Karmatic

Q is for heat

2012-02-02T21:34:00.000-05:00

Sulking sucks.
Being angry is because someone else wronged, sulking is because it's my own fault. Ughhh.

Mood progression today went from normal in the morning, to state of rationalizing/denial in the afternoon, to unreasonable* sadness until dinner, and now into a very productive** mix of work and internet distraction.

*unreasonable because although English mark dropped 6%, my top 5 is still 95 on the dot. Goal is still maintained, so I should be grateful.
**productive as I'm currently wee bit ahead of today's schedule. Let's finish those chem notes >D

My method of coping through distraction is not good.

brogue

2012-01-31T22:32:00.001-05:00

Replacement oxfords arrived today! ;D
Waait, are they legitimate oxfords? I'm under the impression that leather shoes with decorative detailing are brogues? @_@ Durr haven't learned much despite all the menswere blog I follow (help me out here Gil ;P)

I recall posting about my previous pair, but failed to find it @_@" They were sooooo comfy, like wearing socks haha. But alas the heel is completely worn out. My goal to take care of shoes isn't going so well, my mom comments every chance she gets about my notoriously short footware turnover period. Let's see how long these last eh?

Continuity

2012-01-30T23:10:00.001-05:00

I go to sleep and wake up thinking: "ugh shoulda slept more".
Whoo.

Quotation from current bedtime reading:

"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humour to console him for what he is"

- Francis Bacon

nami

2012-01-29T22:05:00.000-05:00

More good songs from the Solanin Songbook! ;D
I'm pretty sure that it's the 3rd most mentioned...eastern literary piece (most specific categorization that encompasses live action movie, anime, and manhwa) on this blog. Honey and Clover being obviously first and likely Ares second. If Lacus is goddess level for David, then Icarus is probably god in my eyes. He's so perfect ahahaa.

Anyways, Solanin!

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

2012-01-28T23:14:00.003-05:00

It was good ;__;
Now to sleep on it.

...
and to spoil the moment, Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights: Bill C-31. It's similar to SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/whatever new bill some other country decides to put out.
I really don't get it, on what basis are governments assessing the feasibility of these bills on? Oh right they're not. <_<"

metaphors

2012-01-27T16:44:00.004-05:00

Exams are oveeeer. Too bad there's no summer break to follow.

English was just bad. Everyone I asked wrote slightly different versions of the thesis e_e"
Math was pretty easy, no jinxing myself e_e"

I credit my survival to the following items:

Milk + honey + matcha, aka green tea milk. Feel slightly dumb for not discovering this earlier, obviously did not get the hint from Starbuck's green tea latter.
Songs by Nujabes, a Japanese hip pop producer and dj. Thank you Tumblr for introducing me. I've had A Day by Atmosphere Supreme, Prayer, and Aruarian Dance on repeat for the past few days. Not the mention the album artwork is just awesome ;D

Time to catch up on rss feeds without feeling guilty *u*
(and of course there's the 3 assignments due next week, ahahahaaa)

vincere

2012-01-24T19:07:00.001-05:00

Schoolwork has conquered my desk.
I am so ready to have exams over with. Ugh, June will not be fun at all.

Camera+ is worth the dollar, the filters do a pretty good job. Only complain is that you can't stake them @_@"

happy lunar new year!

2012-01-23T17:49:00.002-05:00

via: danbooru. Another awesome picture.

If I was back in China I'd be eating ridiculous amount of foods with relatives and playing cards until the wee mornings. But no, I'm studying for exams "orz

but I did enjoy some authentic 川菜 <3

Baked fish. So, so delicious. Looking forward to eating more of this when I head back this summer.

Chicken, rather hard to find under the immense pile of peppers. This is pretty much a signature dish of the cuisine. Despite how it looks, it wasn't actually all that spicy.

Seafood casserole 锅巴 (not sure what it's called in English, it's just the rice that's stuck to the pot). Made me very happy seeing this dish for the first time outside of China.

"DONT PANIC"

2012-01-22T21:50:00.001-05:00

Weekend tasks listed in their order of priority:

study for math.
sleep.
read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe.
look for a prom dress (tentative on this one).

and saw a great TED talk (educational procrastination whoo!)

His other talk is amazing too

The opening line is great xD

The two talks have converted me into a fan.
Also just discovered that he's the author of The Architecture of Happiness, which I believe is mentioned in 500 Days of Summer. The 2012 reading list has several new additions.

spins

2012-01-20T20:37:00.001-05:00

I couldn't find a good screencap of Takemodo's spinning bicycle wheel, so the ferris wheel will have to do. I'm not exactly sure of my intentions placing the image here.

That was a good 261 days.

rosemary hill

2012-01-18T18:16:00.001-05:00

/start being even more of a hermit.
English and advance functions finals are in a week, wahoo!

As always, filler materials for the blog:

I do not get the mv, and wiki's on SOPA blackout e_e" It'd be disastrous if the bill was to be passed.

king of a nutshell

2012-01-16T21:52:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make,
after all these years of hating on sweatpants, I must admit that they serve their intended purpose well. Lounging at home with sweatpants on sure is comfy *u*
But I still feel strongly about never wearing them outside of the house.

