Class and Clubs
Ugh Thursdays are the worst. I have a two-hr long Industrial Automation lecture, which is just way to long to sit around talking about differential equations and systems modeling. The Prof is really enthusiastic though. There are only like 8 people in the class and my new best friend Kelly the IE from Wisconsin is in there with me so we struggle through together. Then we go to Starbucks and kill a half hour before Cantonese.
Cantonese- the hardest language ever. Six tones. A crazy little Chinese woman. I feel like I haven't learned anything in there but its because the first 4 lectures focused on how to read the Romanization of the words and how to pronounce them. Also we learned our numbers and how to greet people. But no real vocabulary or grammar. Although I heard a rumor that there is no grammar in Chinese. Throw the words together in any order, there is no tense on verbs, no feminine or masculine or plural on nouns. So everything that is hard about Spanish doesn't exist in Cantonese. That's kind of sweet. But I still can barely say any of the words properly. Tracy is gonna be my awesome tutor. :)
At 6 tonight I went to a meeting held by this guy Will that's starting a new club on campus. Will is this excessively ambitious guy from Berkley who is the leader of this group called Berkley Innovation. They're basically all about creative problem solving and being Berkley-ish. Apparently last year they got a $20 thousand grant to implement a GPS internet tracking system for their shuttle buses. They installed GPS locators and Wi-Fi's into the buses so students can go online and find out how far away a bus is. That's freakin' useful.
So being all hard-core, Will is trying to start the same type of group here. I'm totally into it. He came off pretty intense and geeky when he first pitched it, but I felt bad about making fun of him so I went to the first meeting tonight. Guess who wishes he was an IE? Will. Cuz IE's rock. Anyway I'm going to spend the rest of this blog breaking down the group. Stop reading now if you are not interested.
The goals of the group seem three-fold. One is Will's goal, one is Sasha's and the other is the finance people. Will's major plan is he'd like to start a world-wide innovation website for college students. Somewhere to post problems, solutions, creativity methods and innovation news. I think it started as an easy way to link the HK and CA groups, but then why not take it worldwide?
The second, which I think is Sasha's champion is having innovation workshops where we tackle different problems each time just to practice creative thinking and creativity techniques. This is something Will's group already does, but Sasha is all for having fun and clearly this is what he loves. I think its brilliant.
Finally, there are several business and finance people in the group (mostly from Canada) and they are lame. They are such yuppie, brainwashed college student types that are ridiculously goal-oriented and focused on their own interests. Abby got totally psyched that there were Soc and Engineering and Business and Science majors, because having tons of perspectives and different pools of knowledge is so important in product design. These finance geeks got a little righteous about doing something finance related. But its ok. They are the heads of a case-study finance group at their uni so its clearly what they are good at. And business majors hate to look like they don't know whats up. Anyway for them they seem really bent on doing a big project and were already trying to come up with ways to get business contacts or financial backing. We don't even have a problem to solve and they are trying to get it sponsored. Figures.
I feel like maybe Will and I will be on the level though. His main focus is doing something that will benefit HKU students and getting locals involved in the group. I think he'd like to leave an operating club on this campus and have them be close with the group in CA. More power to him. The website (which is both a tangible achievement and something cool to use) got really downplayed at this meeting, but I think it will come around to something people want to contribute to.
Anyway I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing and now you know that.
-Abby
Cantonese- the hardest language ever. Six tones. A crazy little Chinese woman. I feel like I haven't learned anything in there but its because the first 4 lectures focused on how to read the Romanization of the words and how to pronounce them. Also we learned our numbers and how to greet people. But no real vocabulary or grammar. Although I heard a rumor that there is no grammar in Chinese. Throw the words together in any order, there is no tense on verbs, no feminine or masculine or plural on nouns. So everything that is hard about Spanish doesn't exist in Cantonese. That's kind of sweet. But I still can barely say any of the words properly. Tracy is gonna be my awesome tutor. :)
At 6 tonight I went to a meeting held by this guy Will that's starting a new club on campus. Will is this excessively ambitious guy from Berkley who is the leader of this group called Berkley Innovation. They're basically all about creative problem solving and being Berkley-ish. Apparently last year they got a $20 thousand grant to implement a GPS internet tracking system for their shuttle buses. They installed GPS locators and Wi-Fi's into the buses so students can go online and find out how far away a bus is. That's freakin' useful.
So being all hard-core, Will is trying to start the same type of group here. I'm totally into it. He came off pretty intense and geeky when he first pitched it, but I felt bad about making fun of him so I went to the first meeting tonight. Guess who wishes he was an IE? Will. Cuz IE's rock. Anyway I'm going to spend the rest of this blog breaking down the group. Stop reading now if you are not interested.
The goals of the group seem three-fold. One is Will's goal, one is Sasha's and the other is the finance people. Will's major plan is he'd like to start a world-wide innovation website for college students. Somewhere to post problems, solutions, creativity methods and innovation news. I think it started as an easy way to link the HK and CA groups, but then why not take it worldwide?
The second, which I think is Sasha's champion is having innovation workshops where we tackle different problems each time just to practice creative thinking and creativity techniques. This is something Will's group already does, but Sasha is all for having fun and clearly this is what he loves. I think its brilliant.
Finally, there are several business and finance people in the group (mostly from Canada) and they are lame. They are such yuppie, brainwashed college student types that are ridiculously goal-oriented and focused on their own interests. Abby got totally psyched that there were Soc and Engineering and Business and Science majors, because having tons of perspectives and different pools of knowledge is so important in product design. These finance geeks got a little righteous about doing something finance related. But its ok. They are the heads of a case-study finance group at their uni so its clearly what they are good at. And business majors hate to look like they don't know whats up. Anyway for them they seem really bent on doing a big project and were already trying to come up with ways to get business contacts or financial backing. We don't even have a problem to solve and they are trying to get it sponsored. Figures.
I feel like maybe Will and I will be on the level though. His main focus is doing something that will benefit HKU students and getting locals involved in the group. I think he'd like to leave an operating club on this campus and have them be close with the group in CA. More power to him. The website (which is both a tangible achievement and something cool to use) got really downplayed at this meeting, but I think it will come around to something people want to contribute to.
Anyway I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing and now you know that.
-Abby
posted by Abby-Wan Kenobi at 4:48 AM
3 Comments:
Tracy, Ally, Hannah, Beth... too many people to keep track of. We need some sort of reference material/tool or job aid to track the main cast of The Chronicles of HK Abby.
Done and Done.
Thank you, the adventure will be much easier to follow. Love the pictures, keep them coming.
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