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A Different Prespective

Campus Bulletin

Upcoming

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
UW Dragon Boat Club presents our very first summer BBQ. Come join us for some juicy burgers, delicious hot dogs and some cool refreshing drinks. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., MC Quad, between MC and Chem 2, near the water fountain.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009
“Sandstorm” – the darkest moments can reveal the deepest truth. Award winning film about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Followed by Q&A with director Michael Mahonen, 8 to 10 p.m. at HH Humanities Theatre. Free admission.

Friday, July 24, 2009
Blues dancing at K-W Naval Association, 315 Weber Street, N. Lesson at 8 p.m. and dancing until midnight. For cost/info visit waterlooswing.com.

Sunday, August 30, 2009
2nd annual Memorial Butterfly Release 2009 at Williamsburg Cemetery from 2 to 4 p.m. Proceeds support the work of Bereaved Families of Ontario.

UW Recreation Committee
UW Recreation Committee events are open to all employees of the University of Waterloo. Register by emailing admmail.uwaterloo.ca.

UW Book Club meets July 15, On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan ; August 19, Unfeeling, by Ian Holding. Cost is price of book if you wish to purchase it. Dana Porter Library, room 407 at 12:05 p.m. Details www.uwrc.uwaterloo.ca.

Discount tickets are available for Centreville (Toronto) Island, Ontario Place, Ontario Science Centre, Royal Ontario Museum and Wings of Paradise. Email uwrc@uwaterloo.ca for a UW code for online ordering.

Volunteer

Summer volunteer opportunities with Family and Children’s Services of the Waterloo Region. Summer reading club, bookbag club, and boys’ activity club volunteers needed. Contact 519-576-1329, ext 3533 or Carey.Reist@facswaterloo.org.

Shadow needed to be paired with international students. Show them around and make their stay in Waterloo more enjoyable. Make friends and expand your knowledge. Please apply at www.iso.uwaterloo.ca.

City of Waterloo needs supporters for older adults for shopping and day programs. For info call 519-888-6478 or www.waterloo.ca/volunteer.

Volunteer Action Centre, 519-742-8610 / volunteer@volunteerkw.ca, for all your volunteering needs!

Do you text...do you iPod? We are looking for volunteers to take part in a study on mobile hand held device use and any related health or comfort troubles experienced during their use. The study is being conducted by the Department of Kinesiology and the institute for Work and Health. As a participant in this study, you would be asked to fill out a five to eight minute computer-administered confidential questionnaire. If you would like to participate, please follow this link: http://ithumb.iwh.on.ca. If you wish more information about this study, please contact Sophia Berolo, Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo at sberolo@uwaterloo.ca. This study has been reviewed by, and received ethics clearance through, the Office of Research Ethics, University of Waterloo.

Speak Laos? Volunteer needed to visit Laos-speaking woman with Alzheimers in Heritage Park, Kitchener. For info contact Jill at jmercier@alzheimersocietykw.com.

Announcements

Crown Ward Status: attention students who are/were Crown Wards needed to work with large, Provincially funded transdiscliplinary team (including UW students) dedicated to helping current Crown Ward youth. Please contact Kelly Anthony at 519-888-4567, ext 32802. Paid position.

Excellent exchange opportunity for UW undergraduate students to participate in the Ontario/Jiangsu Student Exchange Program in China for the 2009-2010 academic years. The OJS Program provides scholarships to successful applicants. For additional information and application form/deadlines contact Andreea Ciucurita, Waterloo International, Needles Hall, 1101, room 1103, ext 35995 or by email: aciucurita@uwaterloo.ca.

Ongoing

MONDAYS
Gambling can ruin your life. Gamblers Anonymous, 7 p.m. at St Marks, 825 King Street, W, basement.

FRIDAYS
Season of Argentine Tango lessons in Waterloo starts May 2009 at the Princess Twin, Waterloo at 7 p.m. Beginners and advanced lessons with dancing from 9 to 11:30 p.m. (Tango, Swing, Salsa) Call 519-581-7836 or casadeltango@yahoo.ca.

Career Services Workshops
Sign up for these workshops at careerservices.uwaterloo.ca.

Career Interest Assessment – July 15, 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., TC 1112.
NOTE: $10 materials charge payable at Career Services prior to the session.

Career Interest Assessment - July 15, 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., TC 1112.
NOTE: $10 materials charge payable at Career Services prior to the session.

Exploring Your Personality - Part 2 July 13, 2:30-4 p.m.,TC 1112.
NOTE: $10 materials charge payable at Career Services prior to the session.

Work Search Strategies - July 22, 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., TC 1208.
NOTE: Prerequisite for this workshop. Work Search within “Marketing Yourself.”

Interview Skills: Preparing for Questions: - July 14, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., TC 1208.
NOTE: There is a prerequisite for this workshop. Interview Skills within “Marketing Yourself.”

Interview Skills: Selling Your Skills: July 15, 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., TC 1208.
NOTE: There is a prerequisite for this workshop. Interview Skills within “Marketing Yourself.”

