Oh so angry...

Fairly upset about something that happened at work today, so yeah, I'm going to talk about something fun to distract me for awhile. lol.

One of the major things I've been trying to figure out for a long time (and I still have some time to think about it) is whether or not to get involved with either Cataclysm or SWtOR when either come out.

At this point, getting SWtOR is a foregone conclusion. I'll be getting that. There would have to be something serious to prevent me from getting that one, like the game not being printed.. lol. The gameplay looks somewhat new and innovative, although, it still looks fairly similar to the average MMO. They unfortunately braught the "Holy Trinity" into the game, however, from what I can tell, its thankfully not a WoW-clone. Alot of what I saw made sense from a lore and gameplay standpoint (Soldier doing ranged tanking instead of the Jedi, etc). It would be interesting to know how the endgame will play out in this game, specifically because its really where the "meat" of an MMO is. STO really failed here in my opinion, since it seemed like they just rushed it out the door without the back end being complete. Whether or not I actually play SWtOR seriously, I dunno. I can't say where I'm going to be personally/professionally by then (roughly Summer 2011 when the end game is going to be the focus). I suppose it really depends if people I know and want to play with go that way. Who am I kidding, I just want to force-strangle someone in PvP. :D

As for Cataclysm, I'm really interested at the new changes. On the surface, it seems like they're going to reducing the spec and gear optimization coefficients of the "How good are you"-equation. I wouldn't mind that, personally. I miss the days where skill and ability was more important than gear. In Wrath, if you had the gear, you could do the "A million monkeys at a million keyboards" approach and win with most encounters. I miss the days of Vanilla, where good players were rewarded, and idiots were kicked from the raid. Actually, to be more honest, I'm pining for the days of pre-nerf Karazhan. Yes, Karazhan. I really enjoyed that place before they nerfed the shit of out it. I'm hoping that it goes that way for the endgame. The only problems I foresee right now with being able to play are the following:

1. Will I have the time? - I'm not sure, I'd like to say that I will, but I guess that depends on where I am with my work. Things are looking fairly positive, but we'll see. Who knows, I might be a father by then. O.o

2. Where to go? - I have about three different places where I could probably play and be fairly comfortable, or at least have a place to hang my hat. Question is, what's going to work out the best?

We'll see. Unfortunately, I'm speculating on speculation.. woot. We'll see what happens in the long run, I guess. I suppose in the mean time, I'll just keep playing 360 when I get a chance, as well as being the Evil DM, tormenting my 4E group.

OH!

That reminds me, I have to inform my 4E group that they got TPK'd for mostly ditching out on the game at the last minute. Amazing how that happens. >.>

The Culture of Losing.

So, another football season, another poor start for the Eskimos.

I feel like I'm watching the same season as last year. Same mistakes, same problems. Nothing ever changes. The problem with the Eskies, again, is the fact that Ricky Ray is the "Sacred Cow" again.

I have no problem with Ricky Ray in terms of a quarterback, he's good at moving the ball, and when he has enough time and protection he performs. However, he's constantly plagued with "inconsistency". I guess if you can call falling apart each and every time a play gets broken, a pass gets dropped, or a big call goes against him being inconsistent. I'd rather say he lacks mental toughness. The sad thing, at least here in Edmonton, is that he's a "feel-good" story. A chip truck driver turned QB. Awesome. That means he's apparently untouchable, well, at least according to the "expert" commentary on 630 CHED.. lol.

Last night, listening to 630 CHED on the way home, the call in show host seemed to think that the only way to fix the Eskimos was to change the play calling in the Red Zone, while leaving Ricky in the mix. I guess if you want more predictable "Truck Routes to the corner" (the nickname we gave to the corner routes that Ricky always throws in the Red Zone) leave Ricky in. Go ahead. We may get lucky if Ricky keeps his head and pulls off a completion. We may win on luck. You know your offense is in trouble if my wife can call the play before the snap.

Ricky moves the ball very well when he's got room at the end of the field for long stretch passes. Awesome. If he doesn't have the skill set to score in the Red Zone, GET HIM OUT in the Red Zone. You have another QB on the sideline that's more than capable of scoring. Even if you don't like Maas, you can't deny that swapping out the QB in the Red Zone would at least confuse the defense enough to make the score easy.

Oh well. I can quote the guy on 630 CHED on saying that Ricky is doing his best.