Also this is a great manga: Gin no Yuusha (...silver hero?)
It's seriously heart warming, enough to pull me out of a post physics test depression (this and the test I got 80 on are really the only two times I recall being extremely sad so far in the school year). The art is also great to boost, the mini dragons are adorable *kya*

arrow of time

2012-01-15T00:04:00.000-05:00

I think I've figured out my purpose for keeping a blog for this long.
It is to provide the me in the future a good laugh.

So I was going through my old tumblr posts trying to find good resolution images and came across these 2 gems which I now find hilarious:

Q: when is the best time to tell someone you love him/her?
A: before someone else

and

The world can't end today, it's already tomorrow in Australia.

Literally stared at myself in the mirror laughing for a good thirty seconds. I'm lame I know hahaaaa.

good times man, good times.

6-3b-a / 7

2012-01-12T21:29:00.002-05:00

hurr durr.
To get my mind off the one question that I did not get on my math test, I read a seven page essay on the morality of eating lobster (by David Foster Wallace, familiar name but don't remember exactly what he wrote and didn't bother to google).
All that ran through my mind was English exam stuff, what is the thesis? what is the function of this paragraph? are there any rhetorical devices? "orz

I feel great doing completely irrelevant stuff the rest of the night though ;D

eg. drooling over this gorgeous photo from Nina Ricci's Pre-Fall (via vogue.com)

This would be my outfit once Rui and I have enough money to rent a studio apartment in Paris for a week. I would "live in the Louvre and on macaroons" (and of course other delicacies, hey I'd be getting exercise from all the walking!).

Another getaway would be to the English countryside (especially this hotel). Sigh the places I'll go if I have money (and time, which seems to be mutually exclusive).

Need a good system to manage all my saved links. Currently it's bookmarking to Instapaper, but that doesn't support a lot of metadata. Also not very motivating to manually browse through pages of links. Any suggestions? Preferably in webapp form (debating on evernote, but thinking of something akin /lolenglishclassjoke/ to pintrest but more geared towards links?)

Oh and I want to print a selection of my tumblr likes in business card size (mainly because the image resolution isn't constant). Stuck on a method to display them though @_@ There's probably not enough (or too expensive) to fill up a whole wall. Hmmm.

This rambling post is evident of a day's break I have between my tests (Y).

multiple choice

2012-01-11T22:28:00.003-05:00

Is stress eating or stress shopping worse?
Easier to lose weight or easier to make money back? Does extra fat compound, credit card debt certainly does.

durrr. Been doing almost nothing but math for this week. All there left to do is pray to log that I do well. Chem average rose to 95 though ;D Although it isn't final transmission mark, still relieving.

Relating the two is the half an hour I spent on Etsy browsing through various leather pouches, which is my latest obsession. They look soooo niceeee *u* And I assume good quality too, if leather was able to protect the innards of a cow, then it should be sufficient for whatever stuff I have.

first // second (herringbone!) // third (especially handsome, heck everything in that shop looks amazing. Gonna buy a camera strap there once I can afford my X-10.)

Oh the list of things I'll buy once I have money xD

log

2012-01-10T18:00:00.000-05:00

Two videos to fill blog up while I stress over math:

filmed in Type Bookstore in Toronto.
Good marketing right here! Makes me want to visit, shall dump into trip to the paper store with Grace. Must remember to make concrete plans for that.

Short film by Masaaki Yuasa (whom I know as the director of Kaiba). Found via tumblr, which the description "moving, beautiful, and slightly traumatic".
(Y)

天天向上

2012-01-08T21:27:00.002-05:00

"Vegeta, whats the engineering tuition?"
"It's over 9000!"

this is Ryan and mine motivation to do well in university.
It will be up on a banner in our rooms.

oh gosh xD

in other news:
Got my headphones!
It actually arrived on Dec 14, but concierge did not put up a notice so I thought the package got lost. After sending an inquiry to EZ Shop, I figured out the fault actually lies in the concierge. I would recommend this seller, my item was actually shipped earlier than estimated and they replied to me within a day :]

Spent the majority of my second week camping out at David's house with Donna, our official unofficial office. Full Credits is coming along, long chains of email at a time xD Planning a venture takes so much time and effort haha, good experience though. Also quite fun hanging out with them, we get off (to interesting) topics too often~

annnnd back to school tomorrow. Should have perhaps started reviewing for math sooner.
Projected assignments:
English - IRP notes, with a better format this time.
Math - test and then exam. Will get perfect on those, cannot let mark drop! D<
Chem - lab report durrr
Physics - test, hopefully not in the first week (especially not on same day as math T_T)
Earth & Space - major project. Ugh, don't wanna teach about planets, can't we move onto more interesting subjects? D:

sleeping early!

camel paper

2012-01-04T20:51:00.003-05:00

A new period of obsession with stationary items has begun @__@" Spent the past evenings rummaging through various stationary blogs and forums.

Item of desire: Midori Traveler's Notebooks (specifically the 5th anniversary edition)

What I can only hope mine will look like ^

Another promotional image with other Midori products

Sooooo pretty *u* and soooo expensive too. Quite hard justifying spending $50 on a notebook even if it's really nice leather. Oh there's refills (apparently the paper is of good quality according to reviews) and add-ons too, easily more money spent "orz

Also the additional hurdle of already owning (way) too much notebooks. While the majority of them is too impractical for everyday use, I still have a bunch of moleskines (previous notebook obsession). So I have assigned scheduling work to my planner (which is showing signs of age, though ungracefully) and creative/list-making to this future notebook. Heck I even came up with names for the two, albert (Einstein) for moleskine and niels (bohr) for TN.

