2nd week of school was cool too. Started off the week with a leftover final exam, which was fine but a total chore – two-sided sheet of notes allowed and exam questions given ahead of time so I’m really complaining about nothing. The future will perhaps be filled with robots but I find the theory-based path interesting yet slightly dull and too open. I can drink wine now and I can see plants around me. Practicality and hands-on stuff makes things so much easier to study.

Robots are cool BUT IN BIOLOGY YOU GET TO PLANT THINGS AND TAKE THEM HOME

BIOL 210 – Vascular Plants
So good! We learned more about plant cells. Most interesting to me were pigments, like anthocyanins and betalains.  … read more

The first class of any course is arguably exciting. I love course outlines and seeing what we get to learn. Of course, I’ll complain halfway through, fall to my knees, and ask God what the hell possessed me to take these courses. For now, though, they’re all pretty cool.

BIOL 210 – Vascular Plants
It’s only two classes in so far and I realized how much I LOVE PLANTS. OH MY GOD. We haven’t done much so far – maybe brushed up on basic plant cell parts and discussed why plants are important (Wine, duh). Main topics including basic terminology and sporic meiosis. Awesome.

BIOL 234 – Fundamentals of Genetics
This class in contrast is intimidating. Likewise, a brief refresher on some terminology and history.… read more

So 2013 marks the beginning of my new academic path in oenology + viticulture, and confirms the termination of my previous path in Cognitive Systems. Out of the three main streams (oenology, viticulture, terroir) and one sub stream (wine business) I’ve created for myself in this degree, I’m taking two each in oenology and viticulture this next term. Although the idea of studying plant genomics in terms of wine grapes seems amazing (cue entrance of Jancis Robinson/Julia Harding/José Vouillamoz and Wine Grapes), I’ve trained the other half of my brain to play the opposition, here, because it’s so easy to get misled by the romance of an idea. Now all I have to do is get past these stupid exams this term.… read more

Things change. People procrastinate. I am that complete snob in the fourth row of my algorithms class, reading about the granite soils of Beaujolais instead of listening to the professor show us how hash tables (hash functions? double hashing? hash keys? hash browns?) work. I’ve prepared the interview question but I’ve unsurprisingly never been asked: one of my biggest weaknesses is the fact that I’m interested in a vast amount of things such that I can often lose track, but at the same time, get really dedicated to an idea if I feel so inspired by it.

It was around a year and a half ago, where three of my best friends and I hung out after the riot-inducing Canucks playoff game.… read more

A really cool aspect of my major is that we get to build Lego robots in a third-year core lab course. So, essentially, our project is to code and actually have fun doing it, and while (ugh) I understand other normal courses are slightly more “practical” in the sense that, for example, we’re expected to implement a boring word-sorting algorithm for a programming project, this course wins hard in comparison. Word-sorting algorithms: I love you, but you aren’t made of colourful blocks that bring me back to my 6-year-old joys and wonderments. Okay – that was a blatant lie: the same friend that bought me my first serious bottle of wine also bought me my first lego set for my 18th birthday.… read more

Okay so clearly I haven’t updated in like, ever. Typing up tasting notes for all those wines proved to be a challenge and I eventually got sucked up at work and on personal programming projects. Who knows if I’ll ever get to those blog posts, but that’s okay. Because here’s a post.

I got my WSET advanced results back. I don’t normally brag, but I got a pass with distinction! #awyiss. Yeah. Exciting. And annoying for you. I’m sorry.

Also, I’m helping to lead a wine tasting at UBC this Friday. We’re going over the basics. Hurrah!

I thought I had lots to say but I don’t. So here’s a picture of a wine we might have on Friday.

… read more