Another year, another politically-correct, almost sladerous take on a 2000 year-old event. I’m biased because of my beliefs, but it still irks me to see the changes from even a few years ago.

The entire calendar system, the basis of faith for more than two billion people, and one of the most recorded/discussed/celebrated events in humanity. People barely question Homer’s Illiad and yet the oldest copy is from approximately 600 AD (!), while copies of Biblical books have been found to within 50 AD. Sigh…

Religious preservation aside, Christmas is a time for family, friends, celebration, and surfeit amounts of food.

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"Let’s agree to disagree." Seems like a fitting phrase to describe the past few days.

A tradition of the class of 2002 is a Secret Santa dinner. I organized it last year so am organizing it again. (I’ve also been made the coordinator of group events due to my useful resourcefulness.)

Between getting RSVPs and trying to coordinate a menu, date & time, and other intricacies of a group event, there are always those that make it difficult. Some have legitimate concerns such as allergies, while others are just plain lazy or selfish. Add to that the busyness of the season, exams, work, etc. and it’s almost not worth it.

However, it’s Christmas, and at the end of it all, it’ll be great to hang out with friends, chat, and totally forget about school — at least for a few days.

1 horrible Java exam down, 4 more left to go.

Coordinating the Secret Santa event for 13 people means we’ll never agree on a restaurant, but when all else fails, it’s time to be a dictator.

2 weeks left and I’ll be flying home. The train would have put me in around 10pm so I wouldn’t have been able to get anything done that day, so by flying, I’m getting back at 3:30. 4hr train ride vs. 45min flight. I’ve sunk to a new level of impatience.

It’s a strange feeling when in 4^th-year university, I finally get the sense that I’ve learnt something useful.

I was sitting in Telecommunication Circuits, which isn’t a mandatory course for Communications engineering (brilliant Carleton, JUST brilliant), when the little pieces from the past 3 years just clicked.

• AM modulation uses envelope detection
• digital communication uses frequency, amplitude, and phase modulation
• coding allows for reduced SNR
• etc.

The shocking part is, all this is "common sense" in Communications, at least for me. I had to go to school for this?

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I was making breakfast this morning and sleepily considering the subject of my Economics term paper. I was frying up some bacon and missed the simplicity yet multitude of functions that a simple pair of chopsticks provide. Stirring, mixing, as tongs, etc.

As for the term paper, it’ll be a good gauge to see if my affinity for Economics is more than a side-interest, having to produce a 15-page, 4^th-year honours-level paper. It’ll also mean having to use the library, which as an engineer is foreign. At least the Page Break’s mocha is decent.

The past two weeks have been, hands-down, the most stressful in all of university. Welcome to 4^th year. With the sheer volume of assignments, labs, and midterms, sleep was a precious commodity.

I wouldn’t feel so bad if all the courses were useful, but alas, it’s the same crap over, just refried. Java can crawl off to a corner and die. I’ve sworn that I would never take a job where the main component is programming and SYSC 4504 should be a computer engineering course, not a mandatory course for communications.

On the verge of borderline political incorrectness (pfft!), programming is being off-shored/outsourced for a reason. You can get it done cheaper and support a developing country’s economy by hiring Eastern Europeans, Indians, and Chinese to program. My aunt, who’s a DBA for Nortel says that the main design jobs are still kept here because the skill level has yet to reach that point offshore, but debugging and other rote tasks are all off-loaded.

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It’s official. I can no longer stand residence cafeteria food.

1st year, it was new.

2nd year, they changed format, style, offerings.

3rd year, they change caterers.

But yesterday, I walked in, took a look at the lines and food available, and walked out. Sad, really.

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