Satisfying conclusion is that I will look for them in stores when I visit HongKong. If by then I have not blown my budget, I shall purchase one.
(If all fails, come back and order online xD)

2012 goals

2012-01-02T16:08:00.000-05:00

Cause New Years resolutions like exercising more and being a better person (not that I wouldn't want to do both) are too vague and are never accomplished anyways.

1. 95% scholarship average.
This is going to be a tough battle "orz Gonna have to keep math and English up (log test, adv func exam, english exam, death over hamlet essay etc), while stop being stupid in sciences. It is entirely possible to get 100% on every physics test and can at least aim for 95%+ on chem tests. And then there's calc...

2. Early (pre-april) acceptance.
Slightly difficult as engineering admission would want to see my calc midterm mark. All that can be done is done, focus efforts on goal one.

3. Have a beautiful place to live in for uni.
Gonna be exciting living on my own for the first time :] Though the excitement will likely be displaced by complaints of doing my own cleaning in a month. Nonetheless, looking forward to DECORATING *u* Gonna hang photos on strings, prints from accumulated dA favourites, lantern lights, have way too many jars etc etc. Too much inspiration from tumblr haha.

Also edit closet and general belongings. Less stuff I have less stuff I have to clean >D

4. Figure out an adaptable plan for uni.
Yeah I realize that my identity is very much built around academics right now xD So far I'm progressing nicely on this, already gone through the civil eng department's course list and planned out my summers:

gr 12: determine which extracurriculars to participate in (aiming for some sort of position in EngSoc, perhaps class rep?), textbooks, explore the area.
year 1: take extra courses, or in case that I don't have the prereqs, internship. I could always take misc interesting courses (prob some language courses? or ancient chinese lit LOL) if I can't take minor requirements.
year 2: internship or extra courses if I didn't get the chance in year 1. I figure that I'm more likely to land a position if I have more knowledge, especially since 7/8 first year courses are general ones.
year 3: likely going to be my PEY year, so prep for that. Otherwise a summer exchange will be amazing. Really want to go to Kyoto haha.
year 4: TRAVEL! Blow all the money made from PEY haha. Europe or Asia, yet to decide.
year 5: graduate and job search "orz

5. Deliver on projects
Not really a goal but a must do xD FullCredits is slowly being put together. Should start thinking about personal domain. Also should update resume, almost forgot about a lot of involvements for supp apps.

6. And somehow fit in hobbies
Last but certainly not least (oh the cliche), read more, draw more, game more. Debating whether to start attacking the self compiled reading list or some classics, should set a goal of hmm, a book a month?
From the top of my head (and telegraph.uk):

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams: shame that I haven't read this.
A Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez: I considered taking PoCo just so I can't procrastinate on reading this.
Something by Kafka, recommended by English teacher. Considering Metamorphosis.
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy: bought this ages ago, should start on it.
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Light in August - William Faulkner
1Q84 - Haruki Murakami: gotta see what all the hype is about.

hindsight 2011

2011-12-31T16:59:00.000-05:00

Format blatantly copied from Chronodex by Scription. Sorry it's not the cleanest looking thing, autoCAD (rather illustrator, but I suck at that) would be my preferred software for making that.

To be honest, I didn't remember a lot of the events listed on the chart. Original content consisted of Shad and Gritaly, which I already talked enough about. So I went through my 2011 archive and pulled up some more events.

January
My winter vacation to Dominican was the first time to a tropical destination in a loooong time. (Only other time was to 海南 when I was still in China. Needless to say it was quite fun, the beach side buffet had awesome tasting light beer (alcohol that I like and can take? gasp!). Trained myself at billiards too. Bobbing in the waves wasn't that great though, the ocean water leaves a salty aftertaste in your mouth for the reminder of the day.

Spa day at Lyndons was soooo jokes, let this be a reminder to the future me that life was good haha. Gonna miss my group of friends, let's keep the thread alive through uni!

Feburary
Braces OFF! Had those metal brackets for 5 years e_e Goodbye and hope to never see those again.

Equally miraculous (k, a lot more miraculous) is the first ever official snow day since I started school here. A close call was in grade 8 when we got half a day off. Let's hope this year's winter is no where near as bad (quite on track as the first legit snow storm was just a few days ago).

Quitting my first part-time job. Mixed feelings about this, on one hand it did eat up a lot of time which was starting to interfere with school work and I didn't particularly enjoy my job. On the other hand it was good income, I would be a lot less stingy right now haha. While I felt more tired than usual and didn't really have free time on the weekends, I did manage to get all my school work done. I was also a lot more reckless with money, bought a bunch of stuff I didn't end up using (but it did fund a lot of good experiences too, a la gritaly and ps3). Final rational was that once I'm in university and actually need money, I would not be able to quit a less-than-perfect job, so might as well use up the last chance to do it.

March
Gritaaaaaly. Loved the trip, right from the moment I started to brainstorm what to pack and through the terrible plane ride home (was really sick so slept the entire way back ;D). I would prefer to live in a city with a rich history (aka Europe or Asia. Middle East also has a fascinating culture, unfortunately I know very little about it), wouldn't it be amazing taking after dinner strolls to the Trevi Fountain or by Michelangelo's grave? *u* Will definitely revisit, multiple times, in the future (ideal situation = I have a summer home there).