Heh.. that reminds me of my favorite movie quote:

"Your best? Losers whine about doing their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen."

I wonder how many games we'll lose this year because the management is scared of hurting Ricky's fragile ego.

Anyone want some tickets?

Stuck in a community college in Lethbridge...

At least there aren't any zombies. At least not yet.

So, Lethbridge seems like a nice place. Reasonably big, a few things to do, but not really much in terms of big attractions. The only issue really is trying to keep busy, especially today, since I don't have a hotel room to hang out in and work on documentation while I watch the World Cup. Today, unfortunately, I'm sitting in a random common area in Lethbridge College, trying to be useful. To be honest, I'm actually just trying to stay awake. Nothing like getting up at 6 AM to be at a dealership when it opens, so that you have the smallest chance of fixing a potentially catastrophic engine problem with a 6 hour drive ahead of you later in the day.

*sigh*

After waiting about an hour in the waiting room at the dealership, I got the news: the air filter assembly was not bolted down, and was flopping around inside the engine compartment. I immediately rolled my eyes, because I instantly knew what caused the problem. It wasn't no mechanical failure or lack of servicing on my part. No. It was the stupid high school kid working at the Mr. Lube. Yeah. Against probably better judgment, I got an oil change at Mr. Lube, since I was busy with research, and didn't really have the time to muck about with an oil change with Dodge. So, I took the car to Mr. Lube last Saturday, so that we'd be traveling on fresh oil.

So, while my young friend is working on the air filter, his coworker starts telling the story (rather loudly) of how he deflowered a (by his account) a smoking hot chick the previous night at a grad party. The story must have gotten to my young friend, and instead of re-installing my air filter assembly correctly, one bolt made it back in, not tightened, even hand tightened.

Last night, my friends handiwork came undone at an intersection on 3rd Ave S in Lethbridge. Awesome. It sounded like we were either losing a belt or our lifters were beating the crap out of the camshaft. Our pleasure drive turned into questioning if we're actually going to be making it home. Unfortunately, at this point, everything was closed, and we'd have to wait till morning to get it fixed. So, neither of us slept much, if at all, and got up at 6 am, choked down a quick breakfast, hurriedly packed the van, and went to the dealership.

Nicole got a ride to her class here at the college. I stayed in the waiting room listening to the god-awful news on Global Calgary. An hour later, the service manager came up to me and gave me the good news: that the air filter unit was loose.

So yeah, I'll be going to Mr. Lube Thursday, and showing them the bill for this kid's stupidity. I frankly don't care if they cover the cost, or even apologize. I'm going to do what so very few consumers actually do: speak with my money, rather than complain on deaf ears.

Far too many people think that saving a buck is worth the headache of bad customer service. If consumers, in general, actually did more than complain about bad services or products and stopped paying for mediocrity. The only way that the quality of retail services will improve is if you choke out the bad by not using them. Its that simple. Consumers need get out of the rut of "cheapest at any cost" and start looking for value in customer service and quality of product.

Too bad that Japanese Garden didn't have wifi. I'd probably just hang out there today to destress. Oh well. I'll just drink coffee, listen to Pearl Jam, and write.

Opinions. I like them.

Anyone that's really been involved with serious research on any topic has been exposed to the differences between fact and opinion. I'm not even talking about being a grad student, or even going to a post-secondary institution. This is the type of skill that most people learn at a rudimentary level in high school.

For example:

Gravity = a fact.

Blogs = an opinion.

This should be clear to anyone. However, here comes the problem. Even if people can distinguish between fact and opinion, the attitude of "I'm right at all costs" is so unbelievably prevalent in today's society. Don't get me wrong, I like opinions, I like when people express opinions, since it leads to dialogue and discussion, which usually leads to understanding. On the other hand, the segment of society that cannot either take the time, or are unable to interpret an opinion dumbfounds me.

Now, there's a bit of a spectrum to this group:

1. The people that agree to disagree. Generally, I really don't have a problem with these people, because they're defending an opinion. If they defend their opinion logically, with evidence, precedent, analogy, or otherwise, that's great! However, the people that decide to defend their opinion with no evidence, or better yet, unsubstantiated "facts" and rumors that are completely wrong/misplaced are hillarious. These are the people that I give up on having any sort of discussion with, and just avoid and then laugh at when their opinion's blow up in their faces. Good fun.

