Bryan Crosby Dot Ca » grad school

SURP 2008 – 2010

Bryan — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:06:01 +0000

In September 2008 I wrote my first SURP-related blog entry. I was hoping to have some more inspired thoughts for my last entry in an attempt to jive with the first, yet my head remains firmly incapacitated from a very long night of liver abuse. So I don’t. I’ve just got this photo.

Two years. Sometime in 2007 I decided I wanted to go to planning school. I can’t even remember what first pushed me toward that profession, but I do remember exactly where I was when I got into Queen’s – February 2008 in some dodgy net bar in Phnom Penh Cambodia. I wasn’t expecting to get into any grad program and was putting out feelers for the Canadian military (enlisted), so it was quite a surprise. I’m a pretty awful student, not too down with academia, and would rather eat glass then do research…not exactly prime grad student material. Given that, it has been an immense privilege to have been given the opportunity to get that chunk paper and check out some built forms with a bunch of great people.

All the best to the 2010 Supers

Technorati Tags: 2010, grad school, Kingston, queens university, surp

Walking: Second Class Citizen?

Bryan — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:07:48 +0000

I’ve was working on a brief regarding the walking/cycling school bus methodology for one of my classes when I came across this quote in one of the papers I was reading:

Despite the accepted health benefits of walking, in some Western cities it has become an almost counter-cultural activity, and ‘a sign of powerlessness or low status’ (Solnit 2000, 253).

Hah hah! I always knew there must be actual, academic evidence for this! No longer must I merely speculate or muse regarding how I feel when I walk about Kingston’s Gardiner’s road or the highway 401 power centres.

I now have a citation that conforms somewhat the laws of academia.

Wanderlust: A history of walking. As suspected, it is been signed out of the library.

Technorati Tags: grad school, Kingston, surp, urban planning, walking, walking school bus

2010

Bryan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:34:12 +0000

Seven years of website fun! I suppose I could have waited until a 10 year operational anniversary, but…I needed a good topic for the first post of the year.

Connected with descendents of my Great Uncle’s Typhoon squadron

Was provided information regarding a memorial cairn created for my Great-Uncle in France.
Acquired a long-term internet stalker.
Acquired several good friends through the website.
Routinely receive hits from individuals interested in the Nanjing sex industry…probably because of this post.
Became a whiz with WordPress and other blog related software.
410 posts – over 600 pages @ 12pt. font of scribbling (as of 2008 given that WordPress no longer exports in .txt format so I can’t read as a word document) – 921 comments – about 24,000 hits – 3343 individual photos.

I spent this weekend cleaning up my gallery. I had noticed some time ago that numerous albums were missing from the gallery, including most of my Southeast Asia, Nanjing, Slovenia, Croatia, some from Tibet and a couple of other random images. I’ve addressed that issue and added photos from this summers escapades in Shanghai and Nanjing. I might even add some more Canadian content (although the ole’ Pentax is still down and out…a resolution is to fix that bad-boy). Most of those have already been posted on the main page at some point over the past six months, but they are now archived back in the gallery. The India stuff will be in there eventually, although the trend is that I’m usually a year tagging and documenting my photos.

I’m writing this from a nice perch on the 4th floor of Stauffer Library over looking Queen’s. I’ve vowed to spend less time in my office at SURP this year in a bid for more productivity (as much as I love the socializing, I would like to get this Master’s report done somewhat on time). Stauffer is kind of a undergrad hang out, but the 4th floor has nice views and could be a choice location (but I’ll steer clear during the craziness of exams).

Crappy mobile phone image (Queen’s from Stauffer Library)

I’m clear headed and ready to dive into my final semester (hopefully) as a student. I’ve got a bike that tears up the snow, a new backpack that eats mud for breakfast and a thermos full of coffee. Just need some new sunglasses.

Technorati Tags: 2010, blog, grad school, Kingston, life, new years, pentax, photography, surp

April

Bryan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:52:34 +0000

Inconsequential entry about nothing other than to note that I am aware that I still have a blog and that I haven’t scribble or added content since the 24th…

Hmmm…

good good study study day day up…

Technorati Tags: grad school, nothing, study, surp

AutoMAD

Bryan — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:02:13 +0000

Yeah, I’m still around – but don’t expect any big post in the next few weeks. If you do, it is because I need to bust myself away from the super-duper exciting world of planning school examination/project period.

I swear, I will die at my computer…while using AutoCAD. I’m not kidding when I say my hair is falling out over this software package – it’s all over my keyboard right now :-(

Technorati Tags: autoCAD, grad school, Kingston, queens, queens university, surp

Some websites

Bryan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:47:16 +0000

A colleague walks into my office yesterday and introduces me to tiny little site called Stuff White People Like – with the proviso that he isn’t going to be responsible for any procrastination or large amounts of time lost as a result of this introduction.

I haven’t laughed that consistently since Tropic Thunder. Probably my favorite is the grad school entry:

Being in graduate school satisfies many white requirements for happiness. They can believe they are helping the world, complain that the government/university doesn’t support them enough, claim they are poor, feel as though are getting smarter, act superior to other people, enjoy perpetual three day weekends, and sleep in every day of the week!

This site also has the most comments/entry I’ve seen in awhile – with some posts clocking thousands of comments and trackbacks.

While I’m at it, I’ll also plug China Smack – it’s translated run-down of the hottest tabloid stories in China. It’s complete news trash (but strangely interesting), however the translated comments provide good a different angle into another aspect of life on the Mainland.

Technorati Tags: china, grad school, humour, procrastination, white people

Homecoming

Bryan — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:10:38 +0000

The Homecoming tradition is not much of a tradition in Canada…in fact, if one considers Wikipedia to be the all seeing, all knowing authority on anything and everything then there are only really two Canadian institutions that observe this phenomenon. Queen’s and Western…and I happen to find myself at one of them.

Homecoming is a phenomenon that most Canadians are familiar with (having grown up on a healthy dose of American high school/College drama movies and television programming) but it is also a term that most have absolutely no idea about. Not only was I classed in this ignorant category but it was also compounded by the fact that I’m from Western Canada – a fiercely independent place with few if any strong collegiate traditions.

Luckily for me I had the opportunity of meeting and becoming friends with numerous Americans during my time abroad and they would not only eagerly educate me on the comings and goings of the Homecoming experience but also on the finer points of the American Greek system (fraternities and sororities) – organizations which are essentially absent from the Canadian university landscape.

Apparently this weekend is Homecoming weekend here at Queens…it even made the Globe and Mail….twice. National Post. Traditions include a football game between Western, ‘pancake-keggers’, numerous alumni parties and infamous Aberdeen street party.

aberdeen street

A very controversial event with threats of tasers, riot police and water cannons after a previous Aberdeen party got a little out of hand. The solution? Send in the old folks – apparently…according to a professor, legions of concerned citizens and parents will be patrolling the street handing out plastic beer cups (to minimize broken glass) and to repeat the always tempering phrase “Party-safe”.

Technorati Tags: aberdeen street party, grad school, homecoming, Kingston, party, queens