April
Space Design was...quite an experience haha. First time procrastinating so much: we were given 3 month for the report, started researching 3 week prior to the deadline. Cramming the report on the very last day is well documented in the post above. To think we would have learned and started the presentation on time? Heck no, 12:30am on the day off ftw ;D It was so much fun hanging out with the team though, Jin for some reason brought an amp xD Also prepared me for cramming the Shad business plan.

May
Jason...hahahaa. Mel and April had amazing deduction skills.

Did not expect to place in City Mosaic haha. Fulfilled my dream of being in the Amazing Race :D It's a really fun way to explore Toronto, found several cool shops along the way. We still haven't gone to Sweet Lulu! Anyone up for it this year?

June
First time camping with friends alone, all good and fun with the exception of the extremely cold nights (well I was warned) and the fact that no one thought to bring dish detergent. 3 days worth of bacon grease was not fun to clean up e_e" Overall it was a good experience in trip planning.
(haha notice the commentary getting shorter? Been typing this for well over an hour)

The honor of first jrpg finished goes to Final Fantasy XII! Opinions in that post still stands, I would purchase a remastered edition (though the graphics was amazing for a ps2 game) in a heartbeat. Though totally not looking forward to the hours I spent restarting the game due to the treasure system based on chance.

Ah grade 11, seems so far in the past already XD Highfive fellow Ms. G English students! Though I reeeeally appreciate her teaching now, the material we covered and her book suggestions are extremely interesting, just not when you were gonna be tested on them. April, Mel and I slacked so much on her presentations, yet we still did well ;D Chem summative was a pain too, why a video, whhhhy! Sucks that we have to do it again this year. Glad I took co-op (thank you Janice for talking me into this and Gritaly), my co-workers were really nice and I learned a lot through our conversations. Grade 12 is 1/3 done, 加油!

July
Shad. Best month of 2011 hands down. Reunion is coming up, can't waaait :]

August
Most sleep deprived month haha, very thankful for the internship opportunity though! I probably learned more about engineering in this month alone than in the rest of my life. So much acronyms @__@"

September
Shepherd's pie obtained! Three years, three attempts, finally got it. Story goes that Grace and I had an amazing slice of shepherd's pie during zero day in grade 8 at downtown. We enjoyed it so much that every subsequent year we went downtown to eat it again. Unfortunately, the first year the shop was closed and the second year they sold out -o-" Nevertheless, we persevered and was finally successful in our third attempt.

October
I should name my phone, cannot bear to live without it now haha. Who knows how far consumer technology will progress, please work on the printer T_T

YOU Innovate was also a...learning experience. Another evidence for The Dip (or the shad valley of despair xD), quite the hard work sticking to a project.

November
Patty's birthday was fuuuun ;D I owe you for introducing me to Matsuda. To think we've only spend a month together yet I feel so close to you guys.

December
University applications...durrrrr. Pray for February, hope for March, expect for April and panic in May.

under the stars

2011-12-29T11:46:00.000-05:00

Done supplementary forms >D
(only had two to do, but still doneeee! slightly behind schedule as David got me into Berserk again)

To be honest I didn't put essay amount of effort into the longer questions, but at least I didn't bs stuff. Even revealed in my Waterloo app that it was SimCity that first got me interested in civil engineering xD
Now to wait as the admissions committee decide my fate.
(oh wait, still one more scholarship app to do for Waterloo, will save that after a few days rest).

Was gonna tie this post in with Hoshi O Ou Kodomo, but found that Sean already did a post on it. I completely agree as my first thought was "what a Miyazaki plot", scenes where Asuna, the main character, is running through her village is so reminiscent Miyazaki films. Of course there's always the signature Shinkai visuals (not to mention bitter sweet endings) and Tenmon music (soundtrack is amazing *u*).

Feast your eyes and ears on the trailer:

Please click through to watch in HD fullscreen, it's gorgeous ;D

and opening song:

timeproof ink

2011-12-27T18:34:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the really corny title, not in the most creative of moods after filling out supplementary forms. Still got the essay questions to tackle tmrw "orz

Anyways, don't think an year review will be happening, excuses being overall laziness and the inability to recall the details of the many events that happened this year (perhaps caused by staying up to catch-up on Berserk).

So to compensate, here is my Gritaly Sketchbook. Been meaning to scan it since last March, hehe a bit overdue. It was a really fun trip despite large amount of drama surrounding my roommates.

Left: expense tracking, messy but completely accurate ;D
Right: Island 1, Hydra, of the tour of the Greek Islands.

Left: first page of the recount of the third day in Rome. Isn't the Colosseum ticket gorgeous?
Right: Details of the church of St. martino in Lucca. It's a lot more fun sketching architectural details than taking pictures of them. Would have spent hours doing this if there wasn't a schedule.

Second day in Rome, highlight being the visit to the Vatican. Proof right there that I climbed the 571 steps up St. Peter's Dome, which is sooooo pretty. Rome's subway tickets are also much prettier XD

Veniceeeeee *u* Now that I think about it, it has a certain charm underneath an overcast sky. Also grey + pink + blue is nice.

