Imagine.

3rd Year's a Charm

Third year is over. This year was probably one of my most memorable years at university yet. It was the year I got more involved with U.B.C. by joining clubs and working at school.

I was quite involved with the Computer Science Students’ Society with the CS clothing distribution, helping out at the beer garden and of course, how can we forget working on the massive yearbook (ever heard of a one-WOman team in making a yearbook for over 200 grads? Well that's me. Making the layouts is fine and I can go hours doing it without realizing the time. But contacting the university publishers, Artona for getting me the CD of pictures, the trips to Artona, keeping in touch with the advertising people who pay for the yearbook, transferring checks to AMS and then getting a journal voucher to get it paid, dealing with grad after grad who want their display name change, their picture “fine tuned” and the list goes on…)

Working at the ITServices helpdesk was like my escape, well not really. It was my place of fun? =P I love the environment, the coworkers and I have learned so much. The coworkers crack me up so much…some of these things include a rendezvous with his late 30s German TA, another coworker who was dating a real life hardcore gangsta girl (and I ain’t talking about those who squat in the parking lot!), and yet another coworker who can't get eloping with his female traveller off his mind after I casually made the suggestion (he actually prepared a line, "well err...since we're travelling together, we might as well share a bed" hahaha =PP) and of course, help desk stories about some of the calls we get! They’re more like friends than coworkers. They always organize events outside of work – Shabusen lunches, housewarming parties, Friday night drinks and Dave’s throwing a BBQ at Jericho this Fri. They’re a real great bunch, I tell ya.

Other than my environment changing, I think I’ve changed inside too. I can’t pinpoint exactly what though. I’ve grown a little more stronger (my opinions, values and ooh! Check out those arms!) and perhaps a little more introverted? Hm, I’ll work on that one for fourth year.

My goal this summer is to just have fun and relax! (and work and volunteer and take a course and take the GRE). I never really thought so but then I realized that I am in fact a workaholic. I’ll try really hard to not take on so much, really!

I really want to say thanks to my friends who have kept me sane, listen to me rant, crack me up, and just always being there for me when I needed it. I’ll never forget it!

Well, that’s a wrap for third year. And now…the Summer! Bring it on!

ITServices Year End Party

Here's about half of us!

What can I say? What girl wouldn't love working at ITServices ;D

Ah, here's a more normal pic of my coworkers.

UPDATE

This is the most recent pic of pregnant Andy taken by Leanne!

Random Stuffs

Ack, head's spinning. I have never pulled an all-nighter before and I'm not about to start! Good night :P

----

Yay! 3 FINALS DOWN! Now I gotta be a hardcore philosopher and do my papers.

And how about those canucks eh? :P

----

7:24p.m.
Yay! Lil and Angel are home!! (well home as in back to nottingham :P)

Oh Emily...why you so strange?

I have these weird obsessions from time to time. From trying to memorizing all the fonts to knowing winter jackets inside out, I just obsessively compulsively want to learn more and more.

So now I have a new obsession! Emily the Strange! She's so cool :P And strange! Kinda reminds me of me I guess...though I'm not that that strange but I think i'll keep the cool part but anyway... ;D

Did anyone tell you that Ebay is addictive? Oh yes it is oh yes oh yes.

So while studying for my second final, I decided to look at my list on eBay. Lo and behold, an auction was ending in 3 minutes...and it was Emily! "No Viv, noo! Willpower", I called to myself. But it was too late. My finger clicked on the "bid now" and I watched as the seconds ticked down. The rest was a blur.

But anyway I WON!! :P

Brand New With Tags attached. Emily the Strange LOST IN SPACE Purse. Front side of the purse has Emily on the lower right hand corner. Back side has a bag with 3 cats out of the bag. Inside has Emily and cats all over. Size is 6" x 12".

back

front

Sigh, I'm a happy, and low on funds, girl :D Now I'm going to get my arse back to work.

And a HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANGEL! She turned 21 yesterday. Though she's never gonna see this, she'll want me to spread the word :P

EDIT: Was really tired and sick and aggravated with studying so I decided to make a new email w/ yahoo (since they're better than hotmail anyways). If anyone wants to email me, please do so at tigerbalmpower [at] yahoo.com!

Easter Random Pics

Happy Easter!

Exams are grabbing me by the neck but here are some pics for you to enjoy.

Pic of Michelle w/ the dandelions. The full picture is amazing. You can see the details of the dandelion so well. This was taken today after the Easter Egg Hunt.

This picture was actually taken with my very own camera!!! Guess who got row 16 seats to the canucks playoff game!?!? Not me. Pff :P Johnny took these pics. He got the tickets last second when his sis found 2 rare ticket on ticket master for $160 a piece. Too rich for my blood but he says the seats were awesome.

