Ask Saro

I got back from my vacation last Sunday (August 19th) and wasn’t happier to be home. I seriously missed my friends and the city of Montreal.

Small review of the trip: it was awesome. I visited Denmark, Sweden and Norway in 18 days. Not a lot of time, but any more would have killed me, as I get homesick within 2 weeks. I saw quite possibly the most beautiful places on earth… the mountains of Norway are breathtaking, no lie. Stockholm in Sweden was such a nice, clean city; I found it equivalent to Montreal but more “European” and well-maintained. Definitely a place I would consider moving to, as their living conditions are superb. All I need to do now is pick up Swedish and I’m set.

Speaking of languages, I have decided to learn German at Concordia. During the trip, I spoke with the tour guide (whom I’ll never forget) that inspired me to learn. She knows six (6) languages! How crazy is that? English, French, German, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. Hopefully I’ll stick around Concordia for more than six weeks this semester.

My tour group was overall pretty fun to hang out with. Everyone was always in a good mood and respectful towards others. The hotels were decent, except two of them were crap. One didn’t have A/C (it is common in Scandinavian countries, as they don’t usually get continuous hot weather) and the other hotel was a bit ghetto overall (broken hair dryer, missing sink knobs, awkward room design, etc.). The food outside and inside the hotels were terrific, but extremely expensive. A can of Coke was equivalent to 10$ CDN. The Scandinavian countries’ minimum wages are much higher than North Americans I believe, hence the high prices. I got to check out some cool tech and gadgets though; the Sony Ericsson W880i phone was one of ‘em. If it was quad-band, I would have bought it in a heartbeat (and quite possibly have buyer’s remorse right after, since I already have a perfectly working phone!).

One thing I found particularly cool was that a lot of people in Copenhagen use bicycles as a means of everyday travel. They have dedicated bike paths alongside cars; that’s how popular the transportation is. Of course, you still have your buses, trains and metro systems which work very well. The bicycles really keep everyone fit there… you sure as hell don’t see obese people around… which brings me to say the girls in Europe are HOT.

If the news hasn’t already been passed around yet, the major announcement is that I am dropping out of school for an indefinite period of time. Well, it’s more like a 1 year off thing from the looks of it, as I may pursue University again next semester, perhaps taking 1 class per semester during the day (I really can’t take night school… makes me want to try Modafinil out). Why did I drop out? I got really bored of the subject matter. I also fall asleep in class because of my long work hours with my dad. Anyway, I much rather concentrate on my dad’s business and work on Holiday Sources instead with my site partner. I can’t wait to see where it will take us.

A few things to spill out here.

First, the training has been going real well. I am now squatting 210 lbs, dead-lifting 225 lbs, bench pressing 185 lbs (still need to work on this) pressing 105 lbs and power cleaning 100 lbs. The strength improvements on my legs are really showing, as my boxers are getting tighter around the legs! I also got someone commenting on how much bigger I grew in over a year since she met me. Reviews like this really encourage me to keep on training more. I love it.

Second, my courses are somewhat… uninteresting, to say the least. Learning assembly is fun, but the more I think about it, what the hell will I do with it in the future? Oh right… nothing. And all these logic statements that I’m learning all over again… why? Really boring stuff. I decided to do website work again during class hours… I’m going to end up paying the price again it seems. I should really start my homework.

I started school last night, this time pursuing Computer Science. My first class, Discrete Mathematics, was a bore and a half. I did Boolean Logic 3 years ago at John Abbott College, yet I am doomed to repeat it all over. Although, I did meet someone interesting in my class, so perhaps going to the course won’t be so bad after all.

Let’s see how I’ll be able to juggle full-time work with 4 courses. Most likely not well.

I got accepted into Concordia’s Computer Science program. Quite a surprise, ain’t it? It’s going to take me 3 years to finish up the program (90 credits) and I’ll have a Bachelors in Comp Sci. I just have to do one prerequisite (Math 204) and this time, I’ll pay attention and do the work. No more screwing around in class! Anyway, I look forward to this fresh start… but I really do want to get this whole school debacle over and done with. I rather concentrate on other things!

I got a white board for the office today and it’s going to be a great addition to planning projects out with my dad. I should get one for home too and do some brainstorming on it. On the topic of projects, there’s quite a few things planned out for the next month or two. I got to optimize our programs to work over the web, and I will implement SQL to do so. Without going into too many technical details, I think it’s going to make things run a lot smoother. Our clients will be quite happy.

Another project my dad and I have to start is RFID for jewellery and clothing. If we implement this feature in our point of sale application, it will attract a lot of new clientèle and make our existing clients want this type of technology right away. Still a bit more planning to do though before we roll it out to the public.