Last 2 of the 10 pages of notes on the Accademia and Uffizi. Even the Vatican only took 5 pages! Forgot my black fineliner for the day so ended up borrowing Donna's pink pen xD

Last chance to shop in the markets of Florance! Needless to say I spent all my money, literally had only coins left. Pretty paper shop has pretty business card.

and finally

Our tracks over Rome, click to enlarge! ;D So extremely proud that we walked all that distance (was forced to on day 2 due to subway strike). Exploring the city on foot is definitely the most fun.

Wanna go back so badly T_T" perhaps in forth year uni summer? I'll have money from PEY to blow off haha.

holidays

2011-12-25T12:36:00.001-05:00

image via tumblr
Merry Christmas and happy holidays :]

t-10

2011-12-21T18:57:00.001-05:00

With the winter break starting so late, I don't think I've realized that 2011 is coming to an end. Should get around to reviewing the year and writing out some new year's resolutions, not that I've ever kept any of them. System needs fixing.

A lot of things actually happened this year, two of the biggest events being Gritaly and Shad (oh the good times). I guess starting the final leg of highschool counts as well, though the importance of that diminishes as the years go by. Acquired my lovely iPhone (Gilly do not make a comment <_<") and read quite a few good books. Still don't know what to do with my life, but that's okay for now.

Gonna think more critically later in the night. Shall update.

edit: so I went to watch Midnight In Paris for inspiration, a quotation from Gertrude Stein really ties into The Elegance of the Hedgehog:

We all fear death and question our place in the universe, the artist's job is not to succumb to despair, but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.

Wisdoooom. Amongst others featured in the film.

and "Dali! Daaaali! Daaaaaaali!" Ahahhaaa, will forever erupt into laughter in my head upon remembering that scene.

and it'd be lovely to be enchanted with a city :]

essence

2011-12-18T19:18:00.002-05:00

My weekend boiled down to 10x15cm.

pastels

2011-12-15T18:04:00.000-05:00

The poor image quality puzzles me o_o
It's taken with my phone without any settings changed, so it should be at full 8MP. Unless Camera+ does some reeeeally awful compression when it saves photos/some filters make the image gritty on purpose, there really should be no excuse for such poor resolution.

Sigh, shall not display at full size.

PS. positive double digits weather in December? dannng.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

2011-12-14T20:12:00.000-05:00

Was about to return this to the library without recording my thoughts on it, terrible!

Synopsis from Amazon:

We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who, for their part, are barely aware of her existence. Then there's Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.
Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

That might have been misleading, this post is going to consist more of profound (personal opinion) quotations from book.

And yet there's nothing to understand. The problem is that children believe what adults say and, once they're adults themselves, they exact their revenge by deceiving their own children. "Life has meaning and we grown-ups know what it is" is the universal lie that everyone is supposed to believe. Once you become an adult and you realize that's not true, it's too late. The mystery remains intact, but all your available energy has long ago been wasted on stupid things. All that's left is to anesthetize yourself by trying to hide the fact that you can't find any meaning in your life, and then, the better to convince yourself, you deceive your own children.

^I wish that was the passage we have to analyze for the English Existentialism test T__T Every line in there follows that philosophy! Starting from we lead inauthentic lives by believing what others sat, to life is meaningless. I think this is pretty true, at least I've once believed that the answers to every question would become apparent once you've reach adulthood, whatever that may be.
@Rui: I was right! It did come from this book haha. You must read ittt!

More Existentialism from Paloma:

[...] no one seems to have thought of the fact that if life is absurd, being a brilliant success have no greater value than beign a failure. It's just more comfortable. And even then, I think lucidity gives your success a bitter taste, whereas mediocrity still leaves hope for something.

"ignorance is bliss" in other words. Gosh looking back to the earlier chapters narrated by Paloma, life in her eyes sure is depressing o_o

Renée's view is slightly more positive

[...]and society, a territorial field mined with the powerful charges of hierarchy, is sinking into the nothingness of Meaning. [...] all have become primitive hominoids whose nudging and posturing, [...] language and codes are all located on the genetic map of an average primate, and all adds up to no more than this: hold your rank, or die.
At times like this you desperately need Art. You seek to reconnect with yoru spiritual illusions, and you wish feverishly that something might rescue you from your biological desiring.

This ties into some points raised in The Denial of Death (oh Ms. G, in retrospect, you taught us a loooot).

So: have our civilizations become so destitute that we can only live in our fear of want? Can we only enjoy our possessions or our senses when we are certain that we shall always be able to enjoy them? Perhaps the Japanese have learned that you can only savour a pleasure when you know it is ephemeral and unique; armed with this knowledge, they are yet able to weave their lives.

Also relating to The Denial of Death and a favourite of mine to think about when trying to avoid work (aka now): why do we (or at least I) want objects/events/feelings to last forever if the value of those things arise from their fleeting nature (durr forgive the bad wording). Like, we value our lives because one day we will die.

There is always the easy way out, although I am loath to use it. I have no children, I do not watch television, and I do not believe in God - all paths taken by mortals to make their lives easier. Children help us defer the painful task of confronting ourselves, and grandchildren take over from them. Television distracts us from the onerous neccessoty of finding projects to construct in the vacuuity of out frivolous lives: by beguilling our eyes, relevision releases our minds from the great work of making meaning. Finally, God appeases our animal fears and the unbearable prospect that someday all our pleasures will cease. Thus, as I have neigher future nor progeny nor pixels to deaden the cosmic awareness of absurdity, and in the certainty of the end and the anticipation of the void, I believe I can affirm that I have not chosen the easy path.

