I should have seen this coming. Really.

Did I know last Monday what kind of workload I would have in the upcoming week? Yes. Did I know that the week would be hectic to the point of driving me up the wall? No...

A crazy week... Tough assignments, lectures going way above the head, stupid accumulative recursion in CS, volumes of weird shapes in calculus, prof mentioning solving (by hand) 11 x 11 matrices... the probability course looking more like class in set theory day by day... last but not least, Larry Smith's midterm Friday evening... in all, a crazily hectic week...

To top it off, the number of active job apps now stand at 13... I hope somebody calls me in for an interview, at the very least... before all the apps die out...

Despite everything during the week, had a good Saturday evening... hung out with the photo club at the Warrior Weekends event at the uni... had a great time...

A few portraits and photos can be seen here...

Next Week: Stats midterm, Generative (Urghh) Recursion in CS... Lets see how many posts I am able to write in the coming days...

Until next time...

Good Night (or Day)

The cold creeping in the bones. Snow crunching beneath the boots. Winds lashing at the face. Such is winter in Waterloo...

It was EXTREMELY cold today! I couldn't feel my nose... at all! Temperature was around -21... but the real killer was the windchill at -29... Brrr!

Towards midday, the temperature started to rise (as in becoming less negative... :P), the winds more merciful... however, the relief was short-lived... as evening came, the winds returned to their full fury...

Last day of official jobs postings today, for now... Three of the apps already shot down... Hope that the others fare better...

Used MATLAB today... interesting software to solve matrix-based problems... It was pretty familiar since I used to do similar stuff with my Casio 9860G, but apparently this is a programming software, with a lot more features... As always, fun to use software on questions you aren't supposed to use it on... To me, it shows I am learning! Just as last term, when I used my CS programming language to write a program to cipher/decipher numbers... was done with the Algebra assignment within minutes, whereas by hand... would have taken the better part of an hour... They want us to apply the stuff... Here I am, applying CS in Math!

Not looking forward to tomorrow's dreary morning class of CS, though... Hope I don't fall asleep through it...

Realized a while ago... I stand five months, two days from the time I landed in Canada... Sometimes, time seems to flow rapidly, like a young river... at other times, it seems that it ceases to move... Most mysterious...

Feel tired today... probably gonna turn in early...

Good Night (or Day)...

PS. I miss kitties...

All good things have to end... as did the weekend...

My little cousin took a few cool portraits of me ... He's definitely improving...




Naturally, I was happy that "I" was photographed!


Had a good, lazy, comfortable weekend... with no work or anything of that sort... Now, back again, bills to pay, assignments to complete, job applications to pursue... blah... blah... blah...

It seems that every time I take the GO Bus back to Waterloo, a sense of deja vu grips me...The moment the bus starts moving, it seems as if I am leaving home behind... once again... Sometime during the ride, I feel like I never want the bus to stop... to go on and on and on...

In any case, back to my normal routine, my way of life...

Looking forward to the UWPC meeting tomorrow...

For more of the pics above, visit my Facebook album here...

Until tomorrow, then...

Same old excuse for Thursday... night class with Larry Smith... macroeconomics is enlightening and fun... but the combination of studies and the extreme wind and cold these past couple of days makes one too tired to even think of much to write...

Had a meetup with the Photo Club Thursday evening... looks like we'll be meeting Monday nights... Hopefully, that won't be too difficult... Until the midterms, at least... From the crowd that showed up, it seems that we'll have a number of people this term, though a lot of them fresh newbies...

Woke early today... did the laundry, packed my duffel... eager to get as far away from this past hectic week as possible... Watched the clock ticking during lectures, stared at all clocks as if it would make them go faster... and at 3.30pm, before the prof could completely say, "Have a happy weekend...", I was out of the door, bags swinging behind me... Rushed like a madman to the GO Bus stop... thankfully, got a seat... otherwise would have had to stand all the way... Bus ride was unusually slow... watched cars whiz past at alarming speeds as we crawled along at a snail's pace... felt like going up to the driver and giving him a piece of my mind...

