Episode 13: School vs Me

Alright people, it’s time for me to make my first rant on this blog. Blogs are meant for ranting, amongst other things, after all. I’m frustrated with and tired of the Nigerian education system, specifically the University system. Now, some universities will have better systems than some others, but considering the fact that I’m in one of Nigeria’s most prestigious universities, the premier university in the country, namely The University of Ibadan, it just makes it that much more annoying to think that in this country, relatively speaking, I have it good.

                                                My rant pose!

 

      My dream is to be a video game developer.  There’s no school in the country that I can study any game related course. The nearest courses to game development are the likes of Computer Science and Computer Technology. As a kid, I once read in an interview with a game developer (article was probably in a special edition of OPM, the Official Playstation Magazine) that anyone that wanted to develop games should “get a computer and learn to program the thing”. I’m trying to quote him verbatim, but I don’t have the magazine near me right now. “Don’t go to school and study game design…study whatever it was you originally wanted to study. Get a few years of work experience outside the game industry…all the while working on and improving your own game idea. If possible, have a working demo of it that focuses on the game mechanics, not the graphics which you will present when you are seeking for a job in the game industry. That way, you won’t get hired at the very bottom of the ladder and get paid China man’s wages…”.

      Of course, I cut out a lot of sentences. Now, I’ve been following that dude’s advice and am currently an amateur programmer studying physics in the university. I originally wanted to study electrical engineering, but it was too tough to get an admission to study that with the ridiculous admission system here. One has to pass two consecutive exams besides having a good O’level result. In any case, I’m studying physics and that leads to the next complaint. In most countries, to get a Bsc in most courses, it takes three years. Four years for engineering courses. Here, it takes 4 years for regular courses and 5 years for engineering courses. I won’t even get started with the medical courses. Why does it take longer here? Well, because we’re trained to cram what we’re taught in order to pass.

     Everything is taught in a textbook fashion, never practically. I have a friend who can’t write a practical computer program that people would actually use that got 95% in our FORTRAN exam. FORTRAN stands for Formula Translation. It’s a really old programming language that’s hardly in use anymore and I have no idea why they teach us that instead of any of the many better options.  I got 61% in the same exam. In other words, I’m a much better programmer but she’s a much better student who will do whatever it takes to pass. That usually means cramming stuff into your head.  

As it is, I’m a better programmer than most of the students in the computer science department. If I had studied computer science instead, I probably would know more about computers by now, but would be able to do less than I can do currently. They teach them stuff I don’t know, but they’re so inundated with all they have to do to pass and get good grades that they don’t have time to build practical skills. I’m doing pretty poorly in physics right now; my grades are terrible. I’ll probably graduate with a third class. Yet I have almost no motivation to work harder at getting better grades because I will have to sacrifice the time I use for other things in order to do that.

                                                Can you commiserate?

       Sacrifice basketball? Hell no. Socialize even less? No way. I don’t socialize that much already, I’m not going to become a zombie like those guys who only read, eat, sleep and pray. By the way, I try to maintain my daily quiet time with my God, so I have nothing against people praying. I don’t, however, want to have only those four things on my time table. Maybe I could stop programming until I graduate? No way. At the age of 22, I feel I am way too late at learning to program. I’ve never written a complete game before, I’m still learning the ropes of the Conitec’s Acknex game engine. I’m better at writing regular windows applications, but I still have a long way to go. I can’t make mobile apps, web based apps, etc yet. All I can do are desktop applications. The question I’ve asked myself is “Will I be happier if I sacrificed the time I spend on programming or on my hobbies for my studies and get better grades?”. The answer is NO.

        The grades are useless to me. If one studies in Nigeria, good grades are merely a proof of raw mental muscle (or a big pocket. As the premier university, at least my school has enough integrity to not let students bribe their way through like some other schools might allow), not of acquired skill. Most of the skills people acquire in Nigerian universities are not as a direct result of their being in the classroom. 

       I am using my little programming skills to address one of the frustrations I have with my school: Annual re-registrations. I have to register at my hall of residence, faculty, department, etc every year. That wouldn’t be so annoying if they were only updating my records, but when we have to give them the exact same piece of information every year, it gets annoying. We register online and that one has our records which we are merely updating but we also have to register offline for the purpose of their paper work and it is unbelievably daft. I just created a program that automatically updates one’s current level (year/class) each year so that once the data is saved once, it no longer has to be re-entered. This is for the use of the students in charge of each department and faculty. At least I can help them, but I can’t teach the proper administration staff new tricks. They totally refuse to do things the easy way.

