University of Waterloo Convocation

At last, its over ! ALL OVER ! On June 15 of 2011, I had my convocation at the University of Waterloo. Celebrating my achievement of a bachelor of science in honours chemistry. A full gallery below, so read on and celebrate (with me)!

June 15th was the convocation date for all of sciences, applied health sciences was in the mornings at 10:30am and natural sciences such as biology, chemistry, and others were in the afternoon at 2:30pm. I was in the latter group. Most of my friends were there to pick up their diplomas except a few. You will see them in the gallery below if I decided to write caption on the photos.

I also brought a good from from my highschool with me to UW because he was free. He had never been to UW before and to our surprise, while there, we bumped into some of his friends too ! This world is so small.

We returned home at around 7:00pm in time for dinner. No parties unfortunately, was grabbed by my parents before I could escape. Boohoo.

Gallery below.

UW Convocation June 15, 2011

Read more!

UW Graduation Composite Photo Get!

The end of my 5 years education is ending before my eyes.



The photo pickup was free along with this bag of goodies.


- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

Read more!

Writing on the go: Congratz !! New ipad2 owner

My helpful lab instructor, named Jake Fisher, bought an ipad2!! 32gb 3G black model! Lucky!! He teaches the physical chemistry laboratories at UW and is the most senior lab instructor now ! Hes great to get along with. If you do see him, just mention my name ! (Pak Hin Law) You'll get a great reaction. ;)

I missed out ;-;
Just 4 more people or so before me when it sold out.

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

Read more!

MySpace Port: University of Waterloo Poem

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

University of Waterloo Poem

Water water water!!!
loo loo loo!!!
Water water water!!!
loo loo loo!!!
Welcome to our university,
its not for the poor and needy.
Overpricing food and book,
forcing us all to cook.
Paying for tuition is hell,
to afford, your home must sell.
Ninety thousand for a year,
that alone will make you fear.
That is only the beginning,
to the university's winning.
If you choose to live in rez,
your money and future will be a mess.
Deep in debt you will be,
because that is just like me.
Another evil plan they have,
is forcing you to go take math.
Its the course that rapes our mark,
trapping our souls, make us park,
into their grasps forever.
We will not escape, not ever.
Fail and fail year after year,
I see bankrupcy drawing near.
I regret the choice I made,
and also cry for my current grade.
There is no fun in waterloo,
if we play games, they will sue.
Rob us of what we have left,
then put us in jail like a theft.
Forcing parents to spend cash,
to bribe us free, with their stash.
Ruining their own retirement,
draining their money as payment,
to the university for our release,
no more cash, retirement ceased.
We become beggars, nothing more,
At UW, I truly swore.
"You wrecked my life, you filthy b*stards"
"I should have been rich... I was a nerd!"
Please pay a visit to my home sometime,
its a big box filled with lime.
Please bring some food and money,
Its not a joke, I'm not that funny.

In reality however, UW is a very nice place. haha

Read more!

Japan 111R Twelfth Class

Last class !!
We had presentations and learned just 1 lesson from the textbook. But somehow still took the whole class time...

We began by learning the last lesson. It was on the 3 verbs, ageru (to give), morau (to receive), and kureru (to receive). We were taught on its usage and when is it grammatically incorrect.
Of course, we learned how to conjugate those 3 verbs, but the same rules were used from previous lectures. (All part of putting it together)
eg/
I received candy from my friends.
I, from friends, candy received.
watashi wa tomodachi ni okashi wo moraimashita. (Is grammatically correct)
watashi wa tomodachi ni okashi wo kuremashita. (Is grammatically wrong)
tomodachi wa watashi ni okashi wo kuremashita. (Is grammatically correct)

Thats all we learned in this class. Then we had our presentations.

There were 5 presentations in total. The first one was a gameshow. Second was a puppet show except the puppets were paper drawings. Third was skit for news. Fourth was my group's skit, a comedy gameshow where unsuspecting victims are pranked. And 5th was a recorded skit with a questionnaire at the end.

In general, I think the presentations got better as it went from the first to the last.

The teaching assistants (TAs) also did a skit of their own. They portrayed a japanese person living a hard life in Canada because of some of their words. The skit was performed in a restaurant setting where the japanese person would use words like "hamachi" for some fish which I can't remember. But it sounds like "how much?". And so the english speakers would give them the bill when they really wanted to order some food. There were other words besides that one.

After that, the professor gave us her thanks for interest in Japanese and said she had a good time teaching our class. She also told us that the exam will be 2 hours in duration and 6 pages in length.

