chuma.org

This morning I found this really strange Slashdot comment. I have never heard of the term “filker” before ever, but I immediately understood what the idea is – song s like this have been part of hacker culture forever.

I was also trying to find some pages about the NEC Ultralite PC-17-02, and I rea lized that my own hardware page was the o nly personal page left on the web that even mentions it. Meaning my goal is cle ar: dedicate an entire page to information about this machine. It’s coming soon . I’m gonna have to redo my site map soon I think – I keep on adding sections.

I wrote yesterday’s exam in the main gym of the Athletic Centre. This is probab ly the worst room for thinking in the entire world, but that’s not what I want t o talk about. There were three courses writing in the AC that evening: my cours e (Contemporary Cinema), Music and Popular Culture, and some Anthropology. The first two courses mentioned are generally regarded by the university population as bird courses. So as I buried in a sea of people in the lobby waiting for the doors to open, I looked around and noticed that about half of the people in the crowd just didn’t look like they belonged in University. They mostly looked li ke they were skipping their OAC or Grade 12 classes to come hear and write their exam.

What I’m trying to get at is that it seems that many people are being pressured to enter university right out of high school when they haven’t personally consid ered if it’s the right thing for them. As much as the government tries to trans form the post-secondary education system, universities are not institutions for training: they are institutions for research and learning. Learning is not the same as training – you can teach me how to use an oxy-acetelene torch to weld tw o pieces of metal together, but if I want to design and build oxy-acetelene torc hes I have to learn about them and understand how they work. University is abou t gaining massive amounts of understanding, usually in your major, but often jus t about the world or the “real world.”

Song: Brand New Heavies – Brother Sister
My sister Sylvia got me into the Brand New Heavies last semester when she asked me to find some of their music for her. Since then it’s become a permanent part of my collection. This particular track would probably be considered “Caring F unk” in my own personal music nomenclature. It’s real smooth, but it seems to want to give you a big hug at the same time.