2. The people that fly off the handle the nanosecond their opinion is challenged. These are the fun people. This tends to be more internet-related, found on forums, leaving comments on news stories, etc, that absolutely (and audibly) snap when someone has an opposing opinion. Now, there's a bit of latitude in these people, the people ranging from having a hissy fit, yelling, screaming, going all the way to violence and hate. Usually these are the type of people I bait into flame wars on forums as a past time. I know, I'm a jackass. However, this group is also the scary portion of society that you can see somewhat in an international connotation (ie, Israel and everyone else).

So, why the social commentary? The University I'm a part of is experiencing financial troubles. The issues are specifically caused by a reversal of policy on the government's part (this University is partially publicly funded) which ended up in a unexpected funding cut during the fiscal year. Of course, like the other cuts by the government, (significant cuts in health and education) this cut was carefully hidden by press releases and reorganization. Anyone not involved with the University now sees the financial problem as the University's fault, not that the government cut nearly $100 million in funding. The University is now the bad guy, not the government that can't manage its own books. The public backlash is overwhelming, and anyone trying to defend the University or provide factual counter-evidence to this opinion get destroyed.

Anyways. I'll just go write a Wikipedia post explaining the situation. Then it will be "fact". *shakes his head slowly*

Wow, I've been neglecting this!

So yeah, with the weather getting better and not being tied to my computer with publishing or candidacy exams means that I stop blogging. Imagine that. lol.

Anyways, not much is new, the experimental work is proceeding fairly well, and should have some sort of working prototype within a week or two. I ended up diagnosing some serious roadblocks, with some simple fixes. In any case, serious positive work has been achieved. Yay.

I'm still not "playing" WoW... lol. Its been what, 6-7 months since I've taken a dose of the heroin-raiding stuff. However, something interesting happened in the WoW-world today. Something odd, wierd, and interesting that will turn guilds, servers, etc on their ear in the next expansion. I'm not certain where exactly this will end up, in terms of postitive-negative changes, but its going to change the landscape of the game.. forever.

The major, game changing change is: 10 man and 25 man raiding (for all intensive purposes) will be equal. Difficulty, loot level, raid ID's. The only difference is that 25 man raids will drop more loot (most likely the same ratio of people:loot).

What does this mean, generally?

YOU CAN RAID AS A SMALL GROUP OF FRIENDS AND EXPERIENCE THE FULL GAME/CONTENT, AND NOT BE PENALIZED FOR PLAYING WITH FRIENDS.

Wow.

This is a HUGE change. Now, you can play with your friends or a smaller circle of people with no penalty. Additionally, you end up not having to wrangle 25 people, which is the most painful part of running a guild or raid period. Smaller guilds are easier to manage, and really, the "work" into a guild would more or less dissapear.

I'm seriously, seriously, thinking of playing in Cataclysm. Why? Playing with good people, raiding for 2-3 nights a week? That's... almost.. manageable. Imagine that. Manageable raiding.

Hooray for transfer payments!

Heh.

I remember those days in Undergrad, where you thought your input and "voice" actually could make a difference in the day-to-day operation of the University. Yeah, I'm far more cynical now, and have a better understanding of the inner workings and how this University, as a whole, operates.

As an Undergrad, you assume that this institution runs as another school. Plain and simple. This institution exists to teach you the skills necessary to become an Engineer, Nurse, Teacher, Artist, Professional Dodgeballer, etc, and that's it.

As a Grad Student, you learn that the University is first and foremost a research institution, and that the majority of money (and yes, this is when you realize that the world runs on money, not idealism or good intentions (lol SU). ) comes from research grants and royalties from technology. The teaching of students is revealed to be a secondary concern, essentially something that is another revenue scheme, an avenue of Grad Student recruitment, and more often than not a charter obligation for the massive operational governmental grants that the institution recieves.

Now, with the recent governmental cutbacks (usually a year or two lag behind the economy), the University is seeing tough times. Research grants will be smaller. Operational grants will be smaller. Tuition credits (that the undergrads recieve indirectly) will be smaller. The end result? Massive budget gaps for the University.

It is funny, however, that the general undergraduate population seems to think that they will be receiving the brunt of the burden in making up this gap. I think its absolutely laughable. Of course, in typical "Undergrad Style" half of the problem is understood.

