Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Life during the Winter 2012 Work Term

It's been quite a while since my last post. Not that I was totally busy or anything... just far too lazy to sit down and write something!

Last time, I mentioned that I would be starting work in the following week. Started off in Loblaw on January 3 (from what i remember). Honestly, in the beginning, I was unsure of the role I would be playing in the team I was part of. In the early days, I moved around quite bit. First week, frequently changed seats on the main floor, next few weeks in the basement, and then back up again. To most, this would be an annoyance, as it would require moving your stuff to a new place every other day. I kinda liked it, since it gave me the chance to meet different people on the project, and also kept my work from getting monotonous... Over time, things became clearer, and I was able to see how the stuff I worked on impacted others within and outside my team.

Working in such an environment felt quite new to me. No more fretting about course assignments or midterms on a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week basis. Sure, some tasks at work were more grilling than others. But the best part was being able to leave work at the workplace at the end of the day, and being free of anything to do with work until the next morning.

A Mug of Hot Chocolate © Osama Sidat
A significant part of my experience was that I was blessed with an awesome boss and a great team! They were able to challenge my skills, and help me improve upon them, each in their own way. I learned a lot! If they are reading this (they know who they are), this is for all of them: I really appreciate all you did :)

Whenever I was during a thinking process at work (or feeling a bit bored), I worked on this doodle. It grew over time...

My Epic Doodle! © Osama Sidat
Got a pretty decent place to live in Brampton. Nice house-mates, and by far, the cleanest place I've lived in, in my four terms here in Canada.

Since I had a greater arsenal of cooking utensils available at my disposal, I was able to experiment a bit...

Cutting Up a Green Pepper  © Osama Sidat

Penne Pasta with Meat Sauce © Osama Sidat 
Finally restarted gaming on my PC by getting myself Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. Got through the single-player within 12 hours of buying the game... now just working my way through the multiplayer... (Though it seems that my gaming hours will be drastically cut short, now that I'm back in university.)

COD MW3 © Osama Sidat
Photography during the term was not as frequent. I did experiment with water splashing in a glass. This was made possible by using the glass table-top of my writing table, and borrowing a couple of glasses from the kitchen...

Glass in Water © Osama Sidat
Also got a chance to visit the Toronto AUTO Show. Really wanted to see a Porsche, which unfortunately wasn't there. Of the whole lot, my favorite was the concept showed off by BMW:

BMW Concept Car © Osama Sidat
Lately, I've been experimenting with low angle shots with my Panasonic FX-150...

Steeles Avenue, Near Shoppers World, Brampton © Osama Sidat
Returning from Work © Osama Sidat
Oh, and did I mention I was sharing the house with not one, but two cats? Never expected that to happen, I thought I had to bury my love of cats for a long time when I left the ones back home...

Am © Osama Sidat
Ludwig © Osama Sidat
Ludwig was lots of fun... Quite often, I'd find him curled up on my room's windowsill, soaking up the evening rays of sunlight.

Last night I was there, the cats held a meowing competition outside my door at 1.30 a.m., presumably to say goodbye or something...

All in all, it was a wonderful term... Can't wait to go back in September...

As of now, I'm back in Waterloo. Just moved in on Sunday. Had my first classes of the term today. So far, the weather has been a bit rainy and overcast. Will put up a post about my new place and classes and all in a couple of weeks... probably once I've taken some pictures of the room and house, and had a better feel of all my current courses...

I guess this is all for now. Hopefully, I'll have another post up here in a few days (or weeks, hopefully not months this time).

Good Night (or Day)



More of my cooking here
For more photos of the water in glass project, check this
To check out other shots from my low-perspective photo project, see this
Toronto AUTO Show pictures here


More pictures of Ludwig will be up as soon as I'm done with the processing. Keep an eye out on my Facebook photos (or my Twitter feed)


Update: Ludwig's photos have been uploaded! See them here or here.

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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Life In Twenty-Eleven

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 

I am really looking forward to starting work from next Tuesday. Hopefully, it will all turn out well...

I will end this year with the following prayer:

Dear Allah, 
On This New Year, And The Years To Come,
Grant Us The Serenity,
To Accept The Things We Cannot Change;
The Courage, To Change The Things We Can;
And The Wisdom, To Know The Difference.
A'ameen
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Sunday, November 27, 2011

As Fall 2011 comes to an end...

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).


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Thursday, November 10, 2011

A Random Piece of Writing...

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...
Keep reading ...

Saturday, September 17, 2011

First Week of Fall 2011

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)
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Return to Waterloo

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
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