I was wrong.

So I sat there, a week before finals, staring in disbelief at my schedule. It was completely my fault, I suppose. I had known since a few weeks into the semester what my exam schedule was, but the reality of actually writing 5 exams in 3 days never sunk in.

It didn’t help that these particular exams turned out to be among the worst exams I’ve ever taken.

The 371 final was supposed to be a JC Liu special - full of easy marks and simple questions on only the main concepts. Instead, it required full knowledge and application of every tiny detail ever mentioned in JC’s slides. My exam schedule had forced me to focus on only the main parts of each course, which left me woefully unprepared for the academic assault that was JC’s exam.

My Psyc 100 exam the same day, on the other hand, was designed with the sole intention of causing nervous breakdowns. Consider the following question right from the test: “After returning from a war, Bob has been experiencing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress disorder. He has been feeling …blah blah blah .. difficulty controlling his emotions when … blah blah blah … People say that he acts strangely sometime .. blah blah blah. (10 sentences or so later), What part of the brain controls the expression of emotion?
This, of course, immediately caused Multiple-Choice-Exam Stress Disorder in every student in the room. Why did we just read a paragraph on Bob’s sad life full of war, emotions, and post-traumatic stress when in the end, the question had nothing to do with Bob at all. It could have been a simple 5 second question and answer. What part of the brain controls the expression of emotion? Is it a. the pons, b. the hypothalamus, c. the cerebellum, or d, the brain stem? Easy. The answer is b, the hypothalamus. Did I need to know about Bob’s stupid life? Is it a. no, b. definitely not, c. not for this exam. or d. not ever? Now that’s a tough choice.

Hadley’s Cmpt 320 exam was more or less what I expected, but much, much shorter. On a final exam worth 45% of our final grade, there were fifteen questions with most being multiple choice. As for the content, it was straight out of Hadley’s overhead lecture notes. No surprise there. The path to a good grade in this course was straightforward and everyone in the class knew it. Take down every note Hadley writes in lecture, then regurgitate it on the exam. Still, I couldn’t help but feeling the pressure as 2% of my final grade in the course rested on each MC question covering topics like the names of random computer simulation researchers, the numbers from outdated studies, or the themes of some obscure novel. None of these were mentioned more than once in lecture through the entire course.

I won’t comment on my Numerical Analysis exam. I still don’t want to think about it.

Finally, my last exam - the one I was actually looking forward to, let me down as well. Through some combination of bad last-minute studying and poor cheat-sheet writing, I managed to be completely unprepared for the AI exam for 47% of the final grade. We were allowed two single-sided “cheat-sheets” to take to the exam. Most people (myself included) interpreted this to mean two hand-written sheets of paper, but some students printed off every word from every slide of the course notes in very small font onto two sheets of paper. The invigilators let them waltz right in, not with cheat sheets, but with the entire year’s notes printed off. This essentially turned the year’s mark distribution into 53% assignments/midterms, and 47% cheat-sheet making.

So that’s it: about 45% of my grades in each of my 5 courses determined in one dark, long week. What bothers me the most is that I know I could have done maybe 20-30% better on each final if I had had even one day to study between each.

I won’t make that mistake again. This term, I’m planning my courses and my exam schedule.

There is absolutely no reason why someone would need to do this. There are plenty of streets with marked “left turning” lanes specifically put there so that people don’t block traffic. Furthermore, if need be, people could just do 3 right turns rather than one left in the middle of the street.

I’m not advocating this in all situations. It’s perfectly fine to turn left if there are no cars coming in the other direction and you can get out of the way quickly, but stopping for 30 or 45 seconds to wait for a break in traffic is just wrong. It’s saying “Fuck everyone behind me. I’m turning left”.

Well, you’ve come to the right place.

Just sit your coupon-clipping butt down and listen to Cory’s own 3 step web hosting solution.

1. Find a web host offering a good 1-year deal. - This actually isn’t as hard as it sounds. There are plenty of hosting companies out there all eagerly trying to get you “hooked” on their hosting. The first hit is .. not free, but cheap. Last year I found a deal with Dreamhost at $22 for 1 year including domain name registration. This year, Netfirms offered the same, but with two free domains instead of just one (the offer is expired now). These deals aren’t hard to find if you know where to look. RetailMeNot.com can help you find discount codes and special offers.
2. When the year is over, repeat step 1. - You’ll probably need to find a different host for each successive year. The point of their deals is to draw in new clients, then charge them full price when they renew their hosting. Luckily for you, there are plenty of hosting companies out there.
3. Transfer your old site to your new host. - Copy and paste files. Export databases. Make sure any links are updated. Don’t forget to transfer the domain name as well. If you wait until after the registration expires, someone else could snap up your domain before you have the chance to renew it.

