Tyler Suzuki Nelson

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It follows young protagonist Katniss as she prepares for and then subsequently participates in an annual event called the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is an annual event where a male and female child from each of a dozen districts are sent to participate by killing each other off. This is done to remind the districts of an event in the past, and thus to keep them in line.

I thought that the intricacies of having such an event and the effects on both the district populus as well as the Capitol (the elite) populus were fairly well thought out. The way different cultural aspects play out I thought demonstrated this well. As did the way many characters developed and acted throughout the book.

Although I thought the plot was interesting and moving at a good pace, I also thought the characters were developed well and played an important part in the plot. The complex relationships between characters (such as between Katniss, Gale, and Peeta) were interesting. Some characters, however, I thought would have been much better contributors to the story if they were more developed; Rue, for instance, I felt could have played a much bigger part in the book if her story was explored more (though, I do think she played an important role as is).

Overall, I liked The Hunger Games. Although I didn’t find the themes to present anything extraordinarily interesting philosophically, I did find the book a light and enjoyable read. I really liked the development of the main characters, and I thought they played well into the interesting plot. I’m looking forward to finishing the rest of the series (and also watching the movie).



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Why didn’t I know about this until this morning?!?! The past few years, whenever I needed Microsoft Office, I would usually get the Home and Student edition (which was essentially a student discounted version off of the Professional edition) for about $160 (well, I usually found it for about $130 when I had to buy it, but $160 is the list price). This edition comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (I’ve always been depressed that it never came with Outlook).

This morning, upon browsing the Microsoft Office website for the United Kingdom, I discovered that they had Microsoft Office University 2010. This version comes with not only Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, but also Outlook, Publisher, and Access! Unfortunately, I had difficulties finding it on the Canadian website. However, I decided to check out the UBC Bookstore this morning with faint hope that they might stock it. Guess what? They do! And it was only $99.99! That’s cheaper than the Home and Student Edition, and it also comes with 3 additional programs (including Outlook!!!). The only catch I’ve noticed is that you can only register one Office University 2010 software set per year, and it is limited to one desktop and one portal computer. Activation requires a university e-mail address.

Anyhow, how did I not know about this until now?! It includes Outlook… …and it’s cheaper?!?! QUOI LA PHOQUE?! So, I’m excited (installing it now; apparently, I get excited about weird things). Hopefully this will catch some of your eyes before you go and buy more expensive versions of Microsoft Office unnecessarily!

PS: Our first post-exams UBC Mafia Club meeting is tonight! Join us in IBLC 260 at 5pm for great fun

So I found out this morning that I’m going to be transferring rooms to a different building in Marine Drive Residence tomorrow morning. Thus, I spent most of my day packing. As it turns out, I have a lot of stuff piled up on campus… This is what I ended packing up today (see below), excluding my sports and music equipment (which I transferred to my office for temporary storage) and my toiletries and mini-fridge (which I have yet to pack because I’ll be using them tomorrow morning); I somehow had packed all of this into Marine Drive’s rendition of an under-the-stairs-broom-closet. I must say I hate packing, and I can’t believe I have this much stuff on campus… …oh well, I’ll hopefully know two of the people in the room I’m transferring into (hopefully because the second person is also still hoping for a room switch into the room), so hopefully it will be worth it…

…these pictures could almost double as an application to be on Hoarders…

A while ago, Emti, Carson, Julia, Khanh, Quinlan, Jonathan, Jenny, Daphne, Lu, and I decided to check out Ma Dang Goul, a small Korean restaurant located at Denman and Haro. When I say small here, I also mean cramped; the restaurant itself had little space, and what space it had was cramped with tables and chairs. Our table for 10 was at the back of the restaurant, and we were all seated tightly next to each other. This problem became especially evident as both us and other people in the restaurant tried to use the restrooms or pay using debit at the till–such actions required the invasion of personal space of some of those seated.

If there’s one good thing I would point out about Ma Dang Goul, it would be the vegetarian options. Although the restaurants menu wasn’t a majority of vegetarian food, it still had a good selection, much of which was clearly labeled. I opted to get the Sundubu Jjigae, which is a small vegetarian hot pot (err, it may have had sea food in it; I can’t remember. I think I recall picking out some prawns for someone else to eat though). I thought the taste of my dish was actually pretty good. I found it a bit small, and the bowl of rice that came with it I also found to be a tad small. I don’t know if I could call it a sufficient meal. However, off of the food, I thought I should point out the service we got in receiving the food. When we first received our dishes, they didn’t tell us which dishes were which and just put them in the center of the table. Thus, many people initially grabbed the wrong dishes. Additionally, they have one of our vegetarians a soup with beef in it… …and upon exchanging it, they brought back another soup with beef in it. It wasn’t until the third try that they brought a vegetarian soup. To make matters worse, the service wasn’t very polite either. So, although the food was okay, the service was the worst I’d seen thus far in Vancouver…

