I went to high school in Brentwood
College, a private school in British Colombia, Canada.I suggested to my parents
that they send me to some boarding school because they obviously could not control me and
I was feeling my skull was beginning to crack under the household pressure. My sister felt
the same way but, unfortunately for her, she was not enough of an uncontrollable rebel to
warrant the large outlay of cash. But at least she has grown out of our childhood turmoil
and succeeded in managing her own Canadian
lumber industry publication company.
When I went to Brentwood I was rather socially dysfunctional, considering the environment
I had successfully just escaped from, and was a bit of a misfit at the school. But the
school was diligent in its discipline and forced me to study hard. In the public school,
lacking any motivation or aspirations other than to avoid the embarrassment of having to
take a school year over again, I was attaining the pursued 51% just passing grade in
roughly all my classes. The private school succeeded in bringing up my average to 86%,
with a better education as well.
On graduation I wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I chose Waterloo university, apparently
one of the best in North America for engineering (only because my dad was an engineer),
and Queen's University, which also had a
good standing in engineering. I got accepted to both, but chose Queen's because it seemed
a "funner" place to go.
And fun it certainly was. It
represented a continuation of my alcoholic upbringing, and reinforced my party, and one
might say, independent-thinking and rebellious nature.
I first went to Queens in 1983, when it was still a major party machine, apparently
boasting the second highest per-student alcohol consumption in North America, following
some hick college in the US. First was "Frosh Week", which was a week of fun
humiliation of freshmen (first year students), where you were forced to do push ups over a
girl and give her a peck on the lips in between, drink copious amounts of alcohol, and all
sorts of great fun.
The year overall was great fun, but it became evident that my heart was not into
engineering. Originally I felt I needed to take a year off after high school to experience
life and help me decide what to do with it, but my mother strongly urged me otherwise,
arguing that my brain would stop functioning after such a long break, and it was decidedly
the last time I ever listened to my mother against my own instincts.
I failed half my courses, but fortunately I took an extra elective, which gave me a
quarter credit more such that I had slightly more credits passed than failed. Meaning I
was entitled to come back at any time in the future to resume my studies.
I ended up taking three years off, during which I experimented with the most varied of
jobs (cook, retail sales, selling steak and seafood door-to-door, security guard, and the
list goes on) and managed to pay off my first year's student loans.
After this I felt I experienced enough of the bottom-of-the-barrel and decided to pursue
my education again. This time shooting for business, because I wanted to manage some
operation and didn't like people telling me what to do. Especially since I found most of
them less intelligent than myself and making business decisions I did not agree with.
I went back to Queen's
University, but it had changed quite a bit. It seemed that the feminist movement was on
the rise. You could no longer call a girl a girl, but something absurd like a woman
(sorry, a university student is not a woman, and a real woman does not mind being called a
girl). You couldn't open up the car or any door for them because this would be demeaning.
There were all sorts of silly new social rules, and signs all over the campus exclaiming
"No means No!". But the new friends I found, who I liked to refer to as
"the pigs", would run around with black felt marker scribbling a large W after
the second "no".
On the other hand, I do agree with the objection against rape, as it was happening on
campus, but I think this movement is more than just about rape. Some of the most socially
repressive societies, like Japan and Germany, are the most hideous when you hear about
their porno websites or what occurs behind closed doors. Clamping down on all boys and
trying to pussy whip and repress them does not curtail the occasional sick individual who
would resort to such despicable behaviour.
 So this big movement served mostly
to separate the sexes, feed woman pride, and just make the university an overall much more
boring place. Even though it was still a lot of fun.
While I was gone they had hired a Harvard dean in their aspiration to clamp down the
"Queen's spirit", what we were all so proud about the first year I was there,
and to turn the university into some boring ivy-league school which gets along better with
the locals. But again, I do despise the stupidity of some students who would get drunk and
throw beer bottles at residential homes. It was idiots like these who spoiled it for the
majority rest of us who were just having innocent fun.
Frosh Week was substantially watered down my second year back (yes, because of my
excessive failures the first year and the fact that I chose another field to study, I had
the fortune to live the experience twice), and I saw the trend worsen during the four
years I studied there. One graduating student pointed out yearbooks from different years:
"Look at the difference between the graduating class now and the graduating class a
few years ago. It's obvious that this new dean is leaning towards geeks and boring
people."
 In any case, I had a good time
there and met good people, as one always can everywhere they go in life, especially if
they carry with them a good and non-judgemental attitude. I did enjoy my stay at the
university, and found it a great venue for extracurricular activities (bartender at
university pub for extra cash and lots of free beer, gymnastic teams, school photographer
with free access to film and the dark room, squash courts for a dollar an hour, and the
list goes on). After finishing university I found it much more difficult to be involved in
so many activities and would suggest to any student to take advantage of this opportunity
while they have it. University is not only about education or career building, it is about
life as well.
The main reason I wrote the text for this page is because I have been shuffling text
around my various domains as part of my search
engine optimization exercises.
During university summers I would go treeplanting in British Colombia, which served as a nice balance against
the school year. After working for three years in the "real world" following my
first year of university, I felt I was living in a bubble when I entered back into
university life.
It seemed that most students were rich kids who
never got dirt under their nails, or perhaps never will. They have never worked side by
side next to single mothers who slaved away at two jobs to make ends meet for their
children. Usually they were a distant arms length from such blue collar class, perhaps
peering over their daddy's shoulder as he would holler out to them, telling them what to
do. Or while eating with their parents in a restaurant and giving commands to the waiting
staff, in an expected condescending manner.
So the treeplanting
gig was good because these types of people certainly got dirt under their nails and
were a refreshing contrast to the university crowd.
After completing my four years, I attained an honours degree in economics (couldn't get
into business school, so chose the next best thing), and spent one long and last summer (I
could now plant for the fall season as well) before embarking on some career. But during
this last treeplanting season many planters exclaimed that I should really take a year off
and go to Europe or something, to discover the world a bit. They egged me enough that I
heeded their advice.
While traveling through Europe I spent two weeks
in Prague, where I was born and had so many relatives. Needless to say, the Europe
experience was so fun that I decided to move there, but first after an extra long season
of treeplanting
(spring, summer and fall) so that I could build up some cash and finally try my
entrepreneurial luck in a freshly post-communist system gone capitalist "wild
east" haywire. Check out my life in Prague.
Alas, that got boring as well. Another reason why I wanted to leave Prague was because one
of the main reasons I moved there in the first place – to discover the rest of
Europe. But owning a small business prevented me from taking any time off, I was denied
fulfilment of this desire and my longing to travel built up over the years. With the
arrival of the internet I deduced that I should be able to take my business with me while
traveling, so I masterminded my escape from Prague my last seven years there, and
eventually succeeded in moving everything into a caravan truck. And that is where I am now.
Oh my goodness, news alert! Only one day after I uploaded this website I got an email from
Queen's alumni and the principle that the upcoming Queens
Homecoming has been cancelled. Unbelievable. Read my response to them through the link
on the left.
Other links:
My tips how to get through university
The mind of an alcoholic – managed to climb out of that, but it was a
blast!
Youtube of some Queen’s
grease poll action – climbing up a greased poll during Frosh Week.
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