I personally enjoyed the class. It was the only class at university I've been in where I actually enjoyed it. I felt like it wasn't much like a university class, more like highschool. Where you could speak out and no professor or anyone would be shouting at you. In any of my other chemistry classes, if you spoke (other than raising your hand and asking a question), the professors would scowl at you. Here, I could just say some whatever is on my mind (supposing its appropriate for the situation), no one would care. Heck, sometimes people would laugh or the professor would make a follow-up remark.

I will be trying to enroll in Japan102R. Since Japan111R is in direct conflict with the technical elective I need to take. I hope it will be just as fun. If I get in and you're enrolled in it already. Please do say hi to me. Name is Pak Hin Law.

Read more!

Japan 111R Eleventh Class

Today was our second last class. Next class will be just an hour or lecture then presentation!! I'm worried sick !

At this point, our script isn't done, we haven't rehearsed, we have no idea on our props. We pretty much haven't done anything!

But looking at it another way.
We have the script made, just need to translate it from english to japanese. And then we just need to memorize the lines and get together and practice. We should be able to do that over the weekend. So it should turn out fine.

On another note, the midterm was disastrous LOL. I knew I missed a few questions but LOL. 81%? WHAT? *SHOCK*

Whats done is done. Just gotta do better for final. Nothing much I could say about it. Careless mistakes and just a few questions which I got it wrong.

Today, we learned how to conjugate the 2 types of adjectives to their past tense forms.
For "i" adjectives:
ookii desu (present tense)
ookikunai desu (present tense negative)
ookikatta desu (past tense)
ookikunakatta desu (past tense negative)

For "na" adjectives:
shizuka desu (present tense)
shizuka dewa arimasen (present tense negative)
shizuka deshita (past tense)
shizuka dewa arimasen deshita (past tense negative)

For "na" adjectives, they are nearly treated like nouns. ie. kuruma desu (its a car).

But thats all we learned. We played some game where I forgot the name. Something similar to slap jack. TA calls out a hiragana character, we gotta find it on the table (scattered).

Things learned:
- Conjugation of adjectives for past tense and past tense negative
- for both "i" and "na" adjectives

Read more!

Japan 111R Tenth Class

We had our midterm !! And with it came lots of tears.

Hopefully I breezed through it. I did mess up something, so I'm sure it wasn't perfect. Forgot what "cleaning" it was "souji" D: !

Aside from the midterm, alot of new material was taught. Actually the only new material was adjectives. A whole sheet of them. We also learned how to conjugate those adjectives to their negative forms and "adjective" forms.
eg/ kirei (pretty) [exception 1 (even though it ends in "i"), type na adjective]
Declarative form
sono neko wa kirei desu ne.
(that cat is pretty, right?)

Negative form
ano hito wa kirei dewa arimasen.
(that person over there is not pretty.)

"Adjective" form
kono kireina e wa totemo takai desu.
(this pretty drawing is very expensive.)

Likewise, we learned the same for the "i" adjectives.

Another fun class. I think.

Kyou no kurasu ha tanoshii deshita.
(Today's class was fun.)

Things learned:
- Adjectives
- group "i" adjective
- group "na" adjective
- Conjugation of adjectives (both types)
- "ha dou desu ka" (question that usually result in adjective response)

Read more!

Japan 111R Ninth Class

As far as I know, today we learned nothing fundamentally new. Just continuation of the previous class.

We got a few more verbs in our knowledge bank now. We also learned more nouns as well. But thats all. A boring lecture (atleast in terms of knowledge).

What we learned:
- Nothing much
- more verbs and nouns, no new fundamental rules

Read more!

Japan 111R Eighth Class

Unlike last week, this week was much less work. I guess things balance out.

Several major things happened today in class.

1. We got our groups for the final presentation
2. Midterm date was pushed from Nov 10 to Nov 17
3. We had our oral test
4. Verb quiz is next week

In terms of teaching, we went over verbs again.

A lot of time was left to us to decide our groups and start brainstorming an idea.

What we learned today:
- Difference between "de" and "ni" for location marker
- "de" is used if the verb is an action verb
- "ni" is used if the verb is imasu or arimasu
- I just restated what the professor said, I am still not so sure about it.
- Frequency words
- such as mainichi, maiasa, maiban, maishuu

Read more!

Japan 111R Seventh Class

Today was probably exceeded the majority of the class' learning capability! I mean, its ALOT of new material ! Even I am worried. And I haven't worried before in class =(

To begin today's class, we had a quiz, about the days of the week and counting months, of course. Aced! YES!

Then we were reviewing the relative locations material, left, right, beside, etc

We did some other reviews, like asking where something is at an airport, or in someone's house, etc. All oral practice, professor says its important. And I agree.

