Monday, 26 August 2013

FanExpo 2013


Thursday, 15 August 2013

A Man Wrongfully Acused

In a report where a man murdered his neighbor, is he right to be charged with murder?

One day in a normal neighborhood, a man named Chris was walking home. See Chris is a normal man who does normal things like walk his dog and goes to a coffee shop once a day to read his daily news on his ipod. Though Chris always worked at home, both him and his wife are both happily married with two children, Ben and Andrew. Chris and his family were very well known in the neighbor hood for being nice, but well quiet people. No one really knew much about them but w/e... they're just normal people like you and me.

One day the police came over and the neighborhood stood still.

It's a bit usual to see the police outside, so everyone just ignored it and walked away assuming it was like an accident or something not involving themselves.

10 minutes after the police entered, a Tweet appeared.
"OMG!!!!!! CHRIS MURDERED HIS NEIGHBOR #ICantBelieve #MessedUp"
That one tweet was retweeted by a news network's station.
That tweet was retweeted by the neighbor hood.
That tweet was replied over hundreds of times with:
"I knew Chris was weird, but not like this"
"Chris should go to hell, and burn!"
"Murdering isn't right, god would punish him"
"@#$@$@# Our society is messed up, Chris should be shot"

" F*ck I knew him in school, I knew he was crazy"

Now let's take a step back... did the police say anything? Why are the tweets going rampaged?

So the story right now is, Chris murdered his neighbor. The neighbor's name was Brock.
Brock was Chris's neighbor for 5 years ever since chris moved into the area with his first child.

Now you know Brock, did Chris murder Brock?

A while after the storm of tweets of bashing Chris, everyone retweeting that Chris should be sent to jail and never leave for being psycho, a report on the news network came on.
"Police, The victim Brock was found inside chris's home when Chris entered. No one knew why Brock was within his home, and this might have been a self defence.

Twitter went mad again. The tweets went:
"I knew it, you people were wrong! Chris is innocent"
"Man WTF kind of creepy guy... I would have shot Brock"
"Brock was psycho when he moved into the hood"
"My kids knew Brock, but thank god we stopped talking"
"This city is messed up, stupid psychos breaking into homes" 


Now the news station stands by Chris for attacking his intruder. 24 hours later investigators reveal why Brock was inside his home. Brock was intoxicated at the present time, within the home Brock was Drunk in the afternoon before his death. The evidence showed Brock held the knife with his own hands and stabbed himself, which lead his death from blood lost. The information was announced on several news stations. The headlines on all of the newspapers were changed to quirky titles like, "Alcohol Does Kill", or "Watch me Suicide"

Now Brock was the victim of self infliction. However there is another twist to this story. The court case had been set for 6 months from legal understandings. In this time a few news reporters have followed Chris home, and took photos of himself. He has now become infamous in his community from all these reporters. Everything Chris has done was being watched, from his walks around his neighborhood, to his coffee shop, even at his dinner table with his family, someone was watching them and taking a photo for a story to add to their reputation like the paparazzi for TMZ. Though some of the neighbors and a lot of the online community agrees, the media has the right to uncover the true story since "alcohol suicide sounds like a suspicious story" they all agreed the story was far from the truth. Though having constant eyes were creepy enough, having a twitter feed about yourself is more scarier. This was the spark of the Hashtag #ChrisSuicideLine

Rather than blame the cause of alcohol, everyone wanted to look into the case more... why didn't Chris stop him, why was he drunk, why was he silent. After all why was it only about him, wasn't his family around... or at least knew something. This resulting in his kids being harassed at school, calling them the "Suicide kids". Ben was only 10, and Andrew was just turning 5. The news really hit the children, as Ben questioned his father why couldn't he have saved Brock. Everyday, at school he was always teased by his friends about being the son of Satan, and when someone felt light headed, they ran up to Ben and asked him if he could help them suicide like his dad did. Being labelled a suicide kid really sucks, but Ben just shrugged it off, however Andrew couldn't.