And last but not least...look who is graduating!!! Again, not me :P This picture was taken back in Feb when the CS president told us that all execs will be on the composite. So on my VERY busy week I made the journey to Artona to take it. Little did I know that he "forgot" to tell us that he found out only grad execs will be on the composite. Needless to say, I really don't have any use for this picture but eh, don't want to waste it now :P

Life is good.

Why is life good?

1. I got the volunteering position at Children's Hospital for the Visual Neuroscience lab! Sooo excited!!

2. The Canucks are playing awesome in the playoffs! (though that Cloutier slash was pretty cheeep of him :P)

3. I was at the last Canucks game of the season and WAS IT A GOOD GAME!! And Bert made an appearance near the end to give out his jersey. I'm trying to get used to watching the Canucks w/o Bert...it's still a great game but missing that zest (you're not fully clean unless you're zest fully clean!)

4. T&A Night
Engineer's Talents and Awards Night. Oh man, what a night!! The geers get-togethers are always so festive and full of spirit and this was really was no exception. From the Engineer sorority girl dancing (I still think their little private school girl act was better last year but anyway :P), to the president mooning us (oh he sure did...butt crack and all), to some chinese dude doing the holky polky while singing to "play that funky music white boy" (he was awesome), to having a bum come up to us and go "she bangs eh??", it was a greeeat night. The drinks were great too. And yea, Lis and I had on avg 2.5 burgers each :P

5. Summer Course
Taking PSYC 360 in the Summer will be really flexible for my busy summer sched. Since my PSYC365 course got cancelled, I'll be taking this one instead! It's a distance ed course so I'm not sure how it's going to go. The prof's great but he's tough. The good thing is that there are only 6 pepole enrolled so that we really get our money's worth :P And it's 6 credits!

6. Finishing up 2 essays.
I love 'em dwarves but that essay was just brutal for me!

7. CS Yearbook
I'm on good track w/ the CS yearbook. All layouts are done and I only have to insert the 189 pictures and advertisements. Estimated cost from publishers is $1500!! Good thing I receive $2000 from the advertisements though :P

8. THIRD YEAR IS OVER! One more year to go ladies and gents and I'm out of university. (I'll miss it a lot)

Children's Hospital & I know you

So I finally worked up the courage (or finally pushed myself hard enough to do so) to apply for a volunteering position at my prof's Visual Neuroscience lab in Children's Hospital. I spoke with the TA and she said that they already had volunteers for the Summer but I thought it woudn't hurt to try. I so sincerely, absolutely, genuinely want to volunteer there. If I don't get that position, I'll probably apply again in the future.

My friend, Tian, actually applied to work as a Co-op student for Dr.G's lab. She told me that the interview was 2 hour long and the job was overtly technical. They asked if she had any experience making machines talk to each other (in this case, it was showing a stimulus on a computer and hooking that up to a fMRI). They asked whether she had used Matlab. Another kid in the class also asked for a co-op job. He's a comp sci major with a minor in bio psyc (almost identical to me). He looks a little older than us. I always see the both of them bugging Dr.G after class. Why can't I be so bold like them? I don't think I'm any less qualified than them really. I'm just chicken. Bok bok is me.

--

So today while Johnny and I were waiting for the bus stop, he mentioned to me about this new Lays Canadian 4 Cheese chips (don't you just love our convos!? :P) So off to the store we went on 41st and Knight. When I got to the cashier, something interesting happened.

Cashier: Hey, I know you!
Me: You do?
C: Yea...I don't know where I know you from. But I recognize you.
Me: (I really had no idea who he is) Umm, yea, maybe I know you from somewhere...I don't really remember.
C: Yea, same! So how's it going?
M: Um, good! Oh there's the bus! Bye!

So that was that. I don't know who he was? I thought about it for awhile but I had no idea. I'm usually very good with faces so I would know. Maybe he knows me from the Internet or something? Or maybe it was a bad April Fools joke I fell for. Or maybe he was picking me up? ;P Who knows.

==========
Update

Ooh ooh ooh! *shrieks and giggles like a school girl* Guess what?! I received a reply from Dr.G!

Hi Vivian,
Thanks for your interest in my lab. What type of time commitment to a
volunteer position are you willing to make? My lab will be very full this
summer with both paid and volunteer undergraduate students, but your
experience and interests are very relevant to the type of research I do. I
would like to involve you somehow in our work. Would you be willing to learn
to program in Matlab? I think this will be fairly straightforward given
your experience with C++.

I'm so happy not because she's offering me a position or anything, but the fact that she thinks I will make a good contribution to her team. I'm just sooo happy. Now the old Vivian would go, "I'll be willing to volunteer 4-5 days a week. No problem!" But the new Vivian, the one who realizes that she likes her sanity, will try to come up with something to fit in between her neuroscience course, full time job and getting that darn licence.

Hmm...can I just forget about all that and volunteer instead? :D