Now, the fight was not provoked by Jim West. He was walking his dogs when he turned around and saw an agitated mother black bear. At such a close proximity against a black bear, anyone well-versed in the outdoors (and I’m not talking about just going outside, a walk around Stanley Park or some urban park, but the Great Outdoors that isn’t flooded with concrete or many signs of civilization) would do what West did that fateful day: fight.

Why? Well, the answer is quite simple really. Let’s take a look at some bear facts from the Bear Safety page on the BC Parks website:

• Bears are as fast as racehorses, on the flats, uphill or downhill
• Bears are strong swimmers.
• Bears have good eyesight, good hearing, and an acute sense of smell.
• All black bears and young grizzlies are agile tree climbers; mature grizzlies are poor climbers, but they have a reach up to 4 metres.
• If a bear is standing up it is usually trying to identify you. Talk softly so it knows what you are. Move away, keeping it in view. Do not make direct eye contact.

So what we are dealing with here is an aggressive black bear, possibly fed by some irresponsible humans thinking that feeding the animals will be fun.

If you decided to run for it, the bear will be able to catch up, since they are as fast as racehorses.

If you try climbing a tree, the black bear will be able to climb up it as well. Also, if you don’t climb up high enough, it can probably just stand up and grab at you.

If you tried to play dead with a black bear, you’ll end up dead (for those trying to learn something, playing dead only works for grizzlies). Best thing to do would be to try to retreat, but obviously at such a distance, retreat is practically impossible.

So really, West did the right thing and survived.

But it turns out some people who are uneducated in the outdoors have taken it upon themselves to harass the man for living and killing an animal that would have killed him. [news link]

That’s pretty sick people.

Here is a man who is trying to get over his injuries, only to have a bunch of idiots who know nothing about the outdoors harass him for doing the right thing.

If they were in his shoes, then they would have probably tried doing things like run for it, climb a tree, or play dead because (a) they do not know bears can outrun humans and (b) they can not identify a black bear. As a result, they would be dead.

Now, if it were a person instead of a bear, some of these idiots would have nothing to say. Hell, West probably would have been OK because he was defending himself from a person who was trying to kill him and unfortunately killed him out of self defense.

Yes, love the animals and protect them all you want. But when they start attacking you, you have to do something to survive. It’s a simple matter of survival of the fittest, as Charles Darwin put it.

However, doing some cleanup in my room has let me find my receipts, so I got back to them three months later.

I heard back from them and they asked me for an email address with which to use for Massgate, and I have not heard from them since. It’s been nearly a month since I last heard from them.

Now I realize that this ridiculous delay might be a result of the Activision and Vivendi merger that took place a while ago, but still! 28 days (with two follow-up emails) and still no reply is a bit ridiculous.

Unless you have been living under a rock (or if you don’t go to SFU), you are probably aware of the upcoming election where in addition to voting for our new student society executive, we will have two referendum questions:

1. Are you in favour of maintaining membership in the Canadian Federation of Students? (Yes/No)
2. If the Simon Fraser Student Society ceases to be a member of the Canadian Federation of Students, do you agree that the former CFS membership fees of $7.64 per semester for full time students and $3.82 for part-time students should be redirected into a Society Development Fund which will result in no overall fee increase for students?” (Yes/No)

This referendum has our campuses, particularly Burnaby campus for obvious reasons, plastered with not only campaign posters of candidates wanting to be a part of student politics, but also posters of those in the Yes and No campaigns on the CFS question. Despite a referendum a year ago, where a majority of people who care enough about this school voted to leave the CFS, those jerks say that it was non-binding and that we did not follow proper procedure.

Fair enough. Now here’s the real thing. And it is really getting annoying and I’ve had enough of the plastering of our campus with their bullshit.

Let’s take a look at just what the CFS has done for us and how effective they have been.

To tell you the truth, I never heard of the CFS until I started getting involved with student groups on campus like the CSSS. I never really saw what they have done for SFU students. All I know is that I pay a few dollars that contributes to the $430,000 or so that goes to the CFS for the various “good things” they do for us.

What would these good things be then? Various things like Travel CUTS, StudentPhones, Homes4Students.ca, UFile, the International Student Identity Card, and more!

Campaigners for the pro-CFS side claim that if we leave, we lose access to these wonderful things. However, non-member schools like UBC, who is a member of the Canadian Alliace of Student Associations (CASA), gets these services as well.