Andrew who was 5, couldn't even talk to his friends anymore. The mothers around him always told their kids to never go near him. Andrew always sat there in the classroom alone in the corner. Even the teacher started to ignore him too, as a mother herself she felt pity for him, but at the same time, she could not bear the fact he too could be a murderer like his father. Of course Andrew as a kid always did cry according to his mother. Like most kids, crying is a sign of fear or attention, and of course Andrew was that kid of kid. However after a few months, those tears stopped dripping down, in fact he just sat there alone everyday, it was like he has given up connecting himself to the world.

As a child, you are suppose to trust your parents, Ben trusted his father, but slowly gives up his hope each day when the media keeps promoting advertisements against suicides and using his father and his neighbors as the prime examples. Andrew just grew more silent than before, with his photos over the media labelled, "A future suicide hotline" he couldn't understand why his face was labelled around. Granted, suicide hot lines are a great invention in our society, using a child who doesn't understand the concepts of life and death as your advertisement really scars a child for his future. New Reporters and markets share no boundaries as this is new story gold mine for the time being. There is no rehabilitation for the children and the family, just a story to be shared and left alone like a used tissue.

Within days of the court case, Chris's lawyer was gather evidence about his case to prove his innocence. The lawyer spoke to Chris's wife, but she refused to speak from her personal religion. The lawyer begged her to give it out, even though there is no religion against giving out names, so Chris's wife did. When she spoke, the lawyer's mouth dropped, and this opened another view of the story. See, Chris's wife was a transexual, however they could not afford the operation to have a complete transition to becoming a female, Chris decided to adopt his kids in this situation because he did infact loved his wife. Chris's wife also did not change her name because she wanted to respect her parent's decision of her name, as George. From this conversation, the lawyer compiled a case for the trial. However word did spread, and everyone in the area had an uproar of a Gay couple in the neighborhood. As some neighbors actually drew graffiti all over their house walls with quotes like "WE WANT NO HOMO". Yet those who did in fact wanted to fight for their rights, just didn't. It wasn't their family, it was someone else's... why bother?

What the media did was to bring out the fact homosexuality is a real thing in this neighborhood, but brought them as a target once again. It wasn't bad enough Ben and Andrew were harassed as Suicide kids, but after it blew over this controversy started. Ben was shocked to hear that his mother was actually a male, and he started to oppose of the idea. While being bullied about 'the suicide kid label' didn't affect Brock, the fact his mother was indeed a male really hit him because this was real. He couldn't trust his parents anymore, and he sat there crying in his bedroom thinking, how does the world know more about his family than he does. Being harassed online saying how he wants to molest males through Twitter and Facebook by his friends really damaged his interpretation of what is right in this world. Though his friends thought it was a joke, it indeed hurt him.

Andrew, on the other hand received more pity from the community, parents of other children actually spoke to the teacher to treat him better because he was "different". Andrew did however began to have more kids communicating with him, which made him smile. Those previous boundaries he had before with the suicide kid disappeared and Andrew began to be opened to his kindergarten class. Though this seems great, the fact that pity is the reason the kids are communicating with him must hurt in the long run... but for now Andrew is happy.

With all of this drama going around, the real story of Brock's death was covered up by the media's impact of an unusual family in a small neighborhood. Of course none of this mattered to Chris, because he was at court at the time. Brock's wife appeared in court to prove Chris was guilty of her husband's murder. Though there was no evidence at the crime scene to prove Chris murdered Brock, Brock's wife appeared with a suitcase. At the trial,Brock's wife told the court, that Chris was not his children's father, infact they were taken from herself and her husband.

Of course this was big news around the court, and new reports were broadcasts from outside the court around the world, that a suicide may have been an act of revenge. This of course made no sense as a headliner, but it did peak their audience's attentions. What more could you want, a suicide that was done as revenge could not be anymore sweeter of a story, especially for a journalist who wants to make it big. The first Tweet that came out was, "A man who steals kids and commits murder #SMH #ChrisTheMurderer"

This was one of many, throughout the case different emotions rose, the case was no longer about Brock's murder, it was to tarnish Chris's image to the public. Brock's wife also brought up the topic about Chris's family, how they are even able to have an income when he's a stay at home father. Brock's wife received testimonies from Chris's past clients, they were all drug addicts. Chris was known through out the underground society as Green Daddy, a dealer for Marajana, and if it wasn't bad enough as it was, those drug addicts were at the course to testify against Chris.