Then came our break.

We were told that we were ahead of scheduel so I was expecting the class to be pretty relaxed for the time being. However, after the break, all h*ll broke loose !

Professor went on to the next lesson. About ordering foods. And what good is ordering food without first learning the verbs, "Tabemasu", right? RIGHT?!

You bet thats right! But she didn't stop there... Ohhh... no.... She went onto a list of 30 verbs. YES 30! Including what is known as the "u" verbs and "ru" verbs including the irregular verbs!

Holy crap! Thats too much. Seriously. But we were told we did have 2 weeks to cover it all. Thank goodness. Though, I bet most of the brains in the class already snapped.

But lets think of the good side. With these many verbs, we'll be able to engage in meaningful chatter in japanese! Right? Cause clearly verbs like migaku (to polish) is important... right...?

But seriously, on a plus side. The prof is going into the conjugation of verbs! YES ! I've been waiting for this day since day 1. I don't know how much she will teach, but any is better than none.

Yes, thats right, we're not just learning the -masu form for those 30 verbs ! but the -ru form as well. Isnt that cool? Thats like... 60 verbs! YAY!

We previously covered the negative and past tense and negative past tense also, so we'll put it all together now.

Oh, and for your interest, for "u" verbs, which are verbs not ending in "iru" or "eru" though there are exceptions where some "iru" and "eru" verbs fall into this category, but you will have to memorize those, the conjugation rule for -masu ending is:

Convert the _u to _i then add masu.

For example,
kaku -> kaki -> kakimasu
nomu -> nomi -> nomimasu

For the "ru" verbs, which are verbs that must end in "iru" or "eru", the conjugation rule for -masu ending is:

Drop the last "ru" then add masu.

For example,
miseru -> mise -> misemasu
neru -> ne -> nemasu

So we have a whole new bunch of words to practice in our free time. Of course we still have that presentation next week. Also we just got our final project today. Now I need to find some group members then decide what to do. Busy class... for a first year course =/

Heres what was learned today:
- Difference between "ya" and "to"
- "ya" is used for if there are many things more than just what you listed, for example, you use it when you want to say there are pencils and books on a desk with several other things as well. Tsukue no ue ni enpitsu ya hon ga arimasu.
- "to" is used if you are listing out everything on in that environment or system, for example, you use it when you want to say there are pencils and books on the desk which only has pencils and books.
Tsukue no ue ni enpitsu to hon ga arimasu.
- Verbs, 30 of them
- Learned their -masu form and -ru form
- Learned how to conjugate them between forms
- Learned the groups of verbs, 1 for "u", 2 for "ru", and 3 for irregular

Read more!

Japan 111R Sixth Class

Today, we continue to learn verbs and nouns. We're up to 5 verbs now! And nouns just keep piling. I think we'll be able to carry out a proper conversation soon.

We were suppose to play bingo today but we missed it for some reason. It got pushed to the next class.

Surprisingly, there was no quiz today ! But there will be a quiz tomorrow. And the class after that, an oral quiz... Boooo!

The quiz we should have had but didn't was going to be about counting months and days, such as;
Nichiyoubi, Getsuyoubi, etc
Ichigatsu, Nigatsu, etc
Tsuitachi, Futsuka, etc

Tough stuff. I studied for it too. Oh well.

As for the presentation quiz in 2 weeks. We need to memorize a paragraph of about 8 sentences. Say it out properly, at a good speed and audible (can't say bengoshi as be-n-go-shi, gotta say it smoothly). Also we will be asked a question or two about the paragraph we read. Such as what certain things means (translation question).

I hope I don't mess up. I am terrible at presentation.

We learned quite a lot today, list below:
- Verbs imasu, arimasu
- Past tense of those words
- Negative tense of those words
- Difference between emphasis of subject and not
- Using "ha" and "ga"
- Ordering the sentence if there are many things like "_ de", "_ ni", etc
- Directional words
- ue, mae, soba, etc
- Location words
- book store, phamarmacy, station, etc
- How to ask what something is using "_tte nan desu ka"
- "yo" and "ne" and when they are used

Read more!

Japan 111R Fifth Class

Another day another dollar... another 50 cents after tax.

Uh... nevermind. We had a test on our 5th class. It was brutal. We did a bunch of other stuff too. Full listing below.

First thing we did when we got to class was write a test. It was called a quiz. But it was 1 page both sided. Whereas our normal quizzes were 1/3 or 1/2 a page, single sided. It wasn't too hard. I definitely, didn't get perfect. But it wasn't easy either. It was alot of writing for one thing. It was no wonder alot of people didn't finish.