That’s not all though! Campaign materials state that the CFS was instrumental in getting us the U-Pass. If that’s the case, how come CFS-member schools in the Lower Mainland like Kwantlen don’t get a U-Pass? The bigger question here would be how come UBC ended up with a U-Pass as well?

And tuition? How come my tuition isn’t getting any cheaper? The biggest thing for any student is how much they need to pay for their education. In my first semester at SFU in Fall 2003, I paid $1724.22 for four courses (if we do the math, it’s $431.06 a course). Just this past summer (the last semester I did a full-time course load), I paid $1452.44 for just three courses (or $484.15 a course). Now to be fair, CMPT 200/300/400 level courses are a bit more expensive, but for that semester, I only took one CMPT course, and according to the Undergraduate Fees page on the Student Services website, it is only a difference of $7.60 per unit or $22.80 for a three-credit CMPT course. How did my tuition cost jump up by over $50 a course?

Speaking of cost of education, how come there aren’t any subsidies on the textbooks we use? Do you realize just how much money we need to burn just to buy those friggin things? Where’s the support of this “over 500,000 student strong” group to get people to cut the cost of textbooks? Apparently they are working on eliminating the GST on textbooks, but really, you should be more vocal about the things you do for students.

Which brings me to my next point. What the hell does the various social issues have to do with students? The CFS is supposed to be a group of students doing things in the best interests of students, no? Then why do we see social issues that are not exactly related to students and education supported by the CFS? To give you an idea of just how far stretching they are in terms of campaigning and lobbying for things outside of student issues:

• Raising the minimum wage to $10: A social issue on minimum wage, which has nothing to do with students.
• We Ride, a transit campaign: Student-organized campaign to get better transit. Since students do take transit, this at least has something to do with students. I have issues with transit in Vancouver, but just calling for a reduction of fares while also asking for more bus services is kind of contradictory. Getting a single bus running would not only need you to buy a new bus, but you will also need to pay for bus maintenance, driver’s wages (which are kind of high thanks to the union), and fuel. It’s not cheap to run a bus. Why don’t you people go and actually work for Coast Mountain Bus Company to make it possible somewhat? They are looking for bus operators.
• No Means No: Awareness campaign on sexual crimes like date rape, sexual assault, rape, and so on. Yes, it’s for a good cause and all, but it has nothing to do with students, and like.
• Where’s the Justice?: An awareness campaign on the racism against aboriginal people/First Nations/”Indians and support for aboriginal rights.

If we can’t even make politicians think about the students and give universities more funding, why are we going into all these other social issues? I don’t think we gave the CFS money to lobby for other issues outside of student issues.

This brings me to one of the biggest issues. How are they even accountable to us? Spending our money some some of these things that have nothing to do with students, getting those IAmCFS posters printed and placed must cost quite a bit of money, especially with those at Skytrain stations, which cost the most out of all the possible options for advertising on transit, according to folks at work who recently put out ads for the SFU-Zhejiang University Dual Degree Program on Skytrains and buses.

Speaking of the posters, how come I don’t recognize any of those people? Oh wait.. that’s right. They’re paid actors. They aren’t even SFU students. All of the anti-CFS posters, which parodies the IAmCFS posters contain an opinion on why the person on it, an actual student at Simon Fraser University like Phil Boutros, a fellow Computing Science student, whose poster just came out this week. Compare that to random actor guy standing near something at SFU with their open palm saying “I am CFS” and a generic blurb at the bottom saying something along the lines of “At my university/college, I am a member of the CFS and we get (blah)”.

But while we’re on the topic of people who aren’t SFU students (or students at all for that matter) posing as students, what about those guys on the Yes campaign? Them with their “Vote YES CFS” buttons. Do you even recognize these people? I sure don’t (well, most of them anyway; the few I would recognize are those running for office who also happen to be pro-CFS).

Fellow Computing Science students Kerry and Jenn encountered a pro-CFS person come into our common room in ASB 9802. Here’s the exchange that pretty much happened.

Kerry: So where are you from?

CFS Person: (somewhere in Ontario)

Kerry: Who paid for you to get here?

CFS Person: The student union.

Kerry: Which student union?

CFS Person: The student union.

That back and forth pretty much goes on for around 10 minutes until the CFS campaigner said that the CFS paid for them to be here.

If their “volunteers” can’t even be honest with us, students who paid $430,000 for them to use on whatever they want, how can we expect the CFS to do the same for us? And these volunteers aren’t all that responsible either.