But wait, you say. Surely there won’t always be some amazing 1-year deal out there. That’s where NearlyFreeSpeech.net comes in. They offer hosting for just pennies a day. You pay for exactly what you use and nothing more. Also, you prepay for hosting so you’re guaranteed not to get burned if your site hits Digg or Slashdot. Just throw $10 on your account until you can find the next 1-year hosting deal. Then switch again. They’ll even refund any extra money you don’t use. If you run a small site, like a low-traffic blog, you may want to just stick with NearlyFreeSpeech. They really are that cheap.

<pause for the sound of no one caring>

Sometimes I think the only people who still read this blog are search engine spiders and email harvest bots.

It’s been about a year since I started this site and the posting rate has definitely gone downhill. I used to post once every few days, then once a week, then once every two weeks, then once every three weeks. The last time I updated this blog was over a month ago. I mentioned something about posting once a week. Yeah.. that didn’t work out. This time I’m serious though. I will post at least once per week and yes, you can hold me to that. Hey, it worked for Shawn (for a month anyways).

So sit tight. You’re in for more impassioned rants, more crazy adventures, and more posts about nothing in particular.

Edit: Someone pointed out that I took down the “free music” section. It’s true. The music is gone. I decided not to keep it on the site ’cause it was being abused. After the link to the folder hit the tubes, some mp3 indexing sites caught wind of my free music stash and started spreading links to the individual files around the internet. I don’t really mind providing free music to my visitors, but it was just a lawsuit waiting to happen.  I think the music used something like 50 gigabytes of bandwidth every 24 hours. That’s roughly ten thousand song downloads a day.

The first thing it has going for it is the lack of students. The massive building houses the Faculty of Health Sciences, which is kind of like having a full size stadium dedicated to a little league soccer. The place is empty, and I like it that way. It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s just that I don’t like them around when I’m trying to concentrate.

Adding to the ambiance is the cold, sterile feel of the interior. Everything is made of either glass, concrete or polished pine. A few benches and plants are sparsely distributed throughout the place. I don’t know much about interior design or architecture, but the rooms here the rooms and hallways here have “just enough” space.

My only complaint is that the place is eco-friendly to the point of being annoying. I’m in one of the study spaces right now writing this. The building decided to turn off the lights because I haven’t moved enough in the last five minutes. I’m just sitting here in darkness right now. If the building wants it to be dark here, who am I to argue with it?

It’s not as if the place is dingy though. There are massive windows everywhere offering views of the inner courtyard.

The wireless is plentiful. The bathrooms are clean. The thermostat is set down to a humane level. It’s the land of milk and honey… and it’s mine, all mine (and also a few Health Science students’, but they mostly don’t exist).

In conclusion: Blusson Hall is fantastic, but stay out. Go find your own building.

1. Re-think this blog

   You may have noticed that this post doesn’t have a song title. I’m branching out, ok? I’ll probably clean up the spam, change the theme and get rid of the free music section too. This website has been going for about a year and the hosting is almost up. I’m going to move it to a free webhost like blogger or wordpress and keep paying for the domain name. I’m also going to post more often - possibly once a week… but don’t hold me to that.

2. Join a club

   This year I’m going to join one of SFU’s clubs, no matter how lame it turns out to be.

3. Explore the campus

   Simon Fraser University, the final frontier. These will be the voyages of one bored student. His continuing mission to explore strange new buildings.. To seek out cheaper vending machines; new common rooms. To boldly go to the roof of the AQ .. and hopefully not get stuck.

4. Be a PSYC department guinea pig

   I’ll sacrifice my mind and/or body for science any day. Well, psychology isn’t really a science.. but they pay $10 per project and I’m required to participate in one for my PSYC 100 class.

5. Pass MACM 316

   Dare to dream, right?

Tabloids:

• Must have at least one headline about Oprah
• Someone must be dying from and/or being cured of cancer
• New information on Princess Diana’s death must be revealed every week
• There must be at least two pictures of celebrities with fat highlighted

Women’s/Cosmo-ish:

• There must be at least one list of something, anything.. and it must include at least 2,000 entries. Ex: “3,721 spring dresses!”, or “5,000 ways to know he’s cheating on you!”
• There must be at least two smaller lists ranging from 100 to 2,000 entries.
• Sex sells. The word “Sex” must appear in large, bold letters somewhere on the cover at least three times. Also, “Orgasm” must be on the cover somewhere, but not necessarily as large as “Sex”.

Men’s:

• On every issue, the largest headline on the cover must be about how to get a six pack. No exceptions.
• The guy on the cover must be either a B-list celebrity or an athlete.
• There will be one list of 100-3,000 tips about sex, money, or getting a six pack.

Celebrity:

• There must be a picture of a celebrity’s baby on the cover somewhere.
• Celebrities have first names only. Politicians have last names only.
• Every celebrity magazine will have the same story or picture on the cover and they will all claim to have exclusive photos