Successfully Negotiating Job Offers: July 21, 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., TC 1208.
NOTE: Session geared towards graduating students.

Success on the Job: - July 23, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., TC 1208.

Getting a U.S. Work Permit: Learn more July 23, 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., TC 1208.

Are You Thinking about Med School/ Perspectives of a Waterloo Grad:
Learn more about the medical school application process in Ontario - July 11, 10 a.m. to 12, TC 2218.

Job Information Session for Graduating Students: - July 21, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., AL 116. July 23, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., AL 116.

Student Awards and Financial Aid

July 16, 2009: Last day to submit Confirmation of Entrolment for spring term or winter and spring term to ensure full OSAP funding. 2009-2010 OSAP application is available now – apply early. Refer to our website: safa.uwaterloo.ca for full listing of scholarships and awards.

Canadian Comic Casanova

Ryan Sohmer, writer of the Schuster Award-winning webcomic Least I Could Do (www.leasticoulddo.com), has been working in the webcomics industry since 2003. As well as writing a comic that follows the world of Rayne — a man that knows the world of seduction like the back of his hand — he is also the co-creator of the fantasy webcomic Looking for Group alongside Least I Could Do artist, Lar deSouza. Currently, the two are up for three Harvey Awards this year, including “Best Cartoonist” and “Special Award for Humor in Comics.”

Sohmer is also the co-founder of the indie entertainment company Blind Ferret Entertainment with Randy Waxman. The company has been involved in a slew of projects such as books, merchandise, and animations. With the company, Sohmer has helped begin animated series based on his webcomic, as well as for Ctrl+Alt+Del (Buckley: www.ctrlaltdel-online.com) and PvP (Kurtz: www.pvponline.com).

I had the opportunity to talk to Sohmer and ask him about his success making comics and working in the independent industry. Here is our conversation:

Crossword

Doctor's Orders

Recently Dr. Abdul Rahman Lawendy travelled to the Gaza strip during the Gaza war, otherwise known as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world. He returned to the University of Waterloo campus, on June 25, 2009, to share his experiences as a volunteer doctor while in the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Lawendy is a trauma and orthopedic surgeon, and is currently completing his PhD in medical biophysics and practices in London, Ontario.

Harsh environment for UW Summit Centre?

University of Waterloo’s Dean of Environment, Dr. Deep Saini, faces a critical question on July 14, when he meets with residents of the Town of Huntsville: whether they will welcome UW when it opens its new Faculty of Environment campus in the community for the Fall 2010 semester.

Saini’s public meeting will come nearly two weeks after Huntsville Town Council changed the location of the proposed facility in a June 30 emergency session in response to a threat of legal action made by two local residents, Jim and Terry McCaffery. Legal action could threaten the whole project, as its construction relies on funds set aside by the Canadian government for expenditures related to the 2010 G8 Summit, which is to be held in Huntsville.

Help! Somebody Get Me Out of The Fourth Grade! Hank Zipzer, Book 7

This series gets better and better. In this adventure, Hank sneaks a peek at the teacher’s register and sees “redo” beside his name. Now he is panicked he is going to have to repeat the fourth grade and be in the same class as his brilliant younger sister. But rather than asking adults he trusts to help him figure this out, he devises his own plan. His plan includes getting his parents out of town so they will miss his parent teacher interview.

Impression, by Jim & Lan

Iranian protests in Uptown Waterloo

A candlelight vigil was held in Waterloo Town Square on Thursday, July 25, as a futher protest to the elections and ensuing violence in Iran.

KW From The Ground Up

In the first article in this two part series, I talked about some of the housing issues that put people at risk for homelessness in KW. However, no one explanation or image can account for the variety of marginalized people in this region. What follows are profiles of local residents — some homeless, some housed in substandard buildings, some with a connection to street culture — who can help illuminate what it means to be homeless.

Light rail transit in KW

A variety of resolutions regarding the Rapid Transit Initiative were approved by city councillors at the June 24 Waterloo Regional Council meeting.

Resolutions included the choice of Light Rail Transit (LRT) as the preferred technology for the system (over Bus Rapid Transit, BRT). Also endorsed was the final route and station location for the future rapid transit line.

After presentations by a number of delegates and some heated discussion amongst councillors, all the resolutions were passed by a wide margin, despite strong protestations by Cambridge mayor and councillor Doug Craig, who was the only member of regional council to vote against light rail technology. Overall however, the sentiment in council chambers was overwhelmingly positive and viewed the approval of these resolutions as a step towards creating a stronger and more successful region.

Logic Puzzle

Four business men want to figure out what the average salary is between the four of them. However none of them want their own salary to be found out.

The problem: Provide a method that the four business men can use to find the average without their salaries being found out.

Note: There are multiple solutions.

Loose Screws

Oh Canada!

Celebrants at UW’s Canada Day sought shelter from the rain during the afternoon. However, the poor weather cleared up in time for the fireworks.