This is intensely humorous, precisely because of the amount of truth it contains.

The seal of eternity ... What absent world does our heart intuit when we see these dishes and cups [...]? Beyond the frame of the painting there is, no doubt, the tumult boredom of everyday life - itself an unceasing and futile pursuit, consumed by projects; but within the frame lies the plenitude of a suspended moment, stolen from time, rescued form human longing. [...] Even though tomorrow we will die - we can build empires doomed to fade to dust, as if the knowledge we have of their imminent fall had absolutely no effect on our eagerness to build them now?

First though was minecraft when reading the latter part was: minecraft! Goes further to prove how absurd our reaction to life is.

Anyways, enough typing here, should reallocate to chem lab. So I leave you with aria, which the book mentions near the end:

riddim

2011-12-13T17:30:00.000-05:00

I am part of the 99% that got directed to this song by a webcomic.

Just a dream with you and me

2011-12-11T22:48:00.001-05:00

I have a whole pile of songs (3) that I need to share, gonna separate them into individual posts so blog update schedule doesn't become non-existent.

Might have posted this up before, but that would be at least 2/3 years old (when I first came across this on dA). Damn, it just hit me this weekend that 2011 is almost over and I would have had this blog for close to 4 years. Guess this was my outlet for the turbulent adolescence times, though that's hardly coming to an end. Gonna be legally an adult next year, don't feel grown up at all haha. It's so weeeeeeird (and somewhat scary) that daily life seem to pass by so slowly yet years go by in a flash.

Anyways enough rambling, this is beautiful ;D

I found another point of view
Just a dead end avenue
I'm growing closer back to you
Just want I don't wanna do
Just what I don't wanna do
Is to fall infront of you

And you can break and you can mend
For all the wrongs that you defend
You learn the hard way in the end

So stay in my memory
You can hide out there
Don't take all my thoughts today
So I can start to begin again
So stay in my memory
you can hide out there
Don't take all my thoughts today
So I cant start to begin again

So I don't wanna be left with all this
I plan to be there right by your side
Oh it seems like this could be
Just a dream with you and me

Don't wanna be left with all this
I plan to be there
I plan to be there right by your side

So stay in my memory
You can hide out there
Don't take all my thoughts today
So I can start to begin again
So stay in my memory
You can hide out there
Don't take all my thoughts today
So I can start to begin again

And you and i we had the stars
And you and i we had the stars
That you left over and over again
And you and i we had the stars
And you and i we had the stars

I don't wanna be left with all this
I plan to be there right by your side

So stay in my memory
You can hide out there
Don't take all my thoughts today
So I can start to begin again
So I cant start to begin again

sharing water

2011-12-09T22:12:00.001-05:00

Very eventful day today is :]

GOT ALL MY SUPPLEMENTARY FORMS! ;D Though they're gonna be put off till the break cause of large amount of schoolwork.

Started off with an Engineering faculty tour, and then a general tour of the University of Toronto. I think it's very likely that I will go there, unless like Waterloo offers me full tuition or something haha, wishful thinking.

A part of Trinity College, which looks a lot better than Victoria haha.

Inside the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, doesn't like look like a set for National Treasure? haha. And Kenny was right about Robarts Library, there is no way you can miss that building. It's suppose to look like a peacock, why I can only guess...

Following the tour I went on a little shopping detour in Eaton. Finally got myself the Naked Palette, like a full year late. Naked 2 came out too, I'll be quite pissed if Sephora decides to drop the price on the original one. Also totally not fair that the price difference between US and Canada is a full $10. That's ridiculous considering our currency is on par, though I guess not ridiculous enough "orz Darn you BI coupon!

Anyways, Christmas decorations! ;D

The annual Swarovski crystal christmas tree.

There were also giant wire reindeers placed in the mall.

Lastly the day ended with going to see the school show, The Oath. It's quite good every year (though this is the only year I've gone and deeply regret not going the previous years).

The set is really pretty *u*

Finishing note: camera+ is amazing for when one's too lazy to open up photoshop.

equinox

2011-12-08T19:53:00.001-05:00

View from the walk home, is this not a sky you see in the summer?

Hopefully this will provide enough motivation to blast through the weekend workload of chemistry lab, quiz and math test. Four tests and three assignments, guess this is a small taste of what finals week will be like in university.

Now's the time to find out why

2011-12-07T18:06:00.001-05:00

Quite a large portion of my music library either directly or indirectly originates from animes/mangas o_o
This is from Wakeup Deadman, quite ironic actually. (Same author as Fairytale for a Demon Lord, which has the most "wha....?" ending)

Maybe I don't really want to know
How your garden grows
I just want to fly
Lately did you ever feel the pain
In the morning rain
As it soaks it to the bone

Maybe I just want to fly
I want to live I don't want to die
Maybe I just want to breath
Maybe I just don't believe
Maybe you're the same as me
We see things they'll never see
You and I are gonna live forever

Maybe I don't really want to know
How your garden grows
I just want to fly
Lately did you ever feel the pain
In the morning rain
As it soaks it to the bone

Maybe I will never be
All the things that I want to be
But now is not the time to cry
Now's the time to find out why

I think you're the same as me
We see things they'll never see
You and I are gonna live forever
We're gonna live forever

Gonna live forever
Live forever
Forever

on a related note:

Bower & Wilkins P5 Headphones *u* drooooool.

and let there be light

2011-12-05T17:19:00.001-05:00

Definitely made the right choice taking Earth and Space Science this year (thank you conversation with Andrew like...4 years ago LOL). The curriculum is a good match for my interests and serves as review for physics and chemistry ;D

Some spectroscopy fun, photos taken through a diffraction grating. In order: white light, hydrogen, mercury, and helium.

