A summary of my life in 2011...

A year ago, I started this blog. One of my first main pieces of writing was Life in Twenty-Ten. This post is similar, a flashback of the events of the year that is almost over now...

Walking on the frozen lake...

January: Started the year with a visit to Toronto. It was a pretty overcast day, but nevertheless, got some good photos.

Despite having a snow-less New Year's Eve, my return to Waterloo was followed by a fresh bout of snowfall. Spent some time of my first weekend at Columbia Lake, which is at the north side of UW.

Started off the term with Calculus II, Linear Algebra I, Macroeconomics, Computer Science and Probability, along with the accursed PD2. Sometime by the middle of this month, I initiated my efforts to find work for the upcoming work term...

February: The job hunt continued. Despite a fair number of applications, I was only called for a couple of interviews, neither of which had any fruitful results. The academic workload increased steadily, nothing out of the ordinary...

Had the Reading Week at the end of this month, just after a midterm. Did nothing much over my week off, except relaxing a bit and trying to take some creative shots...

Toonie © Osama Sidat

My Old Sunglasses © Osama Sidat

March: This month brought along more job applications, and subsequently, more rejections. Along with a whole bunch-load of midterms. Not fun.

The US side of the Niagara Falls © Osama Sidat

April: Along came the final exams for Winter 2011. My anxiety levels about getting a co-op job took an exponential rise. At this point, I started looking at all available options that I could consider to rescue my summer work term.

Exams weren't too bad. As soon as they were done with I packed up my stuff and abandoned my abode at the time (since I had absolutely no idea where I would be based in the summer term). Job hopes were kept barely alive by daily newcomer postings on JobMine...

In the last week of April, I visited Niagara Falls for the first time... Awesome Experience!

May: Had my first birthday away from home. Thankfully, I was with family at Brampton... had an awesome barbecue dinner!

My Birthday Cake!

Since CECS allowed a minimum of 12 weeks of co-op work, I waited out the majority of this month, applying here and there, attending interviews and visiting job fairs. It was rather frustrating. In the end, I called up the career advisor, and asked her if I could put my backup plan into effect (going back home for an internship). She agreed, since I was running out of time...

After a couple of days running around town, getting stuff for loved ones back home, I embarked on a 14-hour long flight... to home...

June & July: The feeling of seeing family again after almost 9 months is indescribable... Looking back now, not getting a job in Canada and coming back home for the summer was all worth it...

Can't believe how much I missed bothering this guy...

My Lil Bro!

Had a haircut the very next day of my arrival... 'Twas the longest I had ever kept it... Couldn't bear it in the Karachi heat!

A large majority of these months consisted of spending time with family, experimenting with new tricks at work, and preparing for the Actuarial Science Probability Exam (which was thankfully successful in the very first try).

August: Ramadan and preparation for the trip back to Canada started almost simultaneously... Successfully ended my co-op term and sent the evaluation to CECS...

My room in Fall 2011

September: Spent Eid with family. Almost immediately after, for the second time, left my home and family behind...

I was rather lucky to get a room at my old residence, after making more than a dozen calls... Commenced Fall 2011...

This term, I had Calculus III, Financial Mathematics, Statistics, Financial Accounting and Computer Science...

October: By now, it was apparent that the 2A term would be quite different, and a lot more tough compared to previous terms. Every day brought along new challenges. The problems were compounded by the less-than-adept profs for Stats and ACTSC.

Cooking Experiment: Egg-in-a-Basket

I had also started applying for jobs for the Winter 2012 co-op term, this time a lot more aggressively. Got my first interview with ManuLife Financial; rejected...

November: After 102 applications, and 3 interviews, I was finally employed for my next co-op term: Organizational Change Management Co-op at Loblaw.

December: Classes ended in the first week, closely followed by the final exams... most of which were a nightmare, with the exception of Financial Accounting. The worst was ACTSC 231, which was a real killer... In any case, I was really glad to get over with the exams...

Results came out just around December 23-25... Not pretty at all, making it a really bad term as far as academics were concerned...

Enough about the exams...

Got a chance to photograph the CN Tower while out with family at Toronto earlier this week...