Olympics will likely foster sex tourism

The phrase “sex trade” usually triggers images of children lining darkly-lit streets in Thailand, or pale-skinned mail-order brides from Russia loading off a plane. Although the sex trade is prosperous in Canada, the plains of Saskatchewan aren’t the first thought to cross one’s mind. If the sex trade is an issue in his country, why then is so much media attention and funding funneled into outsourcing international sexual exploitation crises, while Canada’s remain unresolved? This is certainly a question worth asking, particularly since at least 600 foreign females are “coerced into joining the Canadian sex trade each year,” and between 1,500 and 2,200 people are “trafficked from Canada into the U.S. annually,” according to a 2004 RCMP report.

Oxford comma, baby, light my fire

To comma, or not to comma? That is the question. And it’s been asked a lot.

I recently stumbled across Battle Grounds, a book by Dr. P. Whitney Lackenbauer, a St. Jerome’s and UW history professor. The book was dedicated to “Jen, my wife and my muse.” Just by reading this one line (and one that that didn’t even include a list), I knew that Dr. Lackenbauer supported the Oxford comma. Read the line again: does it contain non-restrictive, parenthetical information, or does it contain a list? Anyone with a firing neuron would say the former; comma haters would say the latter. According to our anti-comma friends, that dedication does, technically, contain a list, splitting Jen, the author’s wife, and his muse into three different entities. It’s ambiguous, and ambiguity is bad.

Party's Over

Twenty-two tables and eighty-eight chairs have been removed from the Davis Centre Library and distributed throughout the Student Life Centre. The remaining tables have been spread out to provide a quieter and less cramped group study area in the library.

Hundreds of comments submitted to the library website’s “DC Zone” section over the past few months have pointed out such issues as excessive noise, socializing, and general misuse of the DC group study area, leading to the need to transform the space into one more suitable for studying.

Plastic Bags: Blue Bin Approved

They line your garbage cans. They carry shoes to the gym. They fill up the space underneath your sink. They float in the breeze. Everybody has used one, and Canadians use more than 11 billion every day.

Say hello to the plastic bag.

Did you know you could recycle them?

Postscript

Racing to the Grave

I would never have thought that of all the unlikely pairs to share America’s insane 24-hour newsreel, Sarah Palin and Michael Jackson would be such a pair. But one must admit the obvious, a day before America’s famed July 4 celebrations, those were the only two things on television — and believe me, it was indeed sickening.

Re: Stay or leave

To the editor,

Canada is a diverse and multi-cultural country, where people from five continents call it home and enjoy a peaceful existence. As an international student, my sentiments echo theirs, believing that this country is full of opportunities. However, the reality may seem somewhat convoluted.

Row, Row, Your Dragon Boat

What competitive team sport has been around for more than 2,000 years, is the subject of annual festivals with thousands of participants, and was recently recognized by the Federation of Students as an official club at the University of Waterloo? The answer may not be one you were expecting. Dragon boat racing is a competitive water sport that has a long, cultural history stretching back over 2,000 years. In 1976, it was officially recognized as an international sport, and has since exploded in popularity on an international level. Festivals are held yearly at Centre Island in Toronto, as well as in cities all over Canada and the world. As a matter of fact, dragon boat festivals are closely linked with cultural, ceremonial, and religious traditions in China.

Sudoku

The Environmental Brawl

A city street has been blocked off. A fight is going on. People have gathered around to watch. Some are on the street along the side of the fight. Others are hanging out of the buildings above. The fighters in the middle of it all feel threatened by each other. They believe only one can exist at a time. One believes that humans and the environment can’t get along. All humans need to disappear for the planet to continue living. The other believes that humanity must live, poverty needs to be ended, and technological progress must continue. The environment is unfortunately in the way.

To purge or not to purge

Once upon a time I believed that I needed to keep every book I read. I also wanted to own every book that I read. It soon became obvious that this was impracticable, as well as infeasible and nearly impossible. This leads to both the need to purge books, and the pain of purging books. I have purged on many occasions, but it is always a bittersweet situation. I have sold books when I needed space, when I needed money, and sometimes just because of changes in reading habits.

True use of microblogging

I've finally caved and gotten Twitter.

Since Twitter began, I'd disparaged it. After all, what sort of meaningfuldiscussion can be packed into 140 characters? I'm a writer, I'm verbose, and Idon't like character limits. At first glance, it felt like an attack onintellectual thought -- all the inanity of SMS given its own forum.

But recently, I realized. The problem isn't Twitter. The problems were mostpeople are using it wrong, which gave me a bad impression.

What do you want out of your campus bar?

Did you know that the Federation of Students operates five businesses? Curry-Up/Wasabi, Feds Used Books, Federation Express, Federation Hall, and the Bombshelter Pub are all run by the Federation of Students ultimately to serve you. Did you know that one of these businesses is budgeted to run a deficit for the 2009 – 2010 fiscal year?

York election meddling

The York Federation of Students (YFS) has issued a press release accusing two Conservative politicians — MP Peter Kent and MPP Peter Shurman — of interfering in the YFS general elections.