UTHSDC '11

2011-12-03T19:41:00.001-05:00

10 hours at the Bahen Center at the University of Toronto and I come home with this:

second place oh yeahhhh ;D
Next generation better carry on the Think Tank name!

T'was a great experience, it was a challenge trying to improve the flaws in our design with only 20mins left haha. Also got to see some first year friends, chatted with others students and confirmed my fear about the hours of sleep (4-5 in second year) and the difficulty of linear algebra (specifically the forth chapter of it). Sounds good though, hopefully I'll be part of them next year :]

cradle

2011-11-30T19:46:00.001-05:00

Thank you omnipotent deity for a week without work. Now excuse me while I disappear into

12-1

2011-11-28T17:10:00.001-05:00

Wahoo it's report cards time again! Though I've known my marks for a good week already.

English: 96 (Very satisfied, hours killing myself over the essay paid off. Now how not to screw myself over on the exam)
Advance Functions: 98 (yayy, except my trig test just dropped it e_e" Homework pays off as well haha)
Chemistry: 91 (ugh lowest mark. Stupid quizes that were out of 5 D<)
Physics: 92 (ughh. It's gonna go up, almost sure of it)
-------------------------------
Average for the 4 marks that's going to UT: 94.25% SO CLOSEEE

Earth and Space Science: 99 (yuhhhh)
-------------------------------
Average for 5 marks going into every other university: 95.2% ;D

Architectural Design: 93 (whatever, doesn't affect anything)
-------------------------------
Overall average: 94.83% durrr.

Oryx and Crake

2011-11-26T12:03:00.001-05:00

Was so close to have an entire day of assessments: chemistry test, REPORT CARDS, physics quiz, English presentation and the narrowly missed math quiz.

Before I go off and submerge myself in organic chemistry, I want to share some quotations from Oryx and Crake. (My 8 pages of reading notes will not be wasted!)

Jimmy:

His time, what a bankrupt idea, as if he's been given a box of time belonging to him alone, stuffed to the brim with hours and minutes that he can spend like money. Trouble is, the box has holes in it and the time is running out, no matter what he does with it.

Jimmy's Mother and Father:

M: 'You use to be so...you had ideals then.'
F: 'Sure, [...] I've still got them. I just can't afford them'

Jimmy and Crake:

J: 'Why don't we use a real set? [...] The old kind. With plastic men' It did seemed weird to have the two of them in the same room, back to back, playing on computers.
C: 'Why [...] Anyways this is a real set'
J: 'No it's not'
C: 'Okay, granted, but neither is plastic men'
J: 'What?'
C: 'The real set is in your head'

Jimmy:

These planned departures made him uneasy: they reminded him of Alex the parrot sating I'm going away now. There was too fine a line between Alex the parrot and the assisted suicide and his mother and the notes she'd left for him. All three gave notice of their intentions; then all vanished.

'What is toast?' says Snowman to himself, once [the Crakers] have run off. Toast is when you take a piece of bread-What is bread? Bread is when you take some flour-What is flour [...] and then this 'toaster'shoots the slice up into the air, and it falls into the floor...
'Forget it' says Snowman. 'Let's try again.' Toast was a pointless invention from the Dark Ages. Toast was an implement of torture [...] Toast cannot be explained by any rational means.
Toast is me.
I am toast.

Crake:

But human beings hope they can stick their souls into someone else, some new version of themselves, and live on forever.
J: 'As a species we're doomed by hope, then?'
C: 'You could call it hope. That, or desperation'
J: ' But we're doomed without hope as well'
C: 'Only as individuals'
J: 'Well, it sucks'

Oryx:

Of course, having a money value was no substitute for love. Every child should have love, every person should have it. [...] -but love was undependable, it came and then it went, so it was good to have a money value, because then at least those who want to make a profit from you would make sure you were fed enough and not damaged too much. Also there were many who had neither love nor a money value, and having one of these things was better than having nothing.

J: 'Learned what?'
O: 'That everything has a price.'
J: 'Not everything. That can't be true. You can't buy time. You can't buy...' He wanted to say love, but hesitated. It was too sappy.
O: 'You can't buy it, but it has a price. Everything has a price.'

J: 'I don't buy it' Where was her rage, how far down was it buried, what did he have to do to dig it up?
O: 'You don't buy what?'
J: 'Your whole fucking story. All this sweetness and acceptance and crap.'
O: 'If you don't want to buy that, Jimmy [...] what is it that you would like to buy instead?'

Jimmy:

He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that wull destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo.

'Tomorrow is another day' he declaims to the pink and purple clouds. But if tomorrow is another day, what's today?

Jimmy didn't understand how he could be so nil about it - it was horrible, the thought of Crake watching his own mother dissolve like that. [...] It was Crake preserving his dignity, because the alternative would have been losing it.

Crake:

C: 'Those walls and bars are there for a reason [...] Not to keep us out, but to keep them in. Mankind needs barriers in both cases.'
J: 'Them?'
C: 'Nature and God.'
J: 'I thought you didn't believe in God'
C: 'I don't believe in Nature either, or not with a capital N."