First, I'll talk about the tuition issue. Generally, tuition is getting a big hike next year. A fair bit more substancial than previous years, specifically because the operational grants and tuition credits (from the government) got cut. What the average Undergrad Student does not realize is that the total cost of their tuition is automatically subsidized by the government. Yes, you may be paying 5-8k a year. The real cost, at this institution, is 2x or 3x that. Ask an international student what their tuition is, and you'll get a fair gauge of what you *should* be paying per year. The amount of tuition that is subsidized by the provencial government is different from province to province, this is why, generally in Quebec, tuition is much less than Alberta. In any case, the increase of tuition that you are seeing is directly tied to the reduction of subsidy that is being given by the province.

Secondly, the "fact" that this "bailout" is being "forced" on the Undergrads is completely false. Grad tuition is basically doubling. University Employees are getting 5-8 days of *unpaid* vacation. Operational budgets are being slashed by 5%. There will be layoffs. Research grants are getting significantly reduced. For example, last year we had 17 summer students in our department. This year, it looks like we'll be getting 5. At this point, I'm wondering if there will be enough funding to complete my research, or if I will have to pay alot of the costs out of pocket.

The Undergrads are getting a $550 increase in tuition in the form of a fee to maintain the standards of education and building services. Right now, this is for next year, as a temporary measure.

Yes. This is much more harsh than people losing their jobs, taking a paycut of roughly 2-4%, or in my case most likely not getting funded (income --> $0) and scaling back/not finishing my research due to lack of funds.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to be completely selfish and kick up a media/protest storm about how my specific segment of the University Community is being abused/mistreated/squeezed to make up the budget gap, without considering how others are affected.

Even if this fee of $550 is mandatory for the length of an undergrad degree (4-5 years), say maximum $3750 extra, that's a drop in the bucket in comparison to, for example, my case of outright losing 6 years of my prime career years with ultimately nothing to show for it.

But hey. What do I know? I'm only a lowly Grad Student.

Ironically, this whole problem, the health care cash shortage, and our provincial deficit could be completely wiped out with one single act: the removal of transfer payments.

What are transfer payments?

Well, when Canada was formed, transfer payments were used in order to prevent provinces and territories from adding taxes and tariffs to trade. Simply a general payment scheme handled by governments at a high level to encourage trade and prosperity. Eventually, somewhere along the way, this idea got super-socialized. Without giving a major history lesson, the end result is that the general wealth of a province is measured, and according to that measurement, funds are redistruibuted in order to "Equalize" wealth.

The end result is that financially strong provinces (Alberta, BC, Sask, and Newfoundland) get to pay the social programs of the other provinces.

If you want to go read about how this is actually done, go wikipedia it, there's a reasonable (however "slanted to Ontario") explanation.

The end result is, as a province, Alberta pays billions to the other provinces, and receives nothing in return. Now we're dealing with a large deficit, and stressed social programs (ie, University Funding).

It would be interesting to see the difference if transfer payments were simply abolished.

Well, that was fun.. lol

So, after the major nationalist kick of the Olympics, it was time to bear down and get that Candidacy Exam done. Yup, its been two-three weeks of static on the blog, and for a good reason - I've spent nearly every waking moment preparing for that exam. Long story short, I passed, and it wasn't quite as I expected.

Now, some background:

At my University, specifically my department, the Candidacy Exam structure is as follows:

1. Candidate writes a proposal and distributes it to his committee 2-3 weeks ahead of the exam date.
2. Committee exists of my supervisor, three other professors from my department, and then an external.
3. At the exam, candidate gives a 20 minute presentation, followed by 2-2.5 hours of questions. The questions can be any subject matter related to the project. Depending on your answers, you pass or fail.

So yeah, it ends up being a bit open ended in terms of what the subject matter of the questioning can be. Sure, you'll have an idea of the subject matter, specifically subjects that are tied to your project. However, that could be fairly broad, for my project, it is. The major importance of the Candidacy Exam, at least in my department, is that this is the last time that your "general knowledge" is tested. From this point in, its your work, and you're defending it. Generally speaking, its considered to be harder than a final defense, simply for that reason.