Nevertheless, 3 hours and 3 buses later, I am safely away from the burden of uni work, at least for the weekend...

Now for some peace & quiet... Let's get that Call of Duty rollin'!!!

Good Night (or Day)...

...

It was an almost perfect day. Algebra and Stats assignments submitted. Crazy integration accomplished. CS coding complete. Perfect day. Almost. And then, there were the muffins...

Among the things that get me down, failed experiments are probably in the top 10...

Total disaster... the muffins burned... the smoke detector went off... I was half-afraid that the fire brigade would come rushing and hose the house down...who knows how things work here... My first attempt at baking... ended as a flop...

WalMart's muffin instructions did not warn me against putting the backing tray on the bottom grill... I guess this is something experience and time teach...

In any case, I had been fantasizing about warm, chocolate chip muffins... the end product couldn't have been more different... tasted like burnt biscuits... well, it was burnt anyways...

I did not have the heart to throw them out... Have placed them on the table in plain sight. Hopefully, nobody is foolhardy enough to give them a nibble... until I get rid of them...

I am just lucky (and glad) not much was damaged (other than my resolve to bake) or wasted (an egg, half the muffin pack and a cup of water)...

As my calc prof says...when things go wrong when you take a certain step, hide all the evidence that you ever tried...

Don't feel like writing much today... too tired, and a little upset that I didn't get any muffins out of the ordeal...

Now to open a packet of one of those "artificial" brownies...

Naming my post today, I was suddenly flung back into the past, where I was still and avid reader, and used to finish reading Enid Blyton books with a couple of hours of buying them...

Weather was different... temperature was nice and bearable, though had quite some rain, much of it what they call here the "freezing rain"... Good weather...

Normal, tiring day, which is now becoming usual... Boring CS lecture... started working on my CS program midway to avoid a sudden nap... One of these days, I am going to discover a piece of code while doing the assignment and whoop loudly in class... just to make things a bit more exciting...

Spent some time completing stats... Had fun navigating my way around the 6th floor of MC... crazy maze-like layout and few maps, if any... rooms built within rooms... Now I know why all the actuaries and statisticians are half-crazy... all their offices are up there on the 6th floor...

Went grocery shopping in the afternoon. Temperature rise meant that every place had turned into a quagmire of frozen mud and slush... Anyways, got home, opened the freezer to put in my stuff... saw this:

The One-Eyed, Nose-less Snow-Dude, Guarding the Freezer...

Apparently a parting gift from two of my room-mates, who have graduated, and are no longer in Waterloo on a permanent basis...

A few more photos...

Needles Hall, UW's admin division

MC - Mathie HQ - Waiting for class...

Lunch

Tim Hortons... the donut's not bad... but Dunkin Donuts still RULZ!!!

Tim Hortons and BlackBerry... Two of Canada's brands...

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

That's it for today....

Monday... Urghh!

Was just a regular Monday... Had a lot of fun with Matrices & Reduced Row Echelon Form... I have to admit, lectures are interesting if you know what's about to come! Calc was good too... just starting on how volume formulas were created... things we've been learning since Grade 5...

Worked on the assignments... mixed up conditions for linear dependence and linear independence... the TA was confused too... Thankfully, got everything sorted out in the end...

Came home... integrated stuff for Calc assignment... gave me a spinning head...

Had Nihari for dinner... followed by Chocolate Chip cookies...

Photo from icanhascheezburger.com

Photo from icanhascheezburger.com

Photos from Lolcats... Have a laugh after a long day...

Until tomorrow, then...

Second Sunday of the term... didn't do much today...

Woke up at 11am... Showered, went down to make breakfast.

And then, had the time of my life, cleaning up a broken egg off the kitchen floor. I don't know exactly how it got there...

About 10 minutes and several tissue papers later... I decided that the floor was clean enough...

Certainly an experience everyone should try...

Anyways, got back to making my omelette... I think I'm gonna leave the chili out next time... reducing it to half a chili didn't help...