Chris broke out of silence in the court room, and said all these allegations were false. Though on Twitter it was a different story.
"What kind of father is a drug dealer #ChrisTheMurderer"
"A Gay Drug Dealer? What is wrong with this work #ArrestHim"
"Yo is this serious? This story can't be real #ChrisIsInnocent"
"He helped my homeboy do crack I think #TrueStory"
"PLEASE STOP MY DAD'S INNOCENT! #ChrisIsInnocent!"


That last tweet, was from his son Ben. Though still on a confusion about his family, he wants his voice heard among the crowded ReTweets of hatred against his family name.. though his words were mute compared to the news room reports across the web with comments filling up with hatred and disgust for Chris's actions.

Near the end of the trial, it has all seem to be a loss, no one had been looking at the case of Brock's murder or suicide, in fact it has been judges by Chris's reputation alone. Just when the court was about to close, Chris stood up, and said, I am guilty. As Chris's words said, "I did deal the marijuana, but I did not do anything besides watch my friend suicide infront of me". Chris's face began to become red with tears dripping down his face, and dropped his knees to the court. Chris then began to speak softly but trembling as each word came out of his mouth. "I wanted... to keep my family wealthy, and I was a pharmacist a few years back. After I met my wife, when I found out she wasn't a female, i broke down and I started stealing my own prescriptions of marijuana to calm myself down. Brock was one of my clients, he was a great friend to me... My kids, aren't my kids... not from blood. When Brock and his wife declared they were in a low financial situation, we decided to adopt their kid Ben. Andrew also adopted after Brock and his wife gave birth 1 month earlier than expected, and it showed signs in Andrew that he may have a mental disorder, but we took him in as well to make sure Brock and his wife could know their kids would be happy, and it made us happy that we could have a family."

This made the court room silent, the truth that he was not a father, that he did infact give out marijuana, the fact that he couldn't have kids so he adopted his neighbors, the fact that... they were friends before the incident.

The judge then believed his emotions, and so did the jury. Chris was sentence to jail, but not for murder or drug dealing, but for assistance suicide. He was sentence to one year and deemed his drug dealing was not what he was sentence into court for, and would be recalled in a years time to investigate his drug dealing past.

The final verdict came out, Chris was accused of being guilty.

From outside the court room, no one could tell the whole story, only summarizing it into 140 characters for the public to see
"Chris is guilty of Suicide Assistance"
"Guilty of being Death's Right man "
"He was innocent, those people were idiots #RetardedLaws"
"1 year for assistant suicide #ChrisSuicideHotline"
"Call him at 1-800-Kill you"
"A Father who worked hard to end up in prison"


The last tweet that has the hastag #ChrisSuicideHotline said,
"Thank god that devil is in jail #ChrisSuicideHotline" 


________________________________________________________________


Rather than solve the problem, the media exposed the problem like NBC's Lookout. While it's great to know there's a problem why isn't there someone trying to find a solution.

The case is now officially closed, but has the truth really been solved?
Well, at the end of the case, the truth was never discovered and the media has spread the fiction as reality. Well it wasn't full fiction, but it wasn't full truth.

See Brock's wife has a mental disorder in some ways its considered bipolar, she had two different personalities. when she remembers back in the past she thought that Ben was indeed her son. This was her state of mind during court, while her other side was just a normal house wife, who was always cheery. The drug addicts she brought in, were in fact Chris's clients but they were bribed to tell an exaggerated story about Chris's dealing because they Brock's wife convinced them that if Brock was murdered, so could they. Though this may seem odd why they would admit the truth, in a court room, people will say anything to get out of the situation.

Chris on the other hand, did not murder Brock, but why couldn't he stop Brock from suicide?
They day, Brock was drunk from drinking all morning before he came over to Chris's house. Before Chris returned home, Brock rustled through his house to find some marijuana, and when he saw a picture of Chris and his kids, he broke down in tears.