I got out of that test first. Yep, was pretty confident too, but then I started noticing things I did wrong. Like for the hiragana "ru", I pierced the bottom... LOL damn. Amongst other errors. But that was the worst of them.

In terms of learning. It wasn't much different from any other day. We did sing some song though. Using the melody from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the lyrics were replaced with stuff like "a" "i" "o" "u", etc. It was about learning Hiragana.

Alot of stuff was learned today. Going to take a long time getting this stuff down. Especially the days of a month.

All the things learned today:
- more nouns (meeting, park, places, today, tomorrow, etc)
- Going to places
- first 3 verbs, ikimasu, kimasu, kaerimasu
- including present, past, present negative, past negative
- Time
- today, tomorrow, next week, last month, etc
- monday, tuesday, etc
- 1st day of the month, 2nd day, 31st day, etc
- particle "ni"

Read more!

Japan 111R Fourth Class

Another day. And another quiz. This one was about numbers and time. I think I aced it. I also got all my previous quizzes back. 100% YES ! Anywhere, heres what happened today.

A standard day, nothing out of the ordinary like the Japanese Bingo last week. Several presentations where I had to speak a few lines from the textbook. Other things are like following what the teacher says and repeat after them.

All in all, a normal day. So far now, we had a quiz every class. Next week will be different because it will be a TEST. Its called a quiz in the syllabus, but its going to be 30 mins instead of 5. Also, I hope I do well in it next week. I'll be studying and working on my other assignments. Busy busy.

Oh.. There is one thing special. We finally used our first verb ! Misete!
However, we did not talk about the word at all. In fact, the professor did not even say it was a verb. She just linked it with -kudasai and told us that was how you say "please show me". orz

FYI, misete is from the verb miseru (to show)

Anyway lets wrap it up here.

What we learned this week:
- More nouns
- "to" for saying one thing with another, watashi to isshou = "I with everyone"
- Learned counting, hitori, futari, hitotsu, futatsu, etc
- Learned the word "ikura" and how to ask how much something is
- Learned the word "kudasai" and how to use it
- Briefly learned "-demo ii desu ka?", we learned from the example, "'card' demo ii desu ka?" for can I use a card?, this phrase is used to ask whether or not you can do a certain thing.

Read more!

Writing on the go: Ancaster Gem Show Volunteer

Hello, today I got to school early to do volunteering. I was at school at 7:00 and there was no one!! More info below.

It was so amazing!

The volunteering work started at 8:30am but we left at UW at 7:38am.

The location was at Ancaster, close to Hamilton.

I was basically volunteered to be a tour guide for a group of 4th graders from a specific school. I was in charge of The Lady of Lourdes.

It was a great experience. The kids were great, so lively and happy. One kid wasn't so great though. Disturbing the class when a presenter was talking.

There was a shopping hall, I bought about 18 dollars of stuff. Pictures of the place below.


My job was to lead the kids around the building to the events and to make sure that they followed a preset schedule. Easy work. After the class left, it was all free time for me to shop.

We left at 2:38pm or so. In fact I am writing this on my iPhone while sitting in the bus.

PS. I bet my mom is real jealous.

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

Read more!

Japan 111R Third Class

Here we are, already at our third class, 1/4 of the way through the term. Full details below.

Like always, its has been just alot of repeating after the professor and occasional presentation of a couple of lines between my partner and I. The presentations are getting more difficult with new words learned and the need to memorize. Of course, the professor still helps you with the words, if you get stuck. But I try not to.

As for the difficulty, it has definitely gotten harder. We're at a point where there are actual things I hadn't known/studied before. For example, that when you say minutes, sometimes you use fun, other times is pun, all depending on which number is said right before it. For example, 1 = ippun while, 2 = nifun.

More memory work !! argh !!

We did do something interesting today though. Although not that great. We had something called the Hiragana Bingo. Yes, its bingo, instead of numbers, we picked our own hiragana and put them into a 3x3 and 4x4. We played Bingo twice. Winners got some Japanese chocolate. I didn't win. Boo.

Finally, here is what we learned today:
- How to use ano/sono/kono
- How to read time (hours and minutes)
- Ask what time "nan ji"
- Learned kara/made, for "from"/"until"
- More nouns
- Events (meeting, working, partying, etc)
- Places (Department store, super market, restaurant, etc)

Read more!

Japan 111R Second Class

Here we are at the 2nd week/class at Japan 111R. Continue reading for the details.

When class began, we had a short practice of hiragana then we had a quiz on the hiragana characters.