Out of curiosity, I thought it would be interesting to look at what people are Google-ing to find my blog. Here are the results from the past 7 days (as created using Jetpack (WordPress Stats) and Wordle (the word cloud)):

The most obvious (and easy to explain) difference is the recent interest in searching for exams and finals. Besides that, I don’t see too many other notable differences. MICB is smaller lately than has been previously throughout the year; I don’t know if that’s because there have been relatively few finals recently or what. Anyhow, I just thought this would be an interesting thing to visualize

Dear Anonymous,

I am writing this to you tonight after a recent epiphany I had. After much exploration and revisiting of many nearly forgotten memories, I decided to translate my thoughts to text. My motivation for doing so is not only to prevent this from becoming a forgotten memory within itself, but also to inform you of just some of the surface waters of the tide that drowned my consciousness that night. So whether we have been friends, acquaintances, or simply on either end of some distant admiration, these words are for you.

The harsh reality of the world is that of potential distance. Perhaps we were never that close in the first place; perhaps there was always some distance between us. Perhaps we were close, but over time, we slowly grew apart as we learned more about who were are and who we wanted to be. Perhaps we were close, but over time, work, school, growth, people, responsibilities, or otherwise desires managed to bring a physical distance between us; perhaps we managed to initially stay close after the introduction of this distance, but perhaps our communications slowly withered out. Perhaps we are close, and we have yet to see any distance; perhaps that distance may eventually come, or perhaps it may not.

Regardless of what has happened in the past, or what may happen in the future, with respect to this potential distance, I wanted to let you know about the other side of this distance. Although reality may seem to have separated us with great distance, we will always be connected, much closer than may be obviously apparent.

Whether we helped each other, whether we hurt each other; whether we laughed together, whether we cried together; whether we followed each other, whether we opposed each other; the fact remains that our interactions have driven my development into the person I am today. If you were erased from my past, I can guarantee I would not be the same person I am today. My revisiting of nearly forgotten memories, the many of them upon which form the foundation upon which I, as a person, exist, have reminded me of the great impact you have had on my life. You may not realize it, but I do not lie when I say your impact has been great. The lessons you shared with me helped me solve so many problems, and then so much more. The secrets you shared with me reminded me of how much you valued our friendship, and then provided me insight into my own life. The smiles you shared with me illuminated the good side of society, and gave me strength when I needed it most.

I just wanted to thank you for everything you have done. I have made it this far and become who I am because of your contributions. And even if you move to the other side of the globe, even if you move onto other friendships, even if you move out of the world of the living, so long as I am alive, you will remain close to everything that I am. Thank you.

Much love to you and your future, wherever you choose to create that future,

Tyler

One of the things I’m doing this term is helping my friend Edward coach badminton at Kitsilano Secondary School. I know one of the things I had (or still) trouble with doubles is figuring out how to coordinate movement with my partner to cover the court. Fortunately, I’ve gotten better since I started (much thanks to the advice of Aaron, most of which below is adapted from). Alors, I’ve thrown together this resource so that it will hopefully be useful to some of you (I’ve shared this with the Kits badminton team).

When playing doubles, there are essentially two “modes” you and your partner can be in: either sides, or front and back. When playing sides, each player is responsible for covering their half of the court, whether the opponent hit a drop, clear, or smash at them. When playing front and back, the front player is responsible for returning drops, the back player is responsible for returning clears, and both players should try to return smashes/drives whenever it seems most appropriate for them to do so over their partner. However, the players should move in response to their own hits. After all, if playing sides, and a player smashes a clear, it is unlikely that they will be able to recover from their follow through and rush to the front of the net should the opponent return it with a drop. This post will be covering how to move in response to your own team’s returns.

To begin, let’s look at different returns from a side-to-side positioning. If you and your partner are playing sides, and one of you hits a clear, you should stay side-to-side. The clear should give you and your partner enough time to get ready to guard your respective side.

If you and your partner are playing sides, and one of you hits a drop, the person who hits the drop should move to the front of the net and the other player should move to the back. By following a drop shot to the front of the net, it makes it easier to return any net shots the opposing team may try.

A bit more complicated… If you and your partner are playing sides, and one of you smashes a clear that fell in the middle of your court, stay sides.

However, if you and your partner are playing sides, and one of you smashes a clear that fell in the back of your court, the person smashing should cover the back of the court and the other player should move to the front.

Now, onto starting from a front-back position. If playing front-back, and the person at the net clears, the players should move to side-to-side positioning (the front player moving to a side, and the back player moving to the other side).

Likewise, if playing front-back, and the person at the back clears, the players should move to side-to-side positioning.

If playing front-back, and the person at the front drops, that person should stay at the front of the net.

Likewise, if playing front-back, and the person at the back drops, that person should stay at the back of the court.

If playing front-back, and the person at the front smashes (NET KILL!), that person should stay at the net.