When Chris entered his house, he saw his door broke, and when he walked inside he saw Brock in tears with a beer bottle wrapped around his arms. Chris went down on his knees and realized what the situation was. Chris told Brock he could no longer give him marijuana anymore, he couldn't see his friend be addicted to a substance, while he needs to get back on his knees. Brock took out a knife from the kitchen and threatened to suicide if Chris didn't give him the marijuana. Chris looked away and thought about his children... well Brock's children, and told him, "I can't let you do this... your kids need a role model and I need your support. You were always there when I married my wife... you were there when I wanted a family... I need to save your soul before you destroy it like I was..." Brock fell on his knees, and cried, "Destroy? My life is miserable, I lost my kids, and my wife's respect... I have no way to be happy unless I kill myself" He took the knife and put it near his throat. Chris told him he should stop, as he went closer, Brock slipped over his beer spill and fell onto his knife, straight into his throat. Chris stood there in shock, and called 911. This the true story of the events.

Now look back at the story, did any of these tweets tell this story? Some people would like to hide the truth, while others would like to expose a story from the origins from this story.

Like broken telephone if someone said, "Suicide" and someone added suicide hotline, you make it from a death to a career, which made it seem worse for Chris's reputation. In media we HAVE to make a title interesting or else would have no viewership, so the truth would always be smothered from reality.
None of the tweets you see were persistent tweets about a solution, only spreading gossip, and news networks taking them as a truth pill.

Besides could Chris really tell the truth? Getting exposed as a drug dealer is something you would like to avoid, or avoid of your family's secrets... these are things people do not want attention on and hopes to god the news don't expose these stories. In that scenario, you would probably avoid to tell these truths to save your family.

If rumors are what we completely trust, then we are not getting the truth. And what's to say one's action over states another's or why someone shouldn't be punished for their actions? Rather than allow the news media to capture one quote from an online source, why not get it from the actual source. Or better yet, why not wait for the information to solidify than report it as broken pieces.

This is why I hate today's news. Social media has become "evidence" rather than a guide line.  You have to be an idiot to trust what the news says when they say, "According to a Tweet"
But then again, that is our society today, and maybe in the future it will be, "According to my dreams"

I commend reporters who do uncover the story fully, but public harassment isn't right. To persist a story without one's permission, to allow the truth to come out fully than taking on a few words isn't journalism, that is gossip. And most news networks wouldn't apologize for their actions unless their audience have an uproar about it.

By the way, this story isn't just fiction, these emotions are what people may feel when a story is covered about them. What ever happened to Chris's family after this... Is Brock's wife anymore happier now? The after math of news hurts even more... like a world crisis or a natural disaster, do people care after, and has there been a solution...

It makes you think, is news necessary for us if we can't find a solution? Or do we even care about the victims anymore?

In 140 characters, "Can you prove #ChrisIsInnocent?"

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

My Biggest Fears are..

I'm sure someone's going to abuse this blog and bring all my fears together...
But the only way to stand up to a fear is to list it... and I'm sure everyone has their quirky little fears like me...

So here are my Top 5 fears in the world.

  1. Butterflies


    God I get goosebumps from this picture...

    If you know me... you better know this fact. I hate butterflies with the biggest passion ever. At one point my friends Julia, Brittany, Sakeena and Ty whom I met in Sprosh week tried to convince me that our secret spot for meeting was in the butterfly green house -_-. I still love those girls, but they were dicks.

    Why I'm afraid? When I was a kid, like 4, my mom told me butterflies would rot your nose if you let it land on it so you would look like a scare crow forever. And then the next year she bought me a butterfly net for my birthday. So that scarred me for a longgg time. Though I know it doesn't happen now, they're so creepy up close... Who da hell thinks a butterfly looks beautiful from its face?
    My friends told me, "Your suppose to look at their wings... not their face!"
    How about, Hell no. That's like saying you only check a girl for her booty, THERES STILL OTHER PARTS OF HER BODY man.

    To be honest, all bugs creep me out... but Butterflies are like the ice breakers to know me. I'm not going to tell everyone I hate bugs, cause some times I'm ok with them around me. After all you have to live with nature!

    Though I've grown to be ok with butterflies... I rather see them burn then touch one.
  2. Claustrophobia

    Very common for a lot of people. I hate clubs especially because of this.
    It's not that I sufficate... I just smell awful body smells and so much sweat drips i just get disgusted. Sometimes in my office I have to sneak around small shelves to get stuff, I kinda feel like i would be caved in and no body would care...

