Oleg's Big Party

From home to university

For me, every day… is a big adventure. It all begins with riding my favourite rocket to Wellesley or College, and each time, new surprises await me. The subway was stuck 20 minutes between Sheppard and York Mills stations. Then I hear mumbling out of the intercom, “Btchz bztch fire Lawrence… shuttle busses will take you from York Mills to Eglinton” (apparently, there was a fire at Lawrence station). The angry passengers were dumb. Instead of listening to the instructions, they were shouting: “What did he say? What the f%#k am I gonna do now.” Yeah, anyways - it was not their fault. If the TTC screwed us over by forcing us to bus around Yonge, they should have at least made the subway ride short and delightful - and not keep us wasted underground. If there was a real fire preventing the subway ride across Lawrence, it would have to make headlines. (I mean, if it wasn’t serious, we didn’t have to stop at the f%#king station, we could have just rode past it.) We’ll have to wait and see.

So, we got out on York Mills station… and walked up to the buses area. Man, was it ever packed with people. Dumb people. Everyone was already late wherever they had to go, and tried to jampack themselves in the first available bus. Normally, crowds form three lines per bus: two at the rear doors and one in the front. When the crowd gets large and platform space is low, crowds form an angle at the rear doors. In this case, people in the front get on pretty quickly, and they are followed by people behind them. Well, this wasn’t a crowd. It was a mob. Groups of people were jamming in from the sides. Those dumb people weren’t waiting in line, they were cutting it, wait, not only cutting it, but also creating a barrier (a dense barrier, considering the people were being pushed through), so people who were rightfully standing in line couldn’t get past them ahead on the bus. Oh, and these b@$t4rds were standing on the f%#king road preventing loaded buses to leave, and empty ones to come on.

The TTC made no attempt to ease the situation. If you make people angry, they wouldn’t listen to you. Happy people don’t call tech support. But wait, it isn’t over. So, we got on the shuttle to Eglinton, and as soon as it zoomed out of York Mills station, the bus driver told us that the situation has been resolved and the fire had been disposed off. We could have just rode back in, but no: we were dropped off outside of Lawrence station without a transfer (the busses were jampacked, you couldn’t just go and beg the driver to give you one). Given the situation, the TTC booth personnel (they don’t deserve a better name) had to let us in without one. The smell itself was horrible, but it was upstairs, nowhere close to the tracks (the subway should have just rode past). It shows how horrendous TTC personnel are at analyzing the situation and figuring out a solution which keeps riders happy, and instead quickly rush to reroute and organize shuttle busses.

Okay, so this isn’t going to be in tommorow’s news. But, this event will be remembered, right here on the Big Party. TTC - the better way, ride the rocket, where every day is a fun day!

Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 10:03 PM /

Wait in line

Yesterday, my dad and I went to the UofT bookstore to get me books, well… backpacks are not allowed there, so we needed to put our stuff in a locker. So, we open a locker, put in this stuff, and then some person comes up to us and says that he has been using this locker. Dad tells him that he wasn’t, and then he has the guts to cheerfully reply: “You’re an @$$hole.”

Actually, no — you’re the @$$hole. If you are waiting in line for something, stay there, and if you are staying in line, then act appropriately. We didn’t find the books I was looking for there, but the discount store had them in ample supply.

Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 12:26 PM /

Higher Education

As of yesterday, University (of Toronto) has began (for some of you, it may be later or earlier). At a math course, the professor takes out a photocopied book and says: “You don’t need this book for the course, but I like it, I have ordered a few copies at the bookstore, I am sorry I don’t know how much it costs…” Class managed to contain laughter.

I don’t know much people: so far I met 5 people from High School, and 13 I had at least a conversation with (I have yet to decide whether the first set is contained in the second).

Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 10:11 PM /

How unobvious things are...

I have plenty buddies and sometimes they surprise me. Today it was Eric Chen. I sent him a djvu file (similar to PDF) and gave him a website where to download the reader. He downloads that, and asks “I install it, right?” Reply was swift and brutal: “No sghit, Eric. Thats exactly what you do… (you download and install).”

Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 07:02 PM /

Buddy, don't deny the facts

I am chatting with my “favourite” buddy Ivan Dimitrov now, and he is telling me how weird his new MIT dorm is. However, he is not really telling me why or how its weird (besides that he is in it) and then asks me whether I have seen dorms as weird as this. I tell him “yes”. Well, he tells me “no”. Listen, Ivan, don’t tell me “no”, when I tell you “yes”. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it. Its like telling a fat person, that he is not fat, when he really is fat. Such nonsense.

Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 12:48 AM / Comments (2)