of work term. pretty boring to be honest, but it is a good new experience
PD20 is a bitch though
Oh I also had to pay for breaking a doorhandle that apparently I broke? Wasn't very happy about that
June 12 2018
myself
Apologies to my anonymous readers
It has been a fking while since the last entry. 9 days? that's more than a week. Was I busy? Doubtly. I was having too much fun spending my weekend outside Georgetown.
A lot of things happened. the first thing that preoccupies me the most is my nerves on my foot got damaged so I feel constant soreness, numbness and pain on my right big toe. Hopefully that will go away soon.
the Sunday before last Sunday was adventures in Downtown Toronto. Almost got sent back home by the rain. First time having Dimsum, and also first time having Dimsum in the afternoon.
We said we could go to Markham to try good food over there...
then I remembered someone was working there.
I was rather surprised she said yes because I was looking for more of a rejection. I was unsure how to proceed next. Overall it wasn't cringy at all since it wasn't just her. Turned out to be a lot more enjoyable when I didn't have to speak Chinese. I never noticed that I am more and more translating what I was bbbbbing from English to Chinese.
didn't crash my car so that was good. Also the day before I went to OLT (Orientation Leader Training) session to get gud at O-Week.
Work related fun now: I rated my job a 5 and my WTS is on route to Georgetown to see what is going on. Like comon, 5 is not that bad. If my dream job was 10, then 5 for first coop is pretty damn good.
The reason why I gave it 5 because there is a serious lack of work for me. Very strange, but the company that hired you has very little work for you. I don't know if the past coops were idiots doing 1 task a week or what but sorting things out doesn't take a day even when I am slacking off. Data entry doesn't take a week when you can bash all the data in Excel then copy it in the database using some python scripts. It is definitely not hard and I should not be complaining but getting paid 18.50 for some insignificant work is killing me.
June 19 2018
myself because its my birthday!
Got the best haircut anyone could ask for, "please use clipper #2 to shave my head. It's like those times when my mom was giving me a haircut. Throwbacks.
We are reaching the middle of my first work-term in Waterloo. I am disappointed with how little work I am given and no one is telling me what to do. I am also very pleased with other things such as driving, cooking, doing CS50 and talking to the people down there.
I have to say it is a pretty exhausting birthday
I also built my first PC. It is a bit better than my old one, but not much better. It was just fun building the thing from components and understanding how to system functions although I kind of know from previous small repairs I made.