I'm not sure if I should be concerned about how easily motivated I am by food and free t-shirts.. But I think it's a good starting point to getting more involved with the community of my chosen field of study.
The Barbell Prescription: The What, Why and How of Weight Training
So much cool stuff happens on campus all day every day. It breaks my heart that I literally don’t have the time to go do and see and hear everything.
On Tuesday, I went to a free seminar that was held at Hart House called, “The Barbell Prescription”.
You know it’s going to be a good one when you’re already taking notes and salivating over the guest’s credentials.
Dr. J Sullivan joined us from Michigan. A former US marine, 3rd degree black belt in Karate, 3rd level Krav Maga practitioner, doctor, researcher… The guy received a $2 million research grant from the NIH… that’s the National Institutes of Health. It’s a big deal. On top of all that, he owns, manages and trains clients at a gym called Grey Steel, for aging adults.
We started off talking about what we considered an “athlete”, how we’d define the word. I learned a little bit about Greek athletes (the word athlete comes from the Greek “athlos” which means contest or feat). Apparently there was an athletic event in the Greek games, “Hoplitodromos”, which was a race in full battle armour. Competitors in the games had to swear an oath to Zeus that they trained for a minimum of 10 months. Awfully specific for so many years ago!
Science Literacy and WW1 at the Rare Books Library
If you've read any of my blog posts before, you may know that I really like books. I've blogged about Fisher Library in the past and just last week I blogged about used book sales on campus. Although I rarely have time to read…
Time to Say Goodbye
So U of T, I guess this is goodbye! It’s hard to believe that this is my eighteenth and final blog post here at Life @ U of T. Do you remember when two-month summers in elementary school seemed to…
Reviving wonder at Science Rendezvous
Sometimes in the midst of memorizing biological pathways and solving quantum mechanics problems it can be easy to forget just how fun and awe-inspiring science is. Many of us studying science in university were drawn to it by admiration for…
Why You’re Not Too Cool to Read
My answer to the classic question, “What three things would you take to a deserted island?” has unfailingly remained the same all my life – books. I started reading independently at a very early age (shortly after I turned two) and…
Revenge of the nerds at McGill Science Olympiad
I keep telling people at university that I was cool in highschool but that's mostly a lie. The single counterexample for this is that I was a mathlete. That was as much a geekiness trump card then as my love…
I’m so ridiculously excited for my project course
I just got off the phone with my mother. According to her, auditing math courses just for fun makes me "a huge nerd". True. But 'round these parts (namely, the departments where I study, or more broadly, this whole…
The Dreaded Science Breadth Requirement is Not So Dreadful After All
This year, I am taking the dreaded science breadth requirement. The fact that I felt like I had to waste a credit to fulfill "Breadth Requirement Category 5: The Physical and Mathematical Universe" annoyed me and I avoided it like…
Sciences vs. humanities: A debate after class
I was walking home last week with a classmate. We got into a lively debate after he told me that he didn't really see the point in studying the humanities. Yes, I am currently completing my B.Sc. through Ecology &…