Got started on the assignments. Got off on a bad start with the Stats questions... took out my frustrations on the poor pointer... felt better... now I'm half done... hopefully, the TA can help me out before Wednesday...

Decided to try something new for dinner tonight. Opened a can of tuna... mixed it with onions, ketchup, mustard sauce and a few dried crushed herbs (oregano, thyme, etc)... and put it on the stove... fried a few slices of bread and made a sandwich... Good one, gonna try it again sometime, maybe with a bit of variations...

Feeling too lazy to do any more work now, so packed up my backpack, and now... just doing nothing...

Tomorrow: Attacking the assignments (or rather, the assignments attacking me!)

Lazy start this Saturday morning... Was up until late watching "The Departed" (don't bother if you haven't already watched it - almost everybody departs at the end... crap)

Breakfast... wasn't in the mood to spend much time on it... so it was simple... don't know what got over me... got my camera out and started taking pics of the new Nutella bottle... I love Chocolate!

Anyways... had job apps to do today... did a lot of 'em... hopefully, some get through...

Fortunately... now I know which companies to hit once I get the necessary qualifications...

Nevertheless... 'Twas tiring... I don't even know how many times I wrote the cover letter or edited my resume...

Tomorrow... assignments to start on... Uni life is back in full swing...

Anyways, enjoy the chocolaty photos!

The New Bottle of Nutella!

Untouched

The First Strike!

When the toast met the chocolate...

Dipped in Chocolate

Victory!

I guess you may have noticed... no posts on Thursday... none on Friday... (well this one's almost Friday, since I am still up...)

It's been a busy couple of days...

Thursday... as usual, started off with the sleepy CS116 class... the fact that the prof turns off all the lights for a better view of the projector does not, repeat, does not help...

It was "Clubs Day" in UW, especially for the newer students who enrolled in Winter 2011... Volunteered for a bit at the Photo Society booth... the photo club people are probably a few of the earliest friends I made here in Waterloo... so it was fun... Went back there again, just to see who was around... ended up spending almost 2 hours chatting, until my throat hurt... Never in the past 4-5 months have I spoken so much in an hour that I did today (except perhaps over the phone, but that doesn't count, does it?)

Had Larry Smith's class last night too. Excellent... he starts off with a weekly briefly of world economic occurrences... learned a lot of stuff... hope it sticks in the head until the mid-terms (and hopefully beyond that), since listening to Larry with rapt attention usually means the pen is always hovering above the paper, rarely touching...

Really Liked Algebra today... Remembered my FM classmates today, especially my Skype study-buddy, while doing matrices... though I don't get the prof's weird jokes... leaves most of the class wondering whether they should be laughing or not...

Calc is now making me see more sense in what we used to do in FM... it seems that the CIE is simply cruel, in its own British way... apparently they grabbed more than a couple of first year uni math courses, got rid of the basics and the foundation stuff, squashed and compacted it, and gave the ugly mixture the name "Further Math" - half of the people run at the sound of it... I can imagine... having "Further... " in the name... only adds to the fear, and gives it a sort of a false, God-of-Math-like image...

I've been busy preparing for co-op... resumes, cover letters, job hunt and "all that jazz"... job posting open 7am Saturday morning, close sometime on Tuesday... have to apply for suitable ones before that deadline...

I now wish I had given at least one of the SOA exams back while doing A Levels... oh well, it will happen when it will happen...

Had Burger King's "BK Big Fish" today... 'Twas great! Plus, they are running a deal on the fish burger every Friday...

Saw a paper ad of a burger restaurant on the living room table (possibly left by my roommate)... one of the entries in the menu caught my eye while I was having breakfast this morning... here goes...
I wondered... how big is that thing... In any case, I did the math... Rs. 2000 for a burger that can potentially make you like Jughead when he overeats... ain't worth it...

That's it for today folks... Tomorrow (which is already here): Sitting, lazing about, applying to jobs... hope all goes well...

Whoa! So much snow!

That was my reaction when I opened the door to step outside this morning...