We had a few practice where we had to walk up to the board to write/erase stuff. Otherwise, we just sat there and repeated what the professor said. Or talking with my partner.
Things learned:
- Lots of nouns (jobs, places, household items)
- Numbers (practice with phone numbers)
- Particles: mo, de, no
- Question words (doko, dare/donata, nan)
- Position words (koko, soko, asoko, kore, sore, are)

Closing statement, another easy course except for the mass overflow of nouns. This makes it difficult to learn because they're not in sentence or anything, just a huge list of nouns. Atleast a picture is included, that helps...

Read more!

Review: Dragon Dog...?

I was at UW yesterday, attending classes. I dropped by my favourite lab instructor for a chat since thats what I like doing... talking. And somehow we got to a conversation about foods and he mentioned a DRAGON DOG at the Davis Centre cafeteria. Told me to try it. So now I have and whats what I thought.

First of all, there are several choices with your dragon dog. As seen in the picture below.

You can choose your sausage, topping, and sauce.

The one I had was,
Honey & Garlic sausage
Crispy Cabbage topping
Cheeky Chilli sauce.

It was surprisingly good. Of course, I have never heard of the topping or sauce. I've had plenty of honey garlic sausages while I lived away from home in Ottawa. But they just microwave the sausage then put it on a grill for a few more minutes. I boil my sausages in water then pan fry them. Not sure which is better.

Although it was great, the cost was $4.50. Not quite the most affordable considering its a hot dog... with different toppings. Hot dogs are $2.50 or something.

I greatly enjoyed the sauce and the topping. The sausage was ok too, but I never had deep fried cabbage before. It was crispy and tasty.

This dragon dog is suppose to be hot, atleast thats what my impression is considering the name of the toppings and sauces. Although there was the Black Pepper sausage that I could have chosen, my configuration wasn't very hot. It was hot, but not hot enough to make me drink water. If its not hot enough for me, then its probably pretty weak in terms of spiciness. For example, a few people I know can handle spicy on a whole higher level than I am. I think I'm one of the poorest people when it comes with dealing with spicy flavours.

But the bottom line is, that its tasty. I don't think its worth the money, however, if you got some extra change and want something for a change. Definitely drop by the University of Waterloo Davis Centre for a taste of the DRAGON DOG.

Read more!

Japan 111R First Class

I was so excited ! Since its my first time officially learning the language through an institute (UW in this case). I got to class about 30 mins early >w<

The teacher is a pretty old lady, shes fluent in Japanese (as expected). No weird accent when speaking english either. Great news. I can't stand those Japanese accents when speaking english =(. It sounds too weird to me.

Anyway, to my dismay, this course seem to be more for the busy people, because the book is called Learning Japanese for Busy People. Boo. Meaning, it'll probably be more like teaching you phrases and things, instead of getting to the bones of Japanese.

Well, if thats the case, I expect to ace this course. Since I've already done a few CD lectures in the past. On and off. Been at it for a long time too... on and off.

What we covered in the first week.
- Talked about the Hiragana characters
- all 46 of them
- including the "ba" and "pa" alternatives of "ha", and the "da", "za", "ga", etc also
- small "ya", "yu", "yo"
- double vowel (aa, ii, oo, etc)
- double consonant (ikko, etc)
- How to write Hiragana
- the 4 ways to end stroke (stop, hump, sweeping, loop)
- We did several short skits where we had to speak Japanese
(I aced it of course, other people, not so much, Talking to yourself helps (hahaha) )

Homework included
- Writing hiragana for each of the characters 8 times (a,i,o,u,e -> n)
- Writing hiragana from roomaji words

Needless to say, this week was easy.

Read more!

My Fall 2010 weekly calendar at UW

Next term looks fun! So free!!! Its so rare for me to get Fridays off, considering I'm in science and labs takes up forever. Finally in the last year the only lab is the lab thats not shown on the calendar. My very own research project! The calendar is after the jump.

Too bad the research projects are rumoured to take up alot of time. But atleast I can get some early salvation by looking at this easygoing scheduel!

Read more!

Window 7 Anime Commercial & UW Secret!

This is pretty good. Lol! Source: SankakuComplex (NSFW)
I am proud to be a Window 7 owner now. Genuine.. of course! ;)

UW Secret after the jump!

For those who goes to the University of Waterloo (UW), just so you're not missing out, you are entitled to a free copy of Window 7 Professional!

Please check out here. Then once you're ready, you can go to here to sign in and download!

I've had known this place from my friend Tim. Many thanks to you!

If you're a University of Waterloo student and do not require the free liscence keys for the OSes available to download, feel free to send them over here! :D

you can reach me at tomabackspin@gmail.com, or msn pakhinlaw@hotmail.com

Happy downloading!

Read more!