Payam's Birthday

2 Weeks have passed but nevertheless, a huge Happy Birthday goes from all the barobax who were physically (and emotionally) present in Payam's birthday party and many thanks for the great hors d'oeuvres and Pizza.

Thanks to Shahab who sent me the pictures from his camera.

I noticed there is a conversation going on regarding the next Bomber Night. As far as I know, Bomber is fully booked untill mid November. Now, I don't know if barobaxe ISAW have been successful in booking it for that time or not.

Laurier Is Better, Find Out Why?!

My male counterparts would quickly agree without questioning that Laurier is a far better school to be in than U of W. However, I am about to provide reasons that would convince all of you despite your gender or race!

As you may know I am taking a Business course in Laurier this term. "WELCOME TO THE NUMBER 1 INTRODUCTORY BUSINESS COURSE IN CANADA" the professor shouted with a very loud and enthusiastic voice. The course is tough, it's a lot of work including readings from the text and the lab manual in addition to weekly labs, assignments, projects, case studies, presentations and a stock market competition. But from what I've seen so far, it seems to be a very informative course. So why is Laurier better?

Sit in one of their classrooms and experience the most appropriate and high class setting for learning. U shaped conference classrooms with chairs so good looking and comfortable that quickly convey professionality. Also, each seat is equipped with power outlets for your laptop. Their midterms is scheduled from day 1 and the TAs are far more professional than U of W. Talk about quality education environment. "SUPER FANTASTIC" as our prof likes to put it.

Their lounge (or is it their Life Center) is brightly lit with natural light as it has clear glass windows all around. You'd sit in there and your mood just rises higher and higher.

So do I care if U of W is number 1 school in Canada? Actually yes. For some reason which I have not been able to understand in the past 3 years, Waterloo has somehow managed to gain a fantastic reputation. This repuation in turn has caused some of the smartest people in Canada to gather in this University and make it "famous". But to be honest, most profs in U of W have a hard time talking let alone teaching properly. They're either so good that don't give a damn about students and just come to class, scribble a couple of things on the board and leave everyone puzzled or so bad that their explanation of 2x = 4 when x equals 2 makes you scratch your head. Besides the profs, the bulidings, classrooms and the labs in UW are mostly old and not that high-tech looking at all.

But I guess we still can say that "It Is Our Waterloo". And actually I am currently happier about our school than I would normally be, and that's because just today I got an email from my prof approving my request for a URA (Undergraduate Research Assistant). It is 6 hours a week and the topic is related to the Apache Server, which I find interesting. The job is basically without a pay since it's only $600 a term but I guess it's better than nothing.

The URA would be a great oppurtunity for me to prepare myself for grad school. Hopefully I will be working with the same prof in the Winter term also and hopefully by then he'd know me good enough to write me a good recommendation letter as well. Also, I heard from Vahid that recently the university puts URAs and RAs on your transcripts, so I guess it would also be a plus there.

But Dad Steals Cable!

So you were 8 years old and you walked into the convenience store with your mom and while your mom was paying for the groceries you discreetly stretched your hand and reached for that bubble gum off the shelf, swiftly put it in your pocket and then walked out with your hand in your pocket. Two minutes later you’re blowing a bubble as big as your head and that’s exactly when your mom catches you red handed and gives you that scary look which implies that your mom knows that you “stole” the gum off the shelf and thus comes the long lecture of “stealing is bad”. You being a smart kid on the other hand, interrupt your mother by saying: “but dad steals cable from the neighbors”.

I based this scenario on what I heard today in my Philosophy class as the prof was trying to explain what an “argument by analogy” is. However, I am trying to bring another topic in to the light of your attention.

My question is: where do you draw the line? What do you consider to be stealing?! Do you consider stealing to be walking into a bank with a couple other people and actually robbing the clerk perhaps even armed with some guns? Or walking into 7-11 and taking that chocolate bar off the shelf as you’re walking out? Or modifying your cable box so that you can receive cable TV without a charge? Or going online and downloading movies off of an unauthorized website? If you walked into a new home and you already had cable without ordering it, would THAT be stealing?

My question is how bad do you consider each of these actions to be and in any case if you don’t consider one stealing, how do you justify your reasons?

Personally I believe that a lot of it has to do with your culture as well as social norms. All of us have been told not to take anything off the shelf when we were kids, and we grew up with that norm considering that type of stealing to be wrong. Downloading illegal movies on the other hand is a newer issue which doesn’t have much “culture” associated with it. I bet that a hundred years from now a society norm would have been formed that considers illegal trade of movies electronically to be as bad as taking a bubble gum off the shelf.

What do you think?

Days of Silence & Cheer

Never take the most valuable things in your life foregranted. That's all I'll say regarding my absence from the site.

First day of school and here I am in the SLC (Student Life Center) where I can access the Internet, a blessing which is currently missing from our home as Rogers Telecommunications Company has chosen the 15th day of September as the day to hook us up to the world.

A trip to the U.S. passed by and unfortunately due to unseen complications the posting of pictures was delayed. But, good news is that updates are on the way once more so stay tuned.

I opened Imprint (University of Waterloo's Official Student Newspaper) today and with popping eyes I found myself reading the instructions to wrapping a joint. Yes, that's right Imprint has published the benefits of smoking weed, where to find it, prices and even instructions on how to best enjoy this mysterious plant which to the best of my knowledge is illegal in most countries including Canada*. I love how free this country is, really.

Time to buy books and course notes. Another period of time where your money is sucked in by the university. Little piece of advice to all the frosh who I am sure aren't reading this is: never buy your books untill the second or even third week of school as you might realize that many of them turn out to be useless. Course notes are a different story.

SLC is packeddd, I had never seen so many people in here. I will make this story short as most of you are trying to enjoy the last few days of having no academic responsibilities. Soon, we will be all nagging about assignments, projects and midterms. Nevertheless, I will reset the counter; December 22 is when the holidays begin so let's set the counter to 3 months and 10 days. Peace out.

* I've been told that possesing small amounts of Marijuana and using it for personal pleasure is not illegal in Canada.