    But why is it a fear, well ever since I was a kid, playing hide and seek and being forgotten... sucked. So I felt like I couldn't breathe... I probably couldn't because I use to have asthma. So i developed a fear, if I was stuck and people forgot about me, i would die alone... so ye.

    So please don't drag me into a tight small room or cave i could fall down and disappear
  3. .... Well kinda 3.5 (I got over it awhile ago)
    Balls to the face..... Is there a better term than that?


    When I was a kid I was afraid for a ball to go near me.
    In basketball I never shot the ball, I passed it.
    In soccer I never scored, I always played defence
    In Football I always ran away from the ball
    In Baseball I always ran away from a pop fly... Which questions why did I ever join the softball team in the first place. [I sucked... I played outfield and I ran away from balls that made automatic home runs for the other teams] I was bullied a lot when I was a kid by the Indian kids calling me the dropper. So it was annoying... they still call me that today, but they're drug dealers now so HA!

    I got over this fear a while ago... That's how I've become a pretty good athlete...
    As long as your hands are infront of your face, you won't get hit... hard, but not at the face! :D

    ACTUAL 3.
    Failing.


    Normal for a lot of people, but for me it just burns like guilt trip... Especially with exams around the corner, I can never sleep and my heart beats none stop. Sometimes I wonder if Nightquil would help.

    I just can't stand a big project and to fail on it. When I do presentations I replay it in my head at night. When I do an exam, I go pessimistic and count backwards on how many questions I WILL get wrong. In order to get over this fear... you have to be confident about your self and practice a lot so failure isn't an option. Failure may happen, but less likely.

    Always smile and move on... after all if you do fail, you will over come it. Failure only leads to success. Success only leads you to the finish line, and in life that's not what you want too soon.
    [In other words, if life isnt challenging, why bother living]

  4. Beans...

    Well... when I was a kid, in summer camp I was forced to eat raw lima beans for a game... I could have gotten Salmo....ella? or w/e. But back then no one really knew what that was. So I was forced to eat it, as part of my team and do 10 times spin around a baseball bat. I threw up -_-. And they told me I had to keep doing it, so i threw up even more.

    I cried, and everyone let me pass... but still... who da f*ck can eat it raw out of a can... that's nasty! Anyways from then on I had a fear of beans... never tasted good, make you fart and gas...
    Who da hell made that song:
    "Beans, beans, they're good for your heart
    The more you eat, the more you beat
    The more you fart, the more you eat
    The more you shit on the toilet seat"


    Anyways... I still don't like beans... except string beans but that's cause it doesn't look like the beans I ate when I was a kid. So NEVER EVER serve me beans or I will throw up.
  5. F*cken clowns.
    Kid reaches for sucker from Scary ClownI don't understand, I don't, and I never will. WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE CLOWNS!
    They are the scariest. most hideous things in the world!

    When I was a kid I watched "Are you afraid of the Dark" and the clown scared da f*ck out of me. To this date I CAN NEVER watch the episode again.

    Why I'm terrified of clowns? I don't get it. Why do people like someone who makes fun of you and dresses up like a ghost wearing lipstick. Jesters I'm cool with, they're not all white like a ghoul, at least I know they're human. But mannnn clowns creep the hell out of me!

    I remember when I was a kid, I was going to the circus. The clowns came up to me and said, HIIII KIDDD
    I cried and ran to my dad. My dad let me ride the ponies for the rest of the day. I've never been to a circus to be honest :/ Weird.

    Now I'm sure I'm ok with clowns... well I'll probably punch on in the face.
    That's Clownaphobia for ya'll

Fricken clowns.



Tuesday, 13 August 2013

The Ugly Necklace Story

So this was an old story...

But I still love it because it's hilarious.


A while ago I went out with one of my close friends for lunch. We haven't seen each other in forever, like... it's kinda hard to explain but I always tell her everything about my life to her, like pretty much anything you would want to know, she should know like how I can't pronounce the word Apocalypse, or the time I proposed to a stranger... anyways so we went to get sushi and we started talking about our lives... or was it Korean BBQ...