Jimmy:

So Crake never remembered his dreams. It's Snowman that remembers them instead. Worse than remembers: he's immersed in them, he'd wading through them, he's stuck in them. Every moment he's lived in the past few month was dreamed first by Crake. No wonder Crake screamed so much.

So this was the rest of his life. It felt like a party to which he'd been invited, but at an address he couldn't actually locate. Someone must be having fun at it, this life of his; only right at the moment, it wasn't him.

He was drinking alone now, at night, a bad sign. He shouldn't be doing that, it only depressed him, but he had to dull the pain. The pain of what? The pain of the raw torn places, the damaged membranes where he'd whanged up against the Great Indifference of the Universe. One big shark's mouth, the universe. Row after row of razor-sharp teeth.

He doesn't expect to hear anything, but expectation isn't the same as desire.

J: 'What pays for all of [the state of the art Luxuries Mall]?'
C: 'Grief in the face of inevitable death, the wish to stop time. The human condition.'

and lastly, the comparson of Crake's fridge magnets, in school versus working:

No Brain, No Pain                                                          Where God is, Man is not.
Siliconsciousness                                                            There are two moons, the you can see and the
I wonder from Space to Space                                                 one you cannot
Wanna Meet a Meat Machine?                                       Du musz dein Leben andern
Take Your Time, Leave Mine Alone.                             We understand more than we know.
Little spoat/gider, who made thee?                                 To stay human is to break a limitation.
Life experiments like a rakunk at play.                          Dream steals from its lair towards its prey.
I think, therefore I spam.                                                I think, therefore.
The proper study of Mankind is Everything.

fridge in the milk

2011-11-23T21:52:00.001-05:00

This song makes me happy ;D

Would very much like Honey & Clover's OST for christmas (or even a good dl link, such a hassle to track it down online e_e")

You can tell I have free time this week, posting daily haha~

the sheppard pie effect

2011-11-22T18:34:00.001-05:00

A good day is a day when Knight Run updates. (waiting for KR ranks probably 2nd most painful)
uh huhh.

(and Id, Masca, Tower of God, Noblesse)

hurray chill week.

relativistic

2011-11-21T17:38:00.001-05:00

Ugh. math test, ughhhh. It was quite an easy test too "orz
sighhh.
Gonna allocate this evening to sulking over it ._."

but I got to wear a panda head, so that distracted me for a while.

Camera+ is for days when I'm too lazy to fire up photoshop :]

Catching up with what happened over the weekend in reverse chronological order:

math
sim city videos (Anyone gots a windows xp disc? I would go through the trouble of virturalizing just to play that again. Probably the other reason why I became interested in civil engineering)
math
math
Donna was awesome and brought over this:

Planning on going through these in March break, though probably wiser to do so in the summer when I actually know calculus. Perhaps MIT calc lectures in march break? Also linear algebra videos in summer. I feel ill prepared for university math e_e
math
math
dimsum! Fun time haha, pretty cheap too. Affordable socializing while filling stomach /gasp.
haircut

Long weekend is nice.

ultima

2011-11-18T20:01:00.001-05:00

Damn, why am I procrastinating on math e_e"

Really liked the style of Vaan here, so I tried to achieve a similar feel.
paper texture via dA.
reference via Forever21 (a random sweater model).
yeah I know the left hand looks like a shallot bulb "orz

there Jason, I post my sketches.

identities

2011-11-16T20:21:00.001-05:00

I am bad at algebra.
Therefore, I am bad at trig identities.
^deductive reasoning e_e"

So this long weekend will be dedicated to proving the above statements false.

But when does the time invested becomes not worth it?
Case study: spent at least 12 hours last weekend making IRP notes. While that increased the enjoyment that I got from the book (paradice -> pair of dice *mind blown*), it didn't significantly improve my mark (an assumption, since I believe that I'll be lucky to get an 80 on that in class test).
Though trig is probably more useful than narrative analysis.

Blah less talking, more proving.

(Shall end with two sunset pictures taken from walk home from school. Darn daylight savings time T_T)

babes

2011-11-13T16:03:00.001-05:00

Sleepover fun at Patricia's ;D

First is dinner at Matsuda, which is actually good all-you-can-eat japaneses food.

Bottom is Spicy Salmon Roll, it's so delicious omg *u*

Black Dragon Roll at the back and Manga Roll in the middle. Manga is amaaaazing, we ordered at least 4 more plates of that.

Desserts ;D So yummy! And cute too, the puddings come in shot glasses LOL.

Like an engineer ;D

Ate waaay too much "orz Took a stroll in T&T afterwards and saw these adorable panda bao:

Back at her house, even more food e_e"

(First time trying Pocari Sweat @ the back. It's what Gatorade should taste like if it tasted good.)
That chocolate cake is heart attack in disguise, eating it at midnight didn't help either. The sugar rush did keep us all awake until the wee hours of the morning. Sugar rush and Mahjong, finally learned how to play that haha.

And now all 5 of us are at home cramming for homework, wahoo ;D

UN-GO

2011-11-10T22:37:00.001-05:00

95% chance I'll enjoy whatever airs in noitaminA's timeslot ;D

The series is based off the works of Sakaguchi Ango (info ripped from Kenn), with quite an interesting premise. By premise I mean the