Apparently, it had snowed ALL night, and was still snowing... hard... I guess it was mostly due to the snow-storm which hit parts of Ontario...

There were six-inched of snow piled up in front of the doorstep... thankfully, the door didn't get stuck... :P

My day was somewhat divided between Math and coding... started with Calc... did some strange-looking integrals which we may have seen somewhere in the darker corners of FM... Matrices wasn't as exciting as it should have been... the prof seems to be a little... I don't know how to describe it... I guess I'll just leave it to imagination...

Coded on Scheme for a couple of hours... if you have used Scheme, you'd know how it can drive you up the wall...

Had Stats... apparently whatever we studied in the past 3 years was a bit too advanced... here, it seems as if they are hell-bent on getting to the root/origin/beginning of everything... never have I seen a probability question being solved in such a confusing way...

Came back home... did the Stats online quiz... had 30 minutes... scored full... happy happy!

Went back to Scheme... ignored stomach growls... who would want to find out the average size of tweets by a specific user, from a list of tweets??? Crazy...

Hunger finally took over... went to the kitchen, micro-waved food, ate... came back to programming... now I sound like a ROBOT...

As I speak (or write), still working on CS... a short break seemed necessary...

Hope it doesn't go down to -22 windchill tomorrow morning...

Cheers...

A week has gone by since that start of term... and slowly, but surely, I find myself settling into the routine ways of uni life... once again...

Almost got late getting to class... don't know where time flies in the morning...

The CS lecture... as interesting as the practicalities of the subject may be, the theory, as always, is amazingly boring... Had I not gotten out my laptop in the middle of class and started working on an assignment program, I would have surely gone to sleep...

Speaking of which, the assignment looks pretty creepy... though I think I have 2 of the 5 problems down... hope to complete and submit it all before Friday and leave the weekend open for non-academic activities... namely, sleeping, laundry and lazing about...

Since I have only one class on Tuesday... started working on the Calc assignment I mentioned yesterday... none of the Calc TAs were present in the Tutorial Centre, however, an Algebra tutor was kind enough to help... incidentally, he was the one who helped me through my Calc problems the previous term...

Had a haircut today... just can't stand long hair on myself... it starts becoming all wild... decided to visit a barber before I start resembling a certain friend of mine...

Now it's all nice and short... the way I like it...

Got home... worked some more... strangely, the online assignment has vanished... wonder how they'll fix it...

Found an interesting piece of news... apparently some people can sneeze bullets...

On the topic of news: I hope Sony doesn't forget about its "traditional DSLR" users in the process of innovation... sadly that is how I see it... Sony DSLR folks (don't know how many of my readers fall into this category...), see here...

That's all for today, I guess...

Leave comments... please :)

Sunday...

As usual on the weekend... a slow start... didn't feel like getting out of bed...

Showered, made an omelette (after about 3 weeks, or maybe more)... Burnt it a bit, maybe the stove was too hot... made it all brown, but still edible... I guess I went overboard on the green chili... Had a tough time eating it... Omelette Preparation Time: 20 minutes, Eating Time: 30 seconds... Next time, one small chili on two eggs, rather than one...

Talked a bit on Skype... as with yesterday, afternoon brought with it a seemingly irresistible urge to take a nap... Anyways, put on my jacket, checked The Weather Network and the bus schedule... got myself out of the house... left my shopping list back at home...

The weather, not as nice as yesterday... cold winds lashed at my face, temperature -6°C, windchill -12°C... the sun was up... but it was still chilly... the snow was cleared up a bit, so 'twas easier to walk about...

May I mention here that this is probably the first weekend I have left the house, voluntarily, on both Saturday and Sunday...

Thankfully, the iXpress was on time... took around half an hour to get to Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener... some interesting stops along the way, particularly Uptown Waterloo and Ottawa Street (at least those are the ones I remember, and plan to stop by to photograph some time...)

Went through the mall in a straight line... this is the third time I am coming here... no use loitering around the various shops... most have things that are either of no use to me, or they have ridiculous price tags... headed to my target destination, Sam Walton's brainchild, Walmart...