I want to say Korean BBQ... but... wait no I'm sure it's sushi because she taught me the Sushi Rule.

Sushi Rule: "You can only leave as many sushi on a plate as there are corners. So if the plate has 4 corners, you can leave 4. If it has 3 then 3... if it has 0, you're dead."
Why this rule is important? ... We didn't finish our Sushi -_-
Now the special thing about my friend is, well shes like a black hole. She can NEVER EVER be full, which is f*cken amazing. Seriously, shes a turtle at eating, but she has an endurance ... of a turtle? ... That was a horrible comparison there...
Anyways at one point while eating we had a special deep fry roll, which ... well it was empty and full of deep fry batter so she said, "WTF EWWW" so I tried it... and I had to use the washroom to take the taste out of my mouth...

Wait no it's Korean BBQ... cause I was cooking for her, and then things got burnt so she laughed at me...

... err... OK IT WAS ASIAN FOOD.

During the meal, I told her about a theory I've been thinking about for a long time. Every girl I got a necklace for, NEVER Wore it again. Besides my first Girlfriend... that's a story for another day!
See, I think no matter what a guy buys for a girl, the girl will most likely think its ugly... or at least not the same level of prettiness as her own taste. That's like a girl buying her boy his T-shirt... Usually its not something we would wear more than once so we don't get beat.

So she told me that no matter what necklace, if someone gave it to her, she would totally wear it.
CHALLENGE accepted. To prove this theory I asked her the following questions:
1) Who gave you the necklace you are wearing
2) Do guys give you necklaces?
3) Why that necklace not the ones guys gave you...
or something on the lines of those questions.

Her replies were, I got it from Africa, yes and not really... I just like this one more.

So we went exploring down the area and we found a small jewelry shop, it's actually REALLY COOL. theres over dozens of different accessories you could add to a necklace from the pendant, to the strap to the... box...It was great!

So when my friend was looking away I decided to get her a late birthday gift.
As she was looking around I started looking at the necklace pendants. The cashier asked me, "Is there anything you would be interested in?"
Me: ... umm which do you think is the most ugliest one?
Her: ... excuse me?
Me: yee the ugliest...
Her: ... ummm... I don't know...
So I call over my friend and asked her which pendant was the most ugliest one
She was confused, but she knew I was random so w/e... she thought it was a gift for another friend.
She looked, and picked out the one that looked like sun glasses.
The neck step was the strap
I called her over again... she picked some ugly metal strap.
After that I asked her about the box to put it in.
She told me pick which ever box looks brown to me [I'm color blind...]

So the woman wrapped the box for me and said, "Man... your woman is very lucky to have you... I guess"
Me: I know she is!
So I tapped my friend on her back and said, "Happy late Birthday"
She was in shock, while everyone in the store burst out laughing in the store.

We walked out of the store quickly as she told me, WTF SAM, you made me pick the ugliest necklace.
Me: ... It's not my fault, its a gift you chose yourself ;)

After that she gave a first aid kit for my christmas gift
because well... im accident prone... I miss my friend.

Friday, 9 August 2013

OMG I get to have a job! ... Is what we wish [Co-op]

So I've been getting this question... ALOT from a few dozen first years, so I decided to write a blog about my first and final experiences with Co-op.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not recommending you to not take it, nor am I recommending you to take it. I am giving you my honest experience with the Co-op system and it is not a portrayal of my university alone, this is the combined experiences from several of my friends over the years. Now I can't get sued!

So what is co-op?
This was a major reason I went to my university... I thought Co-op = Instant Jobs.
Imagine if it were a pack of instant noodles, I thought I would get one as fast as one steams water.

Boy was I wrong.

Co-op is actually a method of job finding. It is combined with your academic education with the recreation of a career you may find interest in that is restricted to your field only.
Or in other words, You pay money to get a chance to find a job just like hiring an agent. 

