Skip to main content

First day of classes

Tuesday, September 8, 1998. It was a somewhat sunny day. And it was the first day of classes at the University of British Columbia. It seems like such a long time ago now... but I recall back to those days fondly. From somewhere out there, came a naïve little person who spent 5 years of his life being moulded and influenced by that place, its ways and teachings only to end up working there... making this my 11th year on Campus (minus the year and a bit between graduating and working there and the 2 and a few years of which I spent in DC). I am still naïve, but I would like to think that I am a little less so.

A good friend and teacher once told me that after all these years of being immersed in something, he realised that he knew so little. I guess the difference for him is that he acknowledges and understands the scope of what he doesn't know. Someday I hope to be more enlightened. Every day is a journey towards that goal I suppose. Wish me luck. And the best of luck to the students who started (or are continuing) their academic lives at UBC. You're truly lucky.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Summers are getting hotter in Vancouver

This shouldn't be a shock to anyone, but summers are getting a lot hotter here than it has been since I started living here. It used to be that in summer, it would be in low to mid 20s and reliably sunny between mid June to about mid August. Perhaps the sunshine stayed till September. Somewhere along the way, there would be rain as well. But that was 2+ decades ago.  In the past few years, there has been many days where wildfire smoke dominated the skies and air. Rain is rarity now in the summer. And it has started to get hot. It is not unusual for days when the highs are over 30C.  This is starting to cause homes to get very hot. Most apartment buildings in Vancouver are covered in glass. While it makes for great views, it also turns apartments into little ovens. My apartment faces West and it regularly goes over 30C by the end of the day. And it barely cools down overnight. The outside is a lot cooler in the evenings. A few years ago, we had something called a heat dome - ba...

How to make a good thing go bad quickly in tech

I haven't written a work related post in what seems like ages. I am currently living through the aftermath of a third M&A in my career. The company I currently work for is in its third incarnation - from a small tech startup 15 or so years ago to something that was sold to a large software company - one of those lumbering giants that have their hands in all kinds of technology driven fields - where they invested sufficiently in it to grow it in its current location - to now finally being acquired by an even larger technology company - one that its hands in all kinds of technology fields.I came along post the second phase but I have seen 2 other US tech company acquisitions, one that made me quit fast and the other that took me around the world but made me leave anyway. The difference from the previous take-over of the current place and this one is stark. While there was a lot of churn up top in the previous acquisition and differences in what you paid for benefits etc, for...

A few thoughts on the current state of Canada and US relationships

 It is easy to demonize the current US president for a myriad of reasons. Some have called him by the alleged tint of his skin (orange), some have called him a threat to democracy and used words like dictator, fascist etc. I am not going to delve into all that. He is, as far as I am concerned, the legitimate leader of a large country, duly elected by a majority of their voting population. What those people where thinking while voting for him in a majority, I question. But that is not the point of this post.  I live in Canada. I am a citizen of the country. I get to vote for an MP in my riding federally. The party who elects the most MPs is usually invited to form government by the head of state or (now) his representative. Our democratic norms are pretty simple and straightforward. There are plenty of things to criticize our electoral system for and the governments that come as a result. Anyway, all of this to say, we in Canada do not get to vote for a foreign leader. But we d...