I remember a number of years ago when I went to the UBC library in order to study. I couldn’t find what I needed at SFU’s library, and went to the UBC biomedical library instead. After studying/researching there, I went into the student union building and got something to eat. I was only there for an hour, but I had three complete strangers come up to me and strike up a conversation. I was completely blown away by this. While this sort of friendliness was not uncommon at my College, at SFU it has never happened outside of a classroom (and frequently not there either…). I have to wonder if I should have gone to UBC, and I also wonder if my reasons for not doing so were significant enough to have missed out on the experience. At the time, I had ignored ample warnings from those who had attended both SFU and UBC before, and all mentioned that I shouldn’t go to SFU. Too late now, although it is nice to not have to take a bus to my next class.
Today I heard one (of the many) theories as to why CementLandTM is the way that it is, and why the people who trudge through its dreary interiors are the way that they are. If you are ever on a public transit bus, you may notice the flooring that they have there. Ugly, demoralizing, and non-slippery. There is a certain set of rules for acceptable behaviour on a transit bus that I have observed in my brief time that I had to ride them (1 year). Look straight ahead, avoid eye contact, and don’t talk to strangers. This is not something that you could get from, say, being on a bus for a measly week or something. It takes TIME to fully appreciate the transit experience. CementLandTM has the exact same flooring throughout much of it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that peoples behaviour is much the same. I have noticed that this is almost everyone’s experience at CementLandTM, with the exception of the computer science department, which sort of contains a whole different breed of people anyway. If you think I am bitter, you should talk to the grad students. They went to a nice place to get their first degree, then they realize where they are for their Masters…
From what I understand, San Francisco has passed some sort of law to make it illegal to discriminate against fat people, the horizontally challenged…. whatever. Apparently, the whole thing began when some sort of weight loss company had a billboard with something similar to the following :
“When the aliens come, they will eat the fat ones first!”
Personally, I think that I would find this funny even if I was fat. However, I am not fat. Naturally, as with ANYTHING these days, someone took offense to this. The great interest group monster reared its ugly head once again, and now we have a law against fat discrimination in San Francisco. I am not saying that we should discriminate against fat people, but is this something that will be abused? There are jobs that “fat” people cannot do, it is just the way that it is. Does this law mean that we will start having “fat” people doing anything they want, just because firing them from such jobs would be discriminatory. What are they going to get? Fat strippers? There is always the slippery slope. Grab your toboggans.
Just one more thing. Isn’t it time people learned that lights that don’t work make the intersection a four way stop? I had to sit behind some idiot who refused to go through the intersection, even when many people had already honked, and ultimately passed them. So I waited, I honked, I waited some more. I gestured (with all my fingers). They waved, they pointed at the light, they gestured (with one finger). So I passed them. I suppose it will soon be illegal to discriminate against the stupid too.
I find both university similar. I actually don’t see much wrong with SFU. People are the same in both school. You just met nice people that day.