Evacuating your home? Take

“home” with you

By Siavash Emamzadeh

atching the news about the West
Kelowna fires, I can’t help but
feel sorry for the evacuees.

The chaos they’re surrounded by and the
anxiety they go through as they leave
their home must be devastating. Many of
them say that they have been through the
evacuation process before but no one knew
how serious this fire would become. As far
as the evacuees know, they may very well
never see their home intact again.

This ordeal has made me think what
the best items are to take with oneself
during an evacuation. Of course, family
members and pets are a top priority, but
what about belongings?

If there is a really short amount of
time, expensive belongings might be an
obvious choice—those that can be easily
carried, anyway. Expensive jewellery,
electronic devices and gadgets, clothing
and the like may be top picks.

Now, I’m aware that money is an
indispensable commodity in today’s
world and asking evacuees to abandon
their highly-priced possessions in favour
of other items would be unrealistic. But
it wouldn’t be a bad idea to also take a
selection of unique items; items that may
not be considered obvious choices. Since
it’s an evacuation of one’s home, it’d be
ideal to retain items that best reflect one’s
fondness of that house.

A laptop, for instance, is replaceable,
but the feeling you get when you set foot
on the living room rug that’s been around
for a long time, for example, is like none
other. Sure, you can argue that you can
just go out and buy the exact same kind of

 

rug, but only the one that lay in your house
can elicit the cozy sentiments of home.
After all, it is only that rug that rested in
your house, where you came to experience
solitude, peace and ultimate comfort. So,
why not take a portion of your rug?

You could also take other items, like
a painting or poster, a pillow, a long-kept
radio, or lamp shade. Whatever means
home to you.

So if you take the preserved items
to your new house, it will encompass
a likeness of the feeling of security of
your former home. All in all, it’s key to
remember should evacuation be required,
take your expensive possessions but
it’s best to also preserve at least one
sentimental belonging.

That way, when you're living in a
shelter and the mood strikes you, you can
rekindle memories of home.

 

    
 

Cc

MyDouglas’ Groups section is an

odd phenomenon

By Siavash Emamzadeh

[Te to understand the social
awkwardness that students convey
in the myDouglas ‘Groups’
message boards is impossible. In an age
where online interaction is common, I
can’t help feeling baffled about the severe
shyness on the campus message boards.

Even online personals are a common
means of meeting total strangers and have
a more favourable turnout than Douglas’s
message boards. Maybe the pursuit of love
and the reassurance of profile pictures —
even phony ones—are commonplace
enough to propel us to dating sites. So I
ask you, why are the message boards so
deserted?

For example, a certain group on
myDouglas contains 18 postings in its
message board. The surprising fact about
this group, however, is that there have
been 12 postings since the end of 2007
despite 22 members having visited during
that period. I’m no mathematician, but,
assuming that there were no deleted
accounts, that means ten members during
that period didn’t post anything. Moreover,
the last message to get a reply was posted
last year—and it got one.

Another group, for instance, has a
total of six messages, all of which have
been posted during 2008. Since 2008,

19 members have frequented the group
homepage, which means, again assuming
nobody deleted their account, that 13
people took the popular vow of silence.

Interestingly though, sometimes
there is a lot of initiative by members, but
no interest is reciprocated. I’ve surveyed
message boards that have a long column of

one or no replies to original posts.

Moreover, you could make the
argument that the boards are redundant.
With the ability to meet and talk to people
in class, what purpose does a message
board serve? The boards consist of
Douglas students from every corner of the
campus and divides them by a likeness,
whether in terms of culture or interests.
For example, there are groups for single
students, Aboriginal students and students
interested in Latin dancing, among others.

Another theory is that they’re poorly
promoted. To reach the boards, one must
actively be seeking them. MyDouglas
is an online entity that is merely on the
backburner in most students’ minds. It’s
a place students go primarily to check for
course updates and other purely academic
concerns.

I’m especially struggling to
understand what’s behind this odd
behaviour because ironically, I too am one
of those people that joined a group and
didn’t post anything. The fact that I don’t
understand why I behaved this way really
convinces me that trying to understand
why others do it is out of the question.

The only theory that I can come
up with is that due to the lack of a large
number of postings, I felt compelled
to withdraw from posting as well. It’s
the classic psychology conformation
reasoning; if a group of people are staring
up at the sky, you’ll likely take a look as
well. The mere fact that I’m guessing why
I behaved a certain way convinces me that
it might be an inexplicable phenomenon,
at least to an uninformed individual...
Hey, is Freud still around?

 

Earning millions online: a dream we can no longer pursue

By Siavash Emamzadeh

lor young hopefuls aspiring to become
FR: founder of the next Facebook

and reel in the big money, splurging
on lottery tickets must be a strong alternate
consideration. Online business is becoming
more and more demanding: a fact that’s best
exemplified by the privacy commissioner’s
recent recommendations for Facebook.

After conducting an investigation into
how Facebook handles its users’ personal
information, the privacy commissioner has
decided that changes need to be made. The
report found that the policy pertaining to
privacy is vague and needs clarification.
The site’s rule to keep private information
of deactivated accounts, disclose user
information to third-party developers and
absence of information of how to delete
accounts were among the faults the report
indicated.

Facebook’s conduct was found to be
in violation of the Personal Information
Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
The website has 30 days before actions will
be reviewed by the commissioner.

The findings of this investigation serve

as a reminder that online entrepreneurialism
at a young age is not what it once was. It
is no longer enough to possess computer
expertise in order to embark on a highly
lucrative web career. Online business has
evolved into a multifaceted enterprise,
where a businessperson has to be an expert
at advertising, putting together the latest
online applications, preventing spamming
and virus infiltration, defending against
lawsuits (which are sure to pile up once
wealth is made public) and of course,
addressing privacy concerns.

In a time when malware infection
is rampant, computer technology is
continuously advancing and all sorts of
personal information lingers online, sole
proprietors can seldom found and run a
web business. A successful one, that is. By
the time young hopefuls attain the proper
training and education, they will be hardly
be described as “young.” Furthermore, even
after apt training, additional staff will have
to be recruited, which of course will mean
business revenue will be finely distributed
to compensate the much needed specialists.

Finding the central idea for an online
business, which used to be essentially the

Mark Zuckerberg

indicator of online business success, is
now substantially challenging to come up
with. With the influx of socializing and
e-commerce websites, all with their own
creative slant, it is not an easy task. Again
though, that is only half of the matter, as
presentation, management and customer
service are the greater tasks at hand.

So in reality, it’s not likely that any
young entrepreneurs will emerge that even
skim the level of riches of, say the founder
of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. The
spontaneity of striking gold online seems to

 

be dimming and thoughts of a career sitting
at home behind a computer and drawing
in millions, if not billions, is starting to
reflect thoughts of just about any other high
profile, challenging careers.

Perhaps it’s time to just wait for
the invention of another network and
pounce on the first opportunity to build
on a brilliant and creative idea. What’s
certain is that postsecondary education and
technical training is almost inevitable to
live luxuriously — good news for some, bad
for others. 7

ae
INIO

 

~~

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