Anyways, I had been working on the documentation for my exam since early February, and managed to finish during the Olympics. I finished just over a week before we had to submit the paperwork to the committee. As you would expect, I passed the document to my supervisor, and had him give his input. In usual fashion, a week passes, and at the last moment, I get the document back from him with a bunch of changes required. I understand that he's a busy guy, essentially the poster-boy for biting off more than you can chew, but you would figure that something this important would take some priority. Oh well, this is something I'll probably never understand, since I'm just a grad student, and don't manage 10 grad students at once... >.>

In any case, my planning ahead to get things done ahead of time was totally negated by this. I suppose it happens, but still, it would have been nice to not have to continually swap between the document and the presentation. It would have been perfect to been able to work on everything in a sequential manner, but yeah, best laid plans... lol. In any case, the loss of time made things fairly hectic, moreso than they probably should have been. Everything ended up being shifted back a week, and with all things considered, I only had a few days after finalization of my presentation to study fundamentals and practice my presentation.

Its kind of ironic, after spending pretty much every waking moment working on, well, essentially my life's work at this point, how much the little pleasures in life actually mattered. The one thing that probably kept me sane was forcefully preserving the semblance of a sleeping schedule. Also, taking time, even just an hour in every, say, four hours just to switch the brain off and either watching TV or playing some video games. Just some time to let the brain rest. Heck, a good cup of coffee was a treat, but not as good of a treat as the cold Holsten Festbock I have beside the laptop.

As I got closer to the exam, my stress level rose significantly. To keep sane, I tried to keep as busy as possible by tweaking my presentation, adding equations and figures to my presentation to refer to in questioning, practicing the presentation, and studying fundamentals. I pretty much went over my 4th year of by B.Sc. and all my grad courses in three days flat. That's an insane amount of material in a very short time - all of it fair game for questions. On top of this, my presentation was over the time limit until a day before the exam. Understandably, I was exceptionally stressed.

Tuesday came around. I got a good night's sleep. I did my final prep. Then we got stuck in traffic. Awesome. Then we couldn't find a parking spot. Awesome. Then two of my examination panel was late. Awesome. Then I had a bunch of random people show up (our presentations are open). Awesome. Then one of the randoms asked a serious question about the fabrication of my device (noticed that the release of my structures wasn't very clean). Awesome. As if I needed more things to happen.

As for the presentation itself, it went very quickly. I had 20 slides to present, 20 minutes, so a minute per slide. I went through my first 5 in three minutes. Talk about adrenalin. I pulled it together, and pulled off the presentation fairly well. I did a good job of defining my project scope, and not opening myself up to a lot of stray questions. Then the two hours of questions started...

I was dreading the questions. After talking to people in my group about their exams, and people outside my group, the overwhelming problem with these exams is the questions. I did get my fair share of questions, including some that blatantly questioned the operation of my device, and rightly so. The design of my device is from the very beginning of my project. Since I'm microfabricating this, I developed a mask set, and haven't been able to deviate from that mask set. Fortunately, my exam panel realized this as well. Without going into the nitty-gritty details, the examiners were satisfied that these problems (although somewhat serious in terms of operation) were easily fixable. Essentially some design optimization that is easily accomplishable with my fabrication recipe. In the end, I ended up being surprised on how casual and non-structured the whole process was. Essentially, it felt no different than sitting down with my own research group and talking about people's projects. The input was very valuable, and some opinions were raised that I'll be taking to heart (the design revisions, etc). The major thing that surprised me was the fact that my supervisor was a non-factor in the questioning. He didn't really ask any questions, nor did he seem to have the time to talk to me after the exam (left in a hurry, fairly upset..). So, ultimately, I have no clue how he feels about the exam. Hopefully, something external to the exam was happening to distract him. I've been told by two professors in my department that I did very well, so I'm unsure of my supervisor's reaction. I'm sure I'll get an earful eventually one way or another, either in private or at my next group meeting (next Tuesday) about how I "barely passed" and was "lucky" to continue.

All speculation aside, the experience (at least to this point... lol) has been ultimately positive. I have the best grasp of my research I've ever had, period. I know where the project is going, and have a clear grasp of what's required to finish. In addition, the validation that what I've been toiling with for the last five or so years wasn't misguided or worthless, as my supervisor has, on occasion, pretty much suggested.

After it was all said and done, the relief was FANTASTIC. I slept like a baby. I got up early, sat myself down in front of my computer, relaxed, played video games while listening to Ron and Fez/Opie and Anthony all morning while casually drinking a pot of coffee. It was heaven.