Welcome to the CMU SSA Wiki. This wiki is meant to be a source of information pertaining to both CMU, SSA, and other kinds of stuff. One major use of the wiki is to provide incoming freshmen with the answers they need.

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Check out this area for info on things freshmen need to know.

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Check out this area for info on things new graduate students need to know.

General Information

This section has general information about Singapore, CMU's SSA, and Pittsburgh.

Courses

Here you'll find descriptions and recommendations of the various courses that are available here in CMU. Quite handy when that time of the semester rolls by and you need to make a visit to the OLR.

Activities

Participate! Booth, Night Markets, Ski Trips, all listed here.

Jargon

CMU, like any other university, has its own unique set of vocabulary that can confuse the unwary. Find out what that weird 3-letter acronym is really supposed to mean!

Japalang

Anything and everything. If you have a short tidbit you want to contribute but don't know where to put it, dump it here. Also check for bits of information that haven't been sorted yet.

Since wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic system, it is difficult to explain precisely in western terms. According to Leonard Koren, wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty and it "occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West."

"Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.

"It is the beauty of things modest and humble.

"It is the beauty of things unconventional."

(quoted from "WABI-SABI: FOR ARTISTS,DESIGNERS, POETS & PHILOSOPHERS," 1994, Leonard Koren)

The concepts of wabi-sabi correlate with the concepts of Zen Buddhism, as the first Japanese involved with wabi-sabi were tea masters, priests, and monks who practiced Zen. Zen Buddhism originated in India, traveled to China in the 6th century, and was first introduced in Japan around the 12th century. Zen emphasizes "direct, intuitive insight into transcendental truth beyond all intellectual conception." At the core of wabi- sabi is the importance of transcending ways of looking and thinking about things/existence.

• All things are impermanent
• All things are imperfect
• All things are incomplete

(also taken from WABI-SABI: FOR ARTISTS,DESIGNERS, POETS & PHILOSOPHERS, 1994, Leonard Koren):

Material characteristics of wabi-sabi:

• suggestion of natural process
• irregular
• intimate
• unpretentious
• earthy
• simple

For more about wabi-sabi, see http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WabiSabi.

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