Now this sounds bad... but these are the three main reasons why people do take co-op [or at least the only three I can think of at my office...]
1) The university is giving you jobs so easily!
2) The Jobs are more high class and you make more $$$
3) I will finally get a job related to my courses

Well... #1 is incorrect... its not easy and its not going to be given to you.
#2 ... Depends on situation. I'm going to say maybe 30% of jobs given are NOT any more than minimum wage. This will vary depending on your career choices
#3 ... Well that's true, but not at the same time. Yes you will get a job related to your career, but some times it is VAGUELY related. One of my friends was a secretary for her job in Co-op, and her major was Communication Studies. So that didn't make sense at all.

Process of Co-op
Before the experiences, let's tell you how you get into co-op

1) Get a B to A- Average in your first year to be accepted into Co-op
2) Pass COOP 1001
3) Get Interviews
4) Get a job and sign contract
5) Work
6) Write a work term paper
7) You're done. 

Sounds easy right?
Let's go step by step
  1. Get B to A-.
    Take easy courses or study hard. If you don't get it in your first year, relax you can try for co-op next year, but you will have to take a 5th year [... though co-op forces you to take a 5th year still...]
  2. Passing COOP1001.
    It is 3-4 tests I think, and 2 assignments.The Tests are fairly easy... and I found a way to go around the system, which defeats the purpose of the tests.
    Just have one friend answer the whole test, and copy all the answers after and your other friends can get perfect too. Kinda stupid flaw... but not like anybody cares. + Most of these questions do not help you at all in the work environment. Trust me... I don't even remember anything from that course, and I think I recall most of the information were contradictions.
    "Don't be personal, but make them know you better by being human" made no sense at all.
    But this is theory, just like most courses you will take in university, but its good to know I guess.

    ALSO, you can fail these tests, so I would recommend you to becareful because you will be kicked out of the program

    The assignments were a pain, one marker was different from the other, so I failed twice because she didn't like my writing style that I changed for the other person -_- [Its like the EQAO]
  3. Once all this happens, THIS IS THE HARD PART. Finding a job. This is my personal experience, at least 70% of jobs I got interviews for were from my own search, NOT CO-OP. 
    Why? I think its because I was more motivated towards those jobs I found on my own than Co-op.
    ESPECIALLY in my major, most of the jobs... sucked.
    I don't want to be an editor, I don't want to be a secretary, I don't want to do statistics research, I HELL don't want to do marketing for cigarettes... I want to do media... which they didn't have.

    Now here's my hint for reading this much into my blog.
    www.indeed.ca 
    This website is how I got quite a few interviews. Including Scotia Bank, Royal Bank, Microsoft... and other companies. So if I were you check it out and maybe you can find a job you would love.

    Now Co-op does give a good list of jobs, but only... 20? Jobs are available in your first 2 months of search, then 30 the next month. It's pretty bad... Every year they say the same old excuse "The job market is just bad this year" I talked to my cousins, the job market HAS ALWAYS BEEN BAD, you just need some luck on your side.

    Unlike me some of my friends were lucky and got a job on their first few interviews. These are the people you will meet at your co-op nights when they introduce about their careers. I call these ppl the 'Lucky Butters'. I hated them [as a group not individually] for pretty much lying to my face that its easy to get a job. Because its not, unless you have relatives in the industry or you had the job without co-ops help in the first place. If my friend reads this, I'm sorry, you're a great friend but when you do your speech PLEASE be honest to those co-op students about how hard it is to get a job or i will call u a lucky butter too. 

    Now I made this seem super bad, but that's my experience, see maybe 50% of my friends did get a job in Co-op, and 20% of those people got their job within the first two months of co-op search.
    So don't be down, because you can beat the odds with my advice later in this blog.
    Some of my friends actually had co-op get them their dream job, and some got jobs they didn't want, but eh its a job!

    Some I want to slap in their face because they said, "MAN it's easy to get a job! You just need to try harder" ... Chances are they probably won't get a job in their near future because you feel too secure about your job. [Remember, Luck has a huge % in getting a job, and I'll explain later about it]
  4. Now why do I say it's luck?
    Well... Depending on your interview the person who interviews you has the biggest impact if you get the job.
    I'm going to be honest, in the interview, most people don't look at your resume, most don't look at your cover letter. Once I made a mistake with the wrong company name, and they realized it half way through the interview. What matters is the first minute the interview looks at you and talks.
    That decides if they will consider you or not.