The CN Tower, Toronto ON © Osama Sidat

Coincidence: Just like the first day of the year, visited Toronto (once again, twice in this past week) on the last day of this year...

The GO Terminal at Union Station, Toronto © Osama Sidat

Finally! A great wave of relief descends upon me as we inch towards the end of term. Classes after next week, and although there are still the final exams to deal with, I'm really glad to see the back of this term... It has been quite a hectic one...

Of all the midterms, Statistics was the most notable... Class average was a low 42%. Though I don't see how the professor expected any better, given the way he teaches... In an extremely Umbridge-like fashion, the prof expects us to prepare for exams using the (extremely pathetic) notes alone, without providing us with any relevant past exam questions or extra problems for practice.

On a happier note, I am now among the "Employed"! After some 90+ applications and 3 interviews, I was finally selected as a Co-op for Organizational Change Management at Loblaws, Inc. for the Winter 2012 co-op term. Goodbye JobMine, meet you next summer!

A bit of photography from the past few days...

Pocket Watch © Osama Sidat

Kinder Memories © Osama Sidat

Convergence © Osama Sidat

I guess that's about it for this post... I guess the next post will come sometime after I'm done with exams...

Until then, take care.

Good Night (or Day).

Hello there!

The last time I blogged, I was one week into the Fall term. Starting off my second year at university. Settling into my new place. Ready to take on the term...

Fast forward a month or two...

Lets just say it has been a really hectic term so far. Photography activities are at an all time low, with a huge backlog of shots accumulated in Lightroom, waiting to be processed. Midterms are now over, with one exception, which will take place sometime late next week.

Have been applying to a load of jobs for the next term. Just hoping it all works out in a timely manner.

I have developed a new fascination for tech stuff, by keeping up with the latest news on Twitter. Lately, I've been spending a lot more time on Twitter than on Facebook... Follow me @SammSid

After a whole lot of debating (in my own head) about netbooks vs tablets, and simultaneously, Android Honeycomb vs iOS, I finally settled on the Apple Ipad 2. Got it from the new Apple Store that opened in Connestoga Mall in Waterloo. So far, it has been an awesome experience. The iPad's primary use for me currently is web browsing, Tweeting, email, and reading PDF files for assignments... Lately, I use a Bamboo Stylus for rough work, calculations and notes. I've also been taking all my Financial Accounting notes on Evernote.

I just felt like writing something tonight. Hence, this blog post...

Anyways, until next time...

What's up everyone!

Fall 2011 has kicked off in full force. Classes have started, and it really feels like I'm entering the second year...

University of Waterloo - Uni Ave Entrance © Osama Sidat

This year, I've got MATH 237, ACTSC 231, STAT 231, AFM 101 & CS 136... I didn't want to have an excess of math courses, so limited them to three, and took the latter two as hopefully useful electives...

MATH 237: Calculus, something to do with multiple variables. Professor Kohandel seems to be okay, the first lecture was a bit fragmented, but subsequent lectures were better off. Time will tell how we fare in this course...

ACTSC 231: Mathematics of Finance, related to the SOA FM Exam (that is next up on my list of actuarial papers). I expected this course to be more exciting, but Professor Freeland just goes on and on and on... and the examples are rather bland. Oh well, I guess will have to turn to the text for this one...

STAT 231: Intro to Stats. Stats can be dry, but when a prof just reads of the slides, that are actually provided as course notes, it becomes really lame. Right now, there's kid stuff like pie charts and histograms, but there's bound to be some challenging stuff further down into the course...

STAT 231 © Osama Sidat

AFM 101: Financial Accounting. Prof Duane Kennedy is pretty good. So far, I'm enjoying the course. I rarely read up course material before class, but this class is one instance where I did, 'cuz it was interesting and pretty clear. Really hope to make this course count...

Professor Kennedy © Osama Sidat

CS 136: Elementary Algorithm Design & Data Abstraction. Am I crazy for taking this course since I'm not a CS major? Maybe! Despite that the assignment problems can induce strings of curse words, I find programming to be fun and challenging. Gordon Cormack teaches in a nice, slow kind of a way, which makes it easy to connect the dots...

