Tag Archives: school

兩週一聚﹕一件小事

前言﹕這是一個叫「兩周一聚」的活動。是網友米雪兒發起。每月十五日﹑三十日﹐一班住在世界不同角落的香港人都會一起寫同一個題目。今天是第十六次相聚,由Sherry 出題﹐主題定為「一件小事」。

現在認識我的人﹐也許以為我從小也是個品學兼優的好學生。沒有人會知道中二那年﹐成績表上還給校長用紅筆寫上Fighting一字。打架發生在小息時間﹐什麼原因開始打架已經忘記了﹐大慨是一些雞毛蒜皮的瑣碎事。在男校打架是很通普的事情﹐只要有人開始打架﹐其他同學便聚過會來圍觀﹐在打架兩人身後圍圈搖旗吶喊。通常打架不會持續很久﹐風紀或老師來到﹐大家就一哄而散。

那次很不幸校長剛巧路過﹐他是個非常嚴肅的外藉修士﹐所有學生也懼怕他。他沒有審問我們打架的理由﹐二話不說便當場下旨責罰我們。兩個人一起到校長室外站罰一星期﹐每天小息﹐午飯和放學後也要去報到。接下來的一個星期﹐我們二人每天返學的所有時間﹐便一起共同渡過。放學後校長見我們只是站著罰企沒事幹﹐便物盡其用叫我們去執垃圾。執垃圾至少可以活動可以談話﹐總算比罰企乾悶好一點。打架罰留堂當然不可以讓阿媽知道﹐那個星期我每天找藉口說有課外活動﹐要留到五時才放學回家﹐倒也給我胡混過去。

由於這次事年是校長直接處分﹐班主任並不知道打架的事。那個學期的成績表﹐神奇地操行仍然獲得優良的成績。可是派成績表當年﹐不知何解由校長親自派發﹐他記得我打架受罰﹐於是在成攣表上御筆親批寫上Fighting一字。我也不記得回家結果如何﹐大慨給阿媽藤條炆豬肉﹐打到躲在桌子底下吧。可能我不知天高地厚﹐中二成績表被校長劃花了﹐中三還敢膽粗粗去考風紀。我當然知道成績表寫著打架有問題﹐於是我用沙膠把Fighting那個字擦去﹐把成績表影印拿去面試。騙那些高年級的風紀隊長﹐說阿媽怕我弄掉成績表﹐只給我拿副本出來用。想不到竟然又給我過關﹐成功加入風紀。事後回想起來﹐有點後悔擦掉Fighting那個字。其實可以先影印一份﹐塗改第一份副本後再影印。畢竟給校長在成績表寫打架﹐並不是每個學生也有的殊榮啊。

其他文章﹕ humptidumpti (下期出題者)洛言C9讀與食南杏加燦athrunzmad dog周游leonaaudreymaSilverHaricotlomicheechilli momPetit_melonZerohevangelVince、揚眉女子、HollyThe Man Who Loves EvertonMugen CwannicrSimon 木棉、michelle、軍師奶

若果想參加兩周一聚的朋友﹐可以參看這個網頁

Game theory

This term instead of taking a philosophy course, I am taking a economics course, game theory. Technically, I am not taking a course, I did not register. I am just going to the lecture to audit the course off the record. It is one of those huge lecture with over a hundred of students. The structure of the course is fairly one way, the professor explain the course material in class and then hand out homework assignment. Unlike the philosophy course, I learn by interacting with the professor, this course is just a one way street of absorbing knowledge. I figure if I don’t need the credit and I don’t need another to mark my assignment, why don’t I just sit in the lecture and learn for free.

I am taking game theory not only because I am interested in economics, it is also I need this knowledge for more advance moral or political philosophy. Utilitarianism is always and will always be an important moral or justice theory. There are new research to field on applying game theory concept to calculate the utility function to determine whether something is moral or evil. Knowing game theory will give allow me to give more quantitative argument when I am making a moral claim.

In this course, I am using Wiki to take lecture notes. My ultimate goal is to create a knowledge database for my studies and I am experimenting with Wiki. Here is my lecture notes

Old friends

It has been many years since I spend time in Toronto.  Last time I came back for my friend’s wedding, I only stayed for a weekend.  I did not even have enough time for my family, so I could not see most of my friends.  I saw many friends in the wedding, but it is hard to talk during the banquet.  It is too noisy and has too much distraction to talk about work, family and life in general.  It takes a relaxing environment to talk about those touchy topics. This time I came back for another friend’s wedding and staying almost a week and I finally have the chance to catch up with them. My schedule is fully booked everyday to have lunch, dinner and drinks after dinner with my old friends.

We went to school together, we are about the same age, we are experience the same stage of life, so we share many common worries. I envy some aspect of their life and they envy some other aspect my life. It seems grass just is always greener on the other side. Some of my friends stuck in a technical job with relatively good pay but not much visibility about the future in ten years just like me. Some of my friends starting start-up to pursuit their dreams. Some of my friends left the industry and working on something totally different. Talking to my friends gives me some thoughts about my life plan and at the same time makes me learn to treasure the gifts I already have.

Out of all my friends, one made a pretty interesting career move. Guess what, he started a condom shop! We are all wondering, does he QA all the products sold in the shop himself? Maybe that’s why he never bring his girlfriend to the reunions. He knew we will ask very embarrassing questions. We are a whole bunch of engineers after all.

Missing chapters in college days

Block university has a applied disablity study program that is related to Pat’s studies in autism, so we drove to St. Catherine to take a look at the university campus.  Comparing to the huge campus of UBC, Block seems very small.  Even SFU or Waterloo seems big comparing to the several connecting buildings that is all of Block’s campus.  The university campus store can tell you a lot about the character of the university.  I checked out the textbook of the philosophy courses;  I think Block’s philosophy department is much tougher than SFU’s.  The readings are mostly original materials, unlike the comprehension textbooks use in SFU.

When I am browsing the titles in the university bookstore, I realized what I missed in my college days.  Like those portrayed in movies or novels, university suppose to be a place for the quest of knowledge.  Students should carry those thick wordy books around, then they sit under the sun and talk about the wildest ideas.  They would have many complaints against the society, the government, the corporate, basically complain about the adult world in general.  They dream about the future and talk about how they would make a change.  Thinking back what I have done in my university days, it seems my time outside of classroom are mostly wasted.  I just spent endless nights playing Warcraft with friends in the computer lab, went to Karaoke and get drunk on the many weekends.  I should have read more books, pretend to be more intellectual and maybe even join some movement for a noble cause.