    Once I had a phone interview... that I was not prepared for at all.

    Another reason luck comes into play: One of my friends was competing against me in an interview. At the interview, the interviewer had to leave due to family circumstances, so she missed my interview. To be honest, my friend would have gotten the job even if she interviewed me, but because life was lucky for them, that she liked my friend and her family in trouble, I never had a fair shot at that interview.

    These are sad stories, but eh, it's life right? You can't sulk if you don't pass your first interview, your second... or if you're like me, your 50th. But you gotta keep trying hard.

    Some of my friends went from Jan-July jobless until August and they finally got one.

    Now to the topic, the contract. Here's the issue, Co-op actually tries to make sure the job you get matches you major. So I got a job as Human Resources. However, Co-op decided it wasn't like communication studies, so I lost $400.00 for their service and told me I can't graduate without taking a semester off for co-op -_-
  5. ... well 5-7 are self explanatory. Work hard and you'll be fine in the future.
    Though you may or may not have co-op to help you, its good to have the experience down your belt.
    Now time to think for your self, this is from a person who failed at the co-op process, I didn't get a job by co-op I found a job myself. I couldn't get into co-op because my job wasn't what they expected. and I lost a few thousand dollars on the way.

    This is normal for a communication studies student. I'ld say.. 30% of comm students get a job in their first 4 months of search. 50% total get a job MAX.

    For other majors, Engineers are 80%, Business students are 40% [Highly competitive], science students are 50%, and etc... These are made up stats, but judging by my friends you can't be 100%, but you can't be 0%, so be happy you have a chance!

Why co-op is bad.
1) It costs 500? For the course, and 400.00 per semester you do co-op you pay for their services, and then you have to write a report and if you fail... I don't know you get kicked out of co-op?
2) Well my cousin 10 years ago explained to me why companies HATE CO-OP STUDENTS.
The Co-op coordinators WILL harass the companies to get a co-op student to work there after you do your term, and the student who found that place will have to compete with more people from the same university.
Some companies do not want all that spam so they get out of the co-op program immediately.
3) I don't want to work for a cigarette company. [And it was good pay.]

Why co-op is good.
1) It helps you get a job in your field
2) It looks good on your resume
3) Some of my friends work for big companies like RIM, Scotia Bank, Rogers, Telus....
4) You will compete against less people than a regular job.
5) well... some people have amazing stories and they keep getting better jobs each year. So to some, co-op helps out in a longgg way. + You know if you international student, it helps you get a job. Just saying.



Now... The point of all this, How to get a job with or without co-op
  1. Search, get help, make friends at network events... all these people will make it easier for you to get an interview. BFFs FOREVA!  
  2. Nothing is guaranteed, work hard and fight for a job 
  3. Smile, no one likes a sour puss, maybe make them laugh to make it fun
  4. Your experience is great, but your personality is worth more, be social and your interviewer WILL Love you.
  5. Eye contact is important
  6. Relate to yourself to them [Even if you have to use a little bit of Linkedin stalking, it helps]
  7. Never be full of yourself. If you say your the president of Blah... they'll be like, why do you want to do co-op then if you're so great. BULLSHYTER. 
  8. Always be modest, stated before, co-op students are mainly the workers who do ... well the work no one else wants to do. It's true but eh, its work! So don't act dominant, accept all.
  9.  Be quick, don't be long. No one likes you talking forever. 
  10.  Take a job you love, if you don't like the environment or the employer, just say thank you and walk out. You don't have to take the job if you want to kill yourself at it. [Government work is repetitive... people quit sooo fastttt] 
  11. Remember the rules I just said, They can be all thrown out.
    See everyone is different, and all you need is that little luck to match. Maybe they want a strong person or weak... maybe they like someone who makes them smile, or thinks they're lazy... maybe some want someone exactly like them while others are opposites... or some like short talk, some love longggggg talk.

    For me, I like being fun... and if my interviewers don't smile... I probably wouldn't want to work for them. [I can't stand a serious crowd... ]

    Nothing is written in stone. Its up to you to find out where you belong.
In my next blog, I will talk about my job experiences to give you an example of what a co-op student's life was like. 

Thanks for reading! I hope it helped... a bit...