Hi everyone, and welcome to the UW Math blog! My name is Lyle Waldman and I’m the UW Math blogger this year. Those of you who frequented the UW Forums this past summer may know me as Ertai87, and for those of you who are prospective UW students, I strongly recommend joining the boards next summer (and no, they’re not paying me to say that! 
).
So, before I start writing about my UW experiences, I think it’s important for all of you to get to know a bit about me.
My name is Lyle Waldman. I’m from Toronto, Ontario, and have lived there my entire life. Before going to UW, the farthest I’ve ever permanently moved is 4 houses down the street. I lived in northern Toronto, though, so the setting around my house is very close to what I’m finding at UW. This makes UW a very comfortable plave for me to live, because it’s not that different from home.
Throughout my educational career, I’ve been through both public and private schools. I was certified as gifted after SK, and had to go to my local school for Grade 1 before I could enter the gifted program at a public school in Toronto. For grades 2 and 3, I had an awesome, awesome teacher, and I learned a lot. Grades 4 through 7 were the opposite. I found I was learning distressingly little, did not like my classmates, and was overall not having a good time. On top of all that, I was a mid-70’s student, and my parents were pressuring me to raise my grades. When I entered Grade 8, I changed schools to go to a private school in northern Richmond Hill, Ontario (about 45 minutes north of Toronto). This school would be the school I would graduate from. As soon as I started at this new school, my GPA rose about 10%. I eventually graduated from this school with a 95% average. I personally found the private school system to be much more engaging that the regular system; the teaching was better, my classmates were nicer, everything was just superior.
Since Grade 2 I’ve been involved in playing Trading Card Games (the most famous of which is likely Magic: The Gathering (also known as “Magic Cards”)). I’ve played, at one point or another, pretty much every game ever published, but I’ve only played 3 games on an ongoing basis, including the one I currently play. I’ve also been involved with music since I was very little. Since before I can remember, I played piano (rather, I was forced into playing piano by my parents who likewise had it inflicted upon them by their parents. As you can see, piano was not my favourite of instruments). Like everyone else I know, I played recorder through most of elementary school. Before starting Grade 7, where I would have access to real instruments (not recorders), I quit piano. In Grade 7, I picked up the Baritone. for those of you who have never heard of a baritone (like myself before I started playing it), it’s like a miniature tuba. It has a similar range (and therefore similar parts) as the trombone. After Grade 7, I decided that when I played O Canada, I wanted it to sound like O Canada, so I picked up the Clarinet. It was after this summer that I changed schools, so I was forced to drop the baritone. I played the Clarinet for 5 years, through the entire music program at my school. When my cousin moved to New York, he gave me his Electric Bass. A couple months later, I picked up the Bass, and have been playing it ever since, after I dropped the Clarinet at the end of high school. I was very involved with the music program at my high school; I played in the high school band every year (even when I was in Grade 8 and 13; the band was for Grade 9 through 12 only…I’m not going to explain here why I did Grade 13…it’s a long story). I was a founding member of my High School Jazz Band, the Jazzmanian Devils (don’t ask me; I didn’t pick the name ).
So now you know pretty much everything there is to know about me, except my UW experiences. I’ll begin by telling you all a bit about my course selection. In high school, we were offered a Computer Science course in Grade 10, where we learned Microsoft Visual Basic. I enjoyed programming and liked the teacher (I would have a fight with said teacher at the beginning of Grade 13 and do not consider us to be on speaking terms anymore despite the fact that she is the mother of a friend of mine), so I continued to take it until Grade 12. In my high school career, I learned Visual Basic, C and C++, and Java. I enjoyed programming so much that I decided in Grade 12 I would choose CS as my major.
The CS program at UW comes with 2 electives in the 1A term (that’s 1st year, 1st term). Many of the people I’ve talked to, when I tell them my electives, give me a funny, sideways look, because I did not choose a single Math, Science, or Engineering course as an elective. For electives, I’m taking Phil 100J (Introduction to Philosophy) and Japan 101R (1st level Japanese). I was also able to take Music 116 (Stage Band) on top of a full course load, playing Electric Bass, so I am taking 6 courses in 1A (and if you come to the Stage Band concert at the end of November, you will be able to see me perform! So come!).
So now you know pretty much all there is to know about me. I felt this post would be a nice introduction to my blog, and I hope you all enjoyed it. Feel free to reply to any of my posts if you’d like to hear about anything in particular. I’m always open to feedback.
Until next time
Lyle Waldman