Had some necessities to get for the term... Nutella (the single most important item!), butter, cheese, shampoo, toothpaste, et cetera, et cetera... Forgetting the shopping list also gives Walmart a chance to suck your wallet... Lets just say that Walmart is extremely good at making you part with your money...

After completing my shopping... waited for the bus... the iXpress would be making me wait for about half an hour, adding another 30 minutes to travel to the Uni, the Bus 12 (which stops close to my residence) arrived 20 minutes later... I wish I had waited the extra 10 minutes for the iXpress...

I learnt today that the 12 goes around the whole KW region in sorta loops... Honestly, I felt as if I saw every area I had ever considered living in back when I was searching... I think I fell asleep for a while, only to wake up in time for the announcement, "Next Stop: University, At, Phillip"...

Walked home, unloaded my stuff... occupied another shelf in the kitchen cabinet, bringing the occupied space, in the kitchen (apart from the refrigerator, of course) to a grand total of 2 shelves...

Took a look at the assignments for next week... not too freaky, but still didn't like the look of it (though the CS assignment looks interesting)... closed the pdf... did some printing... packed my bag for the new week... had dinner (chicken qormay ka salan, with daal and chaawal)... took a shower... and here I am, munching cookies and typing away...

No pics today... Fairview Park Mall ain't interesting in the slightest... plus it was too frikkin' cold to grab some outside shots, the "outside" wasn't scenic in any case...

Until tomorrow then...

PS. I Love Chocolate...

Finally, the weekend... after 4 days of work... Didn't feel like waking up... but if I don't wake up... the day goes by too quickly... and it doesn't feel like the weekend then...

Fixed myself breakfast, talked on the phone (and Skype). Had an urge to go back to sleep as afternoon approached... fought that approach, put on the winter attire, grabbed my gear, and got out of the house...

When I left, it was a pretty nice weather... around -6°C, with a little wind, and more sunlight than usual (it actually felt warm in the sun, really!)... initially, I had planned to hit the PAS (Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology Building)... someone told me that it's architecture is really interesting on the inside, it is said that it's modeled on the human brain... however, I decided that indoor photography could be done at any time, regardless of weather... nice weather doesn't come too often around these parts in these months... so I ended up at Columbia Lake...

My Facebook audience may recall (from my photo albums) that I visited Columbia Lake last term... it was my first outing with the UW Photo Club... what I saw then and what I saw and shot today... totally different... find it hard to believe that places change with weather...

Passed a lot of RIM buildings on the way... along with other stuff... it was about a 15-20 minute walk to the lake...

Shot these rail tracks on the way... don't like the clutter...

The sun shining through the trees...

Finally, got there... everything, the sports field, the surrounding area... everything covered in a white blanket... couldn't help but admire nature's art...

Under a Blanket

However beautiful it may look, walking in snow takes more than a bit of effort... Somewhat similar to walking in Dubai's sand dunes...

... standing in the snow...

The whole lake (which had been full of water, as "lakes" usually are...) was frozen...

A view of the lake from the shore

The sun above the lake...

I can now proudly say "I walked on a lake!" Though I kept to the path which was marked by foot steps, or rather, foot trails...

Foot Trails

 

... walking on (hopefully not thin) ice...

End of the Road... approximately in the middle of the lake...

A view of the shore from the lake...

Ended up at the exact place where we first gathered...

... some folks might remember this lock on the wooden shed...

Set up my tripod... tried to take a few shots of my own (it seems I hardly get photographed... poor me... :P)...

Me

On the way back, found this... plant of some sort...

I don't know what this is... some part of a plant...

Overall, a good outing... started heading back home as the weather started getting chillier; luckily, was able to take the bus back home... the bus came before I turned into a block of ice...

For more photos, visit my Facebook album here...

Okay, why didn't I post yesterday? One, the internet was down at my place (yeah, yeah, it happens here too, only that there's no poor Wateen customer service dude to practice swearing on!!!). Two, I was REALLY tired...

As the title suggests, had my first Macroecon class of the term! We started off with this:

"... I get agitated when I can't find your index card to record your grade!..."

For those who don't know, Larry Smith is probably one of the best lecturers UW can offer... Initially, I believed that since I was new here, I felt that way, but NOOOO! Engineers in their FOURTH year come to this FIRST year economics class! The class has a capacity of 370, and last I checked, the enrollment total was 372! (this is not a typo) That's not including all the "non-paying customers" that are there, present in the class...

Mr Smith's lecture style is a lot different from what is usual... He delivers the lecture while walking about the whole theater, going up and down the stairs... he doesn't just deliver a lecture, he expresses it! His methods are unconventional, rather than have students pore over books and economic theory, his course deals with the application of economics in the real world. One cannot help but be inspired...

We started off with some stock market figures... have to say, the Canadian economy has left everyone behind in the dust... In Larry's words, this "boring", "dopey", "half-frozen half the year" country avoided the economic storm by sleeping through it... In the US, the recent economic downfall was termed, "The Great Recession"; in Canada, just "recession", not great...

Course Notes...

It was interesting to know how the US was a major culprit behind the The Great Financial Fiasco Part II... Apparently, housing mortgages played a important role in bringing down the banking sector...

All very interesting... with more to come throughout the term...

I have to say, Larry Smith is a hard man to photograph... Nevertheless, I have included some shots below...

... making an observation...

... all excited...

... one of Larry Smith's typical expressions...

That's it for today...

(I seriously need topics to write on... suggestions are welcomed...)

The day's start... typical...

Had some trouble finding class... At first, didn't even know whether I should be in Calc or Algebra ... Then the professor came in and wrote his name... recognized the name from my course schedule... sighed in relief...

Robert Andre, Math 138: Calculus 2... Seems to be a pretty decent prof... Inserts witty remarks every now and then... Integration is awesome, at least for now... at one point, the prof stated that the students present in his class wouldn't have done integration for more than a year... I almost jumped out of my seat, bursting to say, "I've been doing it for three!"

Bernard Anderson, Math 136: Linear Algebra... Never saw him... first time one of my classes got canceled, due to the prof's absence...

STAT 230... can't spell the prof's name yet... will have to look it up... I just hope the course is interesting... 'cuz what I saw today... set theory... wasn't...

Had the "Professional Development" thingy... according to the "instructor", that was the only face-to-face meeting... really don't see the point of making the PD a credit course... they could have set it up to aid the job application procedure, not to hinder it... I mean, the instructions are useful, for sure, but the deadlines, the marks, and all that crap I could do without... In any case, I've been hammering away on my resume since yesterday... hope to get it ready for submission by Friday evening...

Now, my brain feels like scrambled egg...

Gotta go to bed. Tomorrow evening, Larry Smith and Macroeconomics: Global Dynamics... Yay!

Zzz...Zzz... oh yeah... my blog!

Waking up today kinda took me back... the first day of the new school year... Mom persuading you to get outta bed and into the bathroom, the usual hurried breakfast, and the anxious drive to school, all the way wondering what would the new teachers be like...

Anyhow, started off as a regular uni day... may I mention that one of the good things about this term is no classes before 9.30 any day of the week! Yay!

Got to uni about 15 mins before class... had planned on buying the CS course notes then... but saw the awfully long line at the Math Campus Copy... simply went into class without 'em... not that they were of any use today...

CS116... older sibling of the CS115... basically, all programming (or problem-solving, as the instructor insists...), this time a bit more advanced, a tad more complex... I just hope it doesn't drive me up the wall...

After class, went up to the Math Advising Office to see the Statistics advisor... Apparently there were long queues everywhere today... waited almost an hour and a half... spent a minute with the advisor.... the problem was that there was no problem! According to him, the grade requirement was just a recommendation and not a rule... Strange... In any case, I'm starting STAT 230 along with my regular courses from tomorrow...

Wow, three different math classes a day, 3 hours of different math flavors...

Went to the South Campus Hall... once again, there was - you guessed it - a huge line outside the bookstore... Thankfully, it wasn't as slow-moving as the campus copy queue... so got over with it quickly...

Came back home... Felt hungry, ate cheese and Nutella (separately, of course!) on toast... Organized my papers, files for my courses... Reviewed the course websites... Took a look at the co-op preparatory work.. Did some resume work...

Now, I'm really tired and sleepy...

Good night (or day, wherever in the world you are...)

Took the GO Bus from Waterloo to Mississauga today... After last week's (relatively) warm spell, it's getting chillier by the day. When I left Waterloo on the 21st, it was under a white blanket... today, it was mostly clear with a bit of snow on the grounds...

The weather was around -3°C, with a windchill of around -7. The sun was out, and if I had not been carrying luggage with me, I would have stopped at GO's Kitchener Terminal to do some photography. From what I've been told, Kitchener has a German background (according to Wikipedia, its name earlier was "Town of Berlin"). Hence, I wasn't surprised to see a lot of architecture which would not have looked out of place in the Commandos series of games...

I plan to go back there sometime...

Reached my place... thankfully, everything in order, unlike the last time I left for more than three days... Unpacked, settled in... went for grocery shopping to Zehrs, Connestoga Mall. Took the Ixpress this time, and I must say, it's the fastest and most punctual of all of GRT's bus routes...

While talking to others (especially my mom), I make note of how the past four months here in Canada have made me "grow up quickly"... Uni life, life in a foreign land, and life on your own... all new concepts, the burden of all placed simultaneously... When I came back to Waterloo after a couple of weeks of holidays, I felt as if I had become a kid during the past few days... and upon my return, was, once again, burdened with the weight of what we call responsibility...

Tomorrow, we start off with the Winter 2011 term... Hope the STATS advisor/professor/department give(s) their approval despite my Algebra grade...

As I wrote in my post yesterday, went to Toronto again yesterday... some of the areas visited were strangely similar to those back home...

Took a few pictures...

A wide-angle shot of the street

A street-car in the streets of Toronto

Something which could be seen back home...

The streets were quiet...

Railway Tracks

One of the many buildings...

TD Bank

Just spent the last Sunday of the winter holidays packing my stuff, and lazing about... and waiting for the ride back to Waterloo...

Looking forward to starting the next term... classes to attend, groceries to get, resumes to prepare, jobs to apply to... And of course, Larry Smith's Macroeconomics, starting next Thursday...

The next post will be from Waterloo...

Went to see the New Year's Eve fireworks behind the Brampton City Hall yesterday evening... A nice change from the cold spell of last week... although the melting of the snow meant that the ground was muddy and slippery... almost fell in, gear and all...

I had little clue about how to shoot fireworks (the last time I shot such a display was a complete fluke, thanks to the fireworks scene mode in my little Panasonic FX150)... so I followed the instructions in How to Photograph Fireworks Displays...

William Gage Park, Brampton, ON

We went to Gage Park from where I hunted around for a spot which had a good view of where the fireworks display would be taking place...

Set up my tripod, with my Sony A100 and the 18-70mm kit lens. I figured that wide angle shots would give me much more flexibility during post editing compared to the tightly zoomed-in pictures... Set the aperture to f/13, ISO 200, and set the shutter speed at the BULB setting. The BULB setting allowed me to keep the shutter open as long as the shutter button is held down (a shutter release cable is advised here, in order to minimize camera shake). Took a few trial shots... and then waited for the fireworks to start... Since it was continuously drizzling, had to cover the camera...

Brampton City Hall, just before the fireworks started...

... the opening salvos...

... streams of colors...

... a burst of color behind the city hall...

... a crop of the beautiful light streams...

Overall, a great experience...

Took a few "bokeh" shots of lights on the way back...

Lights and Bokeh - Shot with the Sony 50mm 1.8

More photos of the fireworks display here.

Went to Toronto again today... Very overcast and foggy... will try to see what shots I can salvage from today's long drive...

Had lunch at Popeye's today... it was just like KFC's Mighty Zinger back home... yummm!

That's all for the first day of the year...