Welcome back everyone. This is what I call the week of regret. Why? Two reasons. Firstly, Hell Week is over, so it’s time to regret all the time you spent not studying for hard midterms, or maybe the time you spent studying for the easy ones. Secondly, the Steam Summer Sale is over, so it’s time go through all your receipts and cry about how much all those purchases added up, a fantastic example of how numerous infinitesimal values can add to a real result. But take heart! Now you have enough video games to last you through till Christmas, and if midterms didn’t go well, most of your mark is still locked into how well you do during the final!
During the hard times—for instance, midterm season—it’s important that we are thankful for those who support us. I know I have a lot to be thankful for. For instance, all of my copy editors who spent what was supposed to be their weekend of recuperation after Hell Week emptying the ever-filling bucket of un-edited articles. I’m particularly thankful for Michal and Sherwin who showed up to keep me company on the long hard days of layout. And also to my writers, who similarly sacrificed their precious study time to bring us all the the stories in this issue. The important stories, the funny stories, the interesting stories, and the downright horrifying stories. In particular, I found Brigita’s article “Don’t Forget the T” (page 9) about Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner’s gender transition to be informative on the topic of tran* acceptance. Brian’s piece about drones used to proctor exams (page 15) raises some important questions about the emphasis we put on standardized tests. Allen’s report on Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (page 6) lets us peer a bit into what the future of music will look like. And finally, be sure to check out the EngSoc page for all sorts of important information, including the results of the A-Soc Executive elections.
A few weeks ago I went to TalEng. I know that many of you were there, and I’d like to thank all the performers who kept us captivated and pumped up throughout the night. Before this semester, I didn’t go out to events or parties very much; there was always something more important to do, specifically, homework. This semester is different. Thankfully, I have a very light course load that requires little work, and I have a newfound awareness of everything that is happening on campus from filling out the EngSoc calendar on the EngSoc page of this publication.
What can I say about getting out to events? Probably not much that most of you don’t already know. Each one is tons of fun. The enthusiasm and excitement of dozens of peers is infectious. At TalEng, I got so caught up in the moment I found myself cheering and applauding instinctively to the “cheer” and “applaud” signs the Tool Bearers held up. It’s also a chance to let out a little bit of the craziness that has been pent up over the endless hours of toil: get up on the TalEng stage and sing your best karaoke, go to the Toronto Pride Parade and cheer your lungs out on busy streets where that would usually be frowned upon. In other words, get out and do something that you normally wouldn’t be comfortable with doing, but get to enjoy on this one special day.
I think most engineering traditions started in the way I just said: people going out and making a celebration out of doing something odd. Those with eidetic memory among you might remember that two semesters ago, I had a column called “Engineering Traditions” in which I purported to introduce you to the traditions of engineering faculties from around the world, but ended up being exclusive to Canada and the US. The reason I wrote that column is that I though the traditions were kinda cool and interesting, though I didn’t know why. I think I know now.
I love the traditions because they build community, not only amongst those who perform them together, but between all the groups which perform them through the years. As someone who is neither good at or comfortable with small-talk and building rapport, it is comforting and encouraging to know that there are people from all walks of life that share in the traditions I share in. Purpling, wearing expensive leather jackets, trolling through piles of problem sets the day before an exam, and going to parades are all you need to break the ice and get to the real conversation; the more powerful shared interests.
Another reason I love traditions is that they are an excuse to go a little mad. Now there are all sorts of instances where it really isn’t appropriate to go with the flow and do as everyone else is. But when partaking in happy, fun-for-all events, it pays to follow gleefully into whatever ridiculous thing is happening. And many of our traditions are ridiculous if you stand back and look at them (which I don’t recommend doing often or for extended periods of time, lest all the magic dissipate). “Let’s worship and revere an inanimate hunk of chrome-plated steel. It’s so important to us that we have it under constant guard because there are people who would actually steal it if they got the chance.” “Let’s put rings on our fingers which are specifically designed to be annoying and get in the way when we are working.” “Let’s all dye ourselves bright purple with an agent that takes a long time to come out, so we look terrifying on day one, and sickly and bruised for the next few weeks.” They are all ridiculous. They are all things that you ordinarily should be discouraged to do. But you get to, because they are cherished traditions.
This issue is our Canada Day issue, so it wouldn’t be appropriate to end without some comments on our Canadian Traditions. Depending on your perspective, Canada can be anything from an OK to a wonderful country to be a part of. There are all sorts of political issues ongoing, like Bill C-51 and Bill C-24. So you may like or abhor the government and the political system. But you can still be proud of the nation; be proud of its people and its rich history even if it can be unpleasant (as with the Native Residential Schools that Sherwin wrote about last issue).
Why is it important to celebrate Canadian traditions and get a little Nationalistic on Canada day? The first reason is that just as with the engineering traditions, they help foster a sense of community in a wide and diverse country. Canada, my grade-school history teachers told me, is a nation based on immigrants. A quick look a Wikipedia shows that in 2013 Canada was number 8 in terms of amount of the world-wide immigrant population that lived in each country, making what I’d say is a fair case in support of that claim. And of course, the vast majority of Canada’s population came from somewhere sometime in the last 500 years, often in mass-migrations that caused non-uniform distribution of the incoming citizens, and thus different internal communities that are somewhat isolated. So how do we all come together? How do we find our common ground for national discourse and community? With traditions. With traditions like celebrating the maple leaf or the Canadarm, and equating “coffee-shop” with “Tim Hortons” unless otherwise specified. With all the traditions that can be passed from generation to generation, community to community, celebrated differently with unique twists, but celebrated in unison nevertheless.
Now, some might find it unreasonable or unfitting to ignore politics as I asked you to at the beginning, in order to be nationalistic and celebrate Canada day. But even if you won’t or can’t, I encourage you to celebrate the country; if you want to change the nation, if you want to improve something, or start a grassroots movement to make the country better, you need people who care. You need people who have really considered if they are proud to be Canadian and what they think that means. You need to be able to find some common ground to talk to all the people in the country to make a country-wide motion, and where better to start than with the traditions we share?
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