Just on Tuesday, I got a half-day off work so I can finish my CMPT 475 take home midterm (I’ve been busy with a lot of other stuff, so I never really had time to work on it – bite me). I was at the Renaissance Coffee location, typing away on my laptop by the glass coffee table near the fireplace when these two people, a guy and a girl, with the “Vote YES CFS” pins came in and sat down. Listening away at my music, I pretty much ignored them. They had an energy drink with them and during the course of their time there, had a tea each and were reading various newspapers, perhaps getting up to speed on the campus issues. When they left, they just left their garbage there. It was ridiculous and a very irresponsible action. If you are reading this, I have news for you. Just because this isn’t your university campus doesn’t mean you can be a fucking pig and not clean up after yourselves. Clean up your shit! Your mother isn’t here to clean up for you.

I have not been talked to by any of these guys yet, but when that time comes, I’ll be giving them a piece of my mind. Their entire campaign to keep us in the CFS seems like a waste of money, flying people in from all across the country just to get us to stay in their useless organization.

But wait.. there’s more! Remember that fiasco in 2006 that led to the impeachment of all six SFSS directors in the Common Sense slate? It turns out that at least one of those people, namely Shawn Hunsdale, was involved with the CFS and that Hunsdale was not even eligible to run because he was not a student anymore (he was RTW-ed)! What is up with the CFS trying to get into the politics of their member’s student unions? Are they really that interested in our politics? Should they even be involved in the political structure of member schools’ student unions?

I think not. I think that this is a time for us to stand up and tell it to them to their face that we do not want them meddling in our affairs anymore. If any of them even try to talk to me, I’ll be frank with them and pretty much ask them questions on why they think they should be on our campus, telling them how to vote. Students from other post-secondary institutions have absolutely no right to tell or influence how we will vote when the referendum happens alongside of the student union elections. If we want out of the CFS, then we will vote no to the first question; the inverse is true as well.

So when you go to the polls next week on March 18, 19, and 20 (and I sincerely hope that you, the reader, does do so), vote for No to the CFS question and get us out of this money wasting, unaccountable, ineffective, and corrupt student association known as the CFS.

But don’t take my word on it. Do some research and decide for yourself which way you will vote. Below are some links to some relevant sites.

Despite being on the No side, I like being as objective as I can, since knowing both sides of any disagreement is important. Therefore, below is a collection of various relevant links to various sites that have information on both sides of the debate, as well as the official sites for both sides of the campaign.

• We Want Out – the official site for the No campaign
• Vote YES CFS – the official site for the Yes campaign
• Online video of the debate on the CFS question held on March 13, 2008 starting at 4 PM
• On the effectiveness of students working together
  • British example shows CFS can work (The Peak, February 4, 2008)
  • CFS does not equal NUS (The Peak, February 11, 2008)
  • CFS scores huge grant victory (The Peak, March 3, 2008)
  • Still not convinced (The Peak, March 10, 2008)
• On potentially controversial actions
  • Controversy erupts after secret CFS documents made public (The Peak, February 11, 2008)
  • Lawyers from CFS request public apology from KSA (The Peak, February 18, 2008)

Note: if you have more links related to the issue, please share them in comments.

I’ve finally managed to get some studying done today and frankly, a very small amount of it was actually looking at course notes and such. Taking a good look at the 471 PowerPoint slides does not do much because they are just crammed with ridiculous amounts of information it’s uninformative. Attempts to summarize the slides were for naught because I can not stand reading all that information.

So what did I end up doing? Reviewed everything on Wikipedia, while taking down notes that I can actually make use of and read without falling asleep. All the information on every single topic that we cover in class is there and it is explained in a much more directed manner than the slides could ever provide, for the most part of course. Things like how to use Ethereal/Wireshark and tcpdump cannot be found there, nor can I look up stuff on network security, but for the most part, I can study for my final just by browsing Wikipedia. That’s ridiculous since I should be able to learn the material from the lectures (which I stopped going to three or so weeks before the end of the semester, initially because of the amount of other things to do, but eventually because of the uselessness of going because it’ll just be dictation of PowerPoint slides) and notes from the class alone.

I guess me and PowerPoints don’t mix well. Well, rather, poorly made PowerPoint slides. Here’s my heuristics on evaluating effectiveness of PowerPoint slides:

• Does each slide look like it has way too much text? As in, there is so much information on it such that it overwhelms the reader.
• Does each point consist of multiple sentences instead of one single point?
• Does it take too long to read a slide?
• Does it not make you want to read it?
• Does it make you lost when you go off-topic?
• Is information all over the place?
• Is it not precise and to the point?