Likewise, if playing front-back, and the person at the back smashes, that person should stay at the back.

In summary, whenever your team clears the bird, your team should move to side-to-side positioning. Whenever your team drops the bird, your team should move to front-back positioning (the positioning of each player depending on who dropped from where). When it comes to smashes, if playing front-back, you should stay front-back after smashing. If playing side-to-side, you should stay side-to-side if you smash from the middle of the court, or you should move to front-back if you smash from the back of the court (with the person smashing from the back staying at the back, and the other player moving to the net).

When it comes to serving, the same rules apply. Typically people start serving in front-back positioning. If your team serves short, the server should move to the net. If serving long, you should move to playing sides. However, if your team starts off playing side-to-side, if your team serves short, the server should move to the net and the other person should move to the back. If serving long, you should remain playing sides.

Hopefully this post is useful. It seems long, but I think it’s only because of the long pictures making the scroll bar long. I should also mention that this is only one strategy for doubles play (hence, I titled it A Basic Mechanistic Approach), and many people prefer different play strategies. I’ve personally just found this one strategy useful because it is so mechanical, and it does a decent job of covering the whole court. Let me know what you think, and again, I hope this was useful to some of you!

A Species-at-Risk database network – Graduate Research Assistant opportunity

The South Coast Conservation Program (www.sccp.ca) is a multi-partner, landscape-level conservation program for the South Coast (or Lower Mainland) of British Columbia. The primary objective of this program is to coordinate and facilitate the implementation of conservation actions to maintain and restore species and ecosystems at risk on the South Coast of B.C.

We are looking to hire a Graduate Research Assistant (or Undergraduate, if appropriate) to help with designing and populating a database as a pilot project for development of a broader web application for Species-at-Risk information for the South Coast region. We need a student with experience with databases, web design, and good communications skill. There will be a team of people involved in providing advice, and connection to the actual on-line applications.

Pilot – actively populate the database for 2 or 3 species or ecosystems. This would require research and net-working – tracking down everything possible for those species or ecosystems, within all the activity types (i.e. various types of types of projects, activities and information resources we’ve identified), attempting to gather information on all the searchable criteria of interest for each project / activity / pieces of information (e.g. title, description, contact organization, brief description, geospatial information). It might be useful to have the researcher engage those with whom they’re networking in discussions about SARnet versus their particular activities as well as their ongoing information / networking needs, and how those needs are currently filled (e.g. other web sites and tools) or not. It might also be worthwhile, depending on time and resources, to take a preliminary stab at a simple, and preliminary, overview of what’s easily accessible and available for those high-priority SAR in the South Coast. This might enhance the value of the pilot deliverable to the SCCP.

The results of the project will become the property of the Government of BC and the South Coast Conservation Program.

Please submit a cover letter and resume to Dr. John Richardson, Department of Forest Sciences, UBC john.richardson@ubc.ca by April 20th.

The Other Side Of Dawn by John Marsden

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Conclusion: It is incredibly difficult to write a review for a book that is a continuation in a series. How can I say much that is meaningful without giving too much away?!

The final book in the Tomorrow series (yes, I finally finished it XD), The Other Side Of Dawn follows the characters… …I’ll put a SPOILER WARNING thing here even though I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler–I think most people anticipate it upon picking up the first book and thinking about how it’s going to end… …into their final acts before the end of the war.

For me, the thing that stood out most about this book was something misleading, although I didn’t really fall for it (the whole time after that, I was in my “Uh huh. Ya right. When are you going to take that back?” mode). That being said, I thought it made the emotional pulls of the novel stronger.

Overall, I liked this book.

All in all, I thought the Tomorrow series was a good read. I didn’t find it spectacular spectacular, but it was for the most part enjoyable. I thought it provided some interesting foresight into human nature and the abilities of humans to adapt, through the characters who were constantly being developed throughout the series. I thought the series was a bit long, and there were times that I felt it was being dragged on a bit too much (then again, I would probably feel the same way if I was trapped in a war), but I don’t think it detracted too much from the series. Although the plot was definitely interesting, at least for me, it was the characters that really drove this series. The characters had me on emotional rides throughout most of the series, although I think that having seen the movie also made me bond especially tightly with certain characters. If you can handle longer young adult fiction, I would recommend giving this series a shot!



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The Night Is For Hunting by John Marsden

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Conclusion: It is incredibly difficult to write a review for a book that is a continuation in a series. How can I say much that is meaningful without giving too much away?!

This is the second last book in the Tomorrow series. Surprisingly, so late in the series, there is an introduction of some new characters. There is also some development of the existing characters.

I think the biggest difference about this book was how most of the plot concentrated on the development of the new characters and their integration into the group. In this way, the book didn’t have the same plot direction as most of the other books.

Overall, I did like this book. There was a different type of suspense here, but I did think the new characters was an interesting twist to the series.



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