                                         Screenshot of my biodata form

So, what do you guys think? I am using this rant as a practice speech because when I go home for the Easter holiday, I am going to have to show my dad my results and he’s going to be pissed and disappointed. Then we’ll argue it out and I’m going to have to stand by my point that I’d rather graduate with a third class than put in more effort into my books than I am currently putting, because I believe that the extra effort isn’t going to do me much good. *Sighs*

EDIT: Two years after I originally posted this, I created an app called The Ideal Gas Law Simulator using the same software I use to make video games. Its a fully 3D representation of the gas laws from physics and chemistry. Find out more here. 

Episode 12: Hippopotomonstrosequippedaliophobia!

         This one's for the laughs! There's this politician in Nigeria who goes by the name of Honorable Patrick Obiahagbon. I don't want to go into details about his political career, I just want to highlight his ludicrous prowess entertaining his audience with speeches that are super saturated with Latin words, long English words, and improvised grammar that no one but the speaker can understand. Make no mistake, he is passionate about what he does, but it's really hard to take him seriously when all he does is generate laughter with his speeches.

                                          By the way, that's a real word


      Here's an example of what he can do. I'll post a funnier one further down

          Everyone and their mum has at least one video of this guy on their phone for those moments when you need a funny video to liven up a conversation with a friend. He's become so notorious for his speeches that The Vanguard newspaper actually interviewed him and titled the article "Why I speak big grammar". Here's a link to the full article http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/03/why-i-speak-big-big-grammar-hon-obahiagbon/ and if you can't be bothered, here are a few quotes from the interview:

• "Sincerely speaking, I want to tender an unreserved apologia to my colleagues and all those who feel that my language is obscurantist. The truth is that I do not set out deliberately to mystify my audience, to deposit my audience in a portmanteau of indecipherability or in portmanteau of conundrum. No, no, no, no! Far from it."
• "If you have the opportunity to listen to my speeches or debates ten, fifteen years ago, then it would have been a different kettle of fish all together. So, I am convinced that I've tried, I am trying and I will continue to try to ensure that my language, or my idiolect is as limpid and as diaphanous  as possible."

Episode 11: Wedding Bells in England

           First of all, let me apologize for not posting on this blog for about a month. I’ve been ridiculously busy. Weddings tend to make people busy and I still had other things to attend to. No, I didn’t get married. I was the best man. My mum passed on just before I turned eleven (I miss her). That was eleven years ago. My dad, like the God fearing man he is, didn’t remarry until God showed him his new wife (and simultaneously showed my dad to the lady) before they ever met!

        The wedding took place in England so as the best man, I had the opportunity of going to England for the first time. I spent eight days there; two days in Loudwater, Highwycombe, another three days in Bromley, then two days in Camden and finally my last day in Highwycombe again. I’ll try to be as brief as possible when talking about what I spent my time doing so I don’t bore you to death, but let’s just say that my five-month shopping spree went out with a bang!

                                             My Dad and my new mum.

         I left Nigeria on the same day that my school resumed. I had spent my holiday doing my Industrial Training as a software programmer at my dad’s office. Wedding preparations, rounding up my I.T work, I didn’t have time to blog. In fact, when I finally got back to school, I didn’t get my I.T report ready before the deadline so come Monday, I’ll find out whether I’ll be able to submit after paying some sort of fine or whether I’m going to lose all the marks for my I.T.

       What DID I do in the UK? Well, I have three paternal uncles there, each of which has two daughters, and the one of them has a son. In other words, I have seven cousins in the UK, who I hardly ever get to hang out with. The only boy among them didn’t leave Nigeria until he was almost done with high school, but of the six girls, I had only met two once (I mean once) before. I really had fun hanging out with my family. There’s this inexplicable love between family members, even when you haven’t really spent time together before. It doesn’t hurt that all my aunties, including those in Nigeria, are always trying to overfeed me.

My wonderful cousins. You can check out Tasha's (Girl in green) blog, tashloves.blogspot.com for short posts on everything Christian and Fashion.

        I spent most of my time in the UK alternating between shopping for myself and (more on that in a minute), shopping for the wedding with my dad and uncles, hanging out with my family members, and for the two days I spent in Camden (in one of my closest friend’s home), hanging out with my Nigerian friends. The wedding was on Saturday so on Sunday after church, my uncle took me to Liverpool street, we went to Chinatown and had lunch (shark fin soup! Also, pineapple fritters are awesome), then I went on a tour bus with my high school friend, Baby Spice. Remember, I use aliases on my blog when referring to people I know. I would never use their real names without their permission.

             Baby spice and I went on a tour bus. While I spent most of my time on the open-roof upper deck so I could take pictures, she stayed on the lower deck to stay away from the cold. There were these two chicks on the upper deck that were trying to get a shot of themselves kissing so I walked over and asked “need help with that?”. One of them looks at me like “mmmmkay!” and hands me their camera. So I used the camera dual-wielding technique I learnt at the wedding and took a shot of them with their camera in my right hand and my camera in my left hand. Enjoy the eye candy!

      And I didn't get the first pic right, so they had to kiss a third time!