If “yes” is a response for any of the above questions, it has failed my own personal heuristics for a PowerPoint presentation.

Frankly, only a very small subset of professors that I have had at SFU who used PowerPoints use them effectively. They are meant to provide points of engagement for the presenter to initiate discussion on a certain topic. They should be used to make the listener think, recall, and easily link things together. They should not be used to be the main basis of the entire presentation.

Why do I say that? It’s very simple. For most, something they can see, like words on a wall, catch the eye of the audience more than the words coming out of the speaker. By throwing a bunch of text at the wall, the listeners would try to read all that information instead of the more important part, which is listening to the speaker. Therefore, it makes the entire lecture pointless since it’s all on these slides.

However, when the slides themselves are just stuffed full of information that one cannot make good use of them, it gets silly.

So what makes a good PowerPoint presentation? I try to go by the following:

• Tools >> Custom Animation.. >> Add Effect on text area >> Make it so that points show up one by one. Showing your points one-by-one allows the audience to understand you so much better since they just see a point, take note of it, realize what you are trying to communicate to them about, and then listen.
• Points should be short and to the point. They shouldn’t be completely convoluted. Multiple sentences in one point should not even be seen simply because that’s not even short at all!
• Be dynamic when presenting. Don’t just go idly because that’ll just get people to sleep.

Just to illustrate my point, compare the above set of points with the ones below:

• Make points show up one-by-one
• Do this by adding a custom animation effect on the text area of a slide
• Allows audience to be more receptive to what you say
• Each point should be short and to the point
• No massive blobs of text
• More than one sentence in a point = bad
• Dynamic presentation
• Failure to do so leads to nappers

See the difference proper point placement can make?

I wish they would force people who decide to abuse PowerPoint slides to teach their material to go through a class on doing proper slides before they are allowed to even use it. I’m pretty sure students would be thankful.

Today was an alright day. I woke up promptly at 9 am in the morning and after making and eating breakfast, checking my email, and various other morning things, I leave my house at 10:15 AM. Considering how I borrowed my dad’s laptop for the day to write a reference letter and it is raining out, I decided to take the bus to my Skytrain connection instead of doing my usual 20 minute walk to Commercial Skytrain Station.

Getting to my stop in a very short amount of time, I expected to see a bus there in a few minutes time. Ten minutes roll by with no bus in sight. Mind you, the bus route in question does have a bus come by once every 12 minutes at this time. Twenty minutes go by and I heard one of the old ladies at the stop say that she had been waiting at the stop for 35 minutes.

THIRTY FIVE?!?! What the hell is wrong with you? It’s a light shower on a bus route that’s predominantly on a straight line and it’s two to three buses behind schedule?

Thanks a lot Translink. Because of you, I end up walking to the Skytrain station and end up being late for my CMPT 307 class by at least 25 minutes and after that class, I am confused as hell as to what the prof was talking about.

Thanks so fucking much.

Personally, thinking about this very question irritates me. Simply because of how our society works these days, Christmas is an extremely materialistic event that seems extremely forced. Honestly, it all seems quite fake.

Why do I think that? To answer that question, I ask you to answer this question: Why do people need to be all nice and happy and cheerful and generous during ONE time of the year? Why can’t they be like that throughout the entire year?

And when we all try to go out and be extremely generous with the gifts and stuff, the businesses make big bucks; hence the “extremely materialistic event” bit.

However, when you think back to the real reason why Christmas is celebrated (if you don’t know, the answer’s below), we all do have a reason to be happy.

But back to the main question. What’s Christmas all about? Is it about giving and receiving gifts? Is it about Santa Claus? Is it all about family get-togethers? Is it all about being able to make a crapload of money?

No. Why Christmas exists is is because it celebrates the birth of Jesus, who came down and died on the Cross for our sins.

Now I’m not exactly saying that we should all be just not having fun or not giving gifts not do all that other Christmas-y stuff (besides celebrating the birth of Christ), but rather, remember within us why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

Unfortunately, most people (myself included) forget the true meaning of Christmas. Let me share an email I got from my mom. I believe it nails the point home, especially if you are Christian like myself.

Something to think about? Definitely.

Especially if you’re Christian.

So yes, I repeat myself from my last post. Merry Christmas! And don’t forget the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate it!