Well, this is kinda it. My course rundown...

I've been accepted as a Teaching Assistant for Math. Gonna be marking first year quizzes/assignments!

Thursday Night: Turned up Larry Smith's ECON 101! As usual, it was awesome!

Cooked up my tuna & spaghetti dinner yesterday, this time included a few additions from here. Turned out pretty good!

Spaghetti with Tuna Sauce © Osama Sidat

Roamed around for a bit in the University today. Wanted to take photos of the new Mathematics building, the M3. It's pretty neat, and for a change, it has lots of windows and sunlight (unlike the MC, affectionately known to Mathies as the "jail-house").

Mathematics 3 - New Home of ActSci & Stats Depts © Osama Sidat

More photos from around UW (all shot today) can be found in my Facebook Album.

Looking forward to UWPC meetings... I just hope I can fit 'em around my schedule; might be easier this time, since no late evening classes...

So, that's it for this week. Lets see when the next post rolls around...

Until next time...

Good Night (or Day)

Hello there folks!

I had intended to update the blog as soon as I moved in, however, until Monday night, my dwelling was devoid of an Internet connection... Since classes started on Monday, I've been pretty busy ensuring a smooth start to the term...

So here I am, back in Waterloo. As some readers might recall, I was having a fair bit of difficulty in obtaining a place for residence (Getting to Canada). On my trip to Waterloo to search for housing, I passed by my old place, which I'd been told was to be closed for rental by August. Luckily, I found a couple of people who knew me as a previous tenant, and was informed that the place would be up for another four months, and they had quite a number of rooms available. Hooray! I was getting a good deal so I immediately signed up! As they say, "Don't look at a gift horse in the mouth"...

My Home for Fall 2011

Moved here with all my stuff on Friday... After dumping my bags, boxes, crates and what-not in the master bedroom... I had a monstrous task ahead of me... cleaning the kitchen...

And a rather dirty kitchen it was! Worse was the refrigerator! Had to hold my breath when clearing it out! Scrubbed and washed out every single shelf, every nook and cranny. The stink simply refused to go away... only to be cured a couple of days later by the utilization of some baking soda... And the microwave... it looked like someone had exploded something inside it!

Thankfully, an hour and a half later, the kitchen was totally cleaned out...

A View of the Kitchen

The next target was the bathroom... Which surprisingly did not take a very great effort...

The Sink Missing the Plug...

Decided to take a break from the cleaning... Set out for Zehrs to get necessary groceries...

Returned back home around sunset. Rearranged bedroom furniture, and dusted and scrubbed the wooden flooring. Unpacked the bags and boxes and arranged all the stuff. It took a while, but it was totally worth it...

My Room

My Closet

My Working/Eating Table

The only problem initially was no Internet. Two days without Net were crazily boring! Add to the fact that connecting via Fido through my BlackBerry gave a really crappy speed. Unable to bear much longer, I put in a few calls to SparkMatrix, the ISP who controls the Internet around here. Turns out that they can completely discontinued their services, and were starting from scratch... Took them a while to deliver... But on Monday night, finally got access...

So yeah, that was my moving-in story. For more pictures of my new place, see my Facebook album.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Stay tuned for "First Week of Fall 2011", which will probably be out sometime during the upcoming weekend...

Good Night/Day

I'm back in Canada now...

This time, I maintained a sort of a blog on my BlackBerry, where I kept a "blow-by-blow" account from the point I entered the lounge at the Karachi airport, up till the time I retrieved my baggage at Pearson. I thought it would be interesting to document the things I experienced as they happened on my way there...

So, without further ado, here it is... Happy Reading!

Note: Times are in the format "Karachi/Toronto".

6.39am/9.39pm: Sitting in the airport lounge now. Getting through all the airport procedures and stuff was, like always, a bit of a hassle. I should realize by now that it's all part of travel... Sunrise is looking beautiful from where I am sitting right now...

7.02am/10.02pm: Sudden change in departure gates... Yeah, thanks a lot PIA. From being at the forefront of the gate, to being pushed to near the back of the queue. Thankfully, was able to make my way to the front again, so I was one of the first few to board the plane... Now, seated in 24D, as comfortably as possible in an airplane...

7.09am/10.09pm: Just like last year, there seems to be quite a lot of people on the flight...

7.21am/10.21pm: The passengers are mainly students and hyper groups of kids with seemingly irritated moms...

7.43am/10.43pm: In-Flight Catalog = Can barely pass 5 minutes of your time... Oh yeah, the announcement just came, we are getting ready to depart!

7.53am/10.53pm: "... Umeed hai kay aap ka safar khushgawar rahay ga... " Plane taxiing now...

7.55am/10.55pm: Why is the background music on PIA so oriental, like something out of a Chinese restaurant???

8.00am/11.00pm: Fourteen and a half hours, 12250km to destination...

8.03am/11.03pm: Why are the innards of the plane creaking during take-off???

8.18am/11.18pm: Sooo... we are up in the air... And I'm already starting to get bored...

8.25am/11.25pm: Okay, so I thought I should check out if any movies or anything are available on the flight... Well, the entertainment system doesn't seem to be working yet... The pilot's going on and on about "how" we'll get there...

8.33am/11.33pm: Just got a pair of headphones and a smelly "blanket"... The latter is only suitable for use as an alternate cushion...

8.43am/11.43pm: In-Flight entertainment is on... A couple of movies are probably worth watching... Even if I might have seen 'em before... 

8.49am/11.49pm: Watching "The Mechanic"

9.00am/12.00am: Breakfast here... Let's check it out... Though this time, I brought my own sandwich, thanks to Mom, like Ron Weasley; difference is that I actually look forward to eating the sandwich instead of the airline food...

10.27am/1.27am: Breakfast was the usual omelette that didn't really appeal to me beyond a couple of bites. Ate a bit of the strange kebab they had provided with the omelette, along with a croissant with strawberry jam. Was still hungry, so turned to my real meal: homemade hunter-beef sandwiches... Thanks a lot, Mom! Now, movie's over, and on a full stomach, I'm feeling a tad bit sleepy. Might as well try to nap while I still can...

1.27pm/4.27am: Past 3 hours were spent fidgeting about in my seat, trying to make myself comfortable enough to sleep. I guess I might've gotten about an hour or two's worth of napping. Right now, wide awake again, will watch Russell Peters on my laptop, which will hopefully take care of another couple of hours, that is, if the laptop battery keeps up... Eight and a half hours, 7123km to destination...

4.10pm/7.10am: Had a good laugh with Russell Peters latest show. Didn't have any other movies on the laptop, so spent the remaining battery time on a few games of Minesweeper. It's strange how a game that I didn't get at all a year back can be so addicting. The ride over Northern Europe was rather bumpy... The seat belt sign hasn't switched off since. Will check out the In-Flight movies again, to pass some time. Six hours, 4900km to destination...

6.00pm/9.00am: Watching "Gladiator"... Felt hungry, so ate my second sandwich. Soon after, PIA served dinner/lunch. Didn't feel like eating much of it... I just hope the next few hours pass by quickly...

7.16pm/10.16am: Starting to get tired now. Tummy acting up. Plus, the air-conditioner seems to be down, starting to get warm. Still, three hours, 2200km to go...

9.12pm/12.12pm: Another hour still to go... I've had enough of the flight...

10.03pm/1.03pm: Descending, gonna land in 20 minutes...

10.24pm/1.24pm: Touchdown!

11.02pm/2.02pm: Waiting for baggage... This is gonna take a while...

I had intended to properly conclude the memo on my BlackBerry when I got my stuff... Unfortunately, by the time my bags came around, my patience had thinned out considerably... I rushed out like a maniac... And totally forgot about my writeup until later during the day...

Re-activated my phone, and begun and search for residence as soon as I had freshened up a bit... Unfortunately, still looking... most of the places I had listed earlier, before leaving home, are no longer available...

Gonna head to UW tomorrow... Especially looking forward to seeing the Mathematics M3 building, which now houses the ActSci and Stats Departments...

So, this culminates my blog post for today... I hope I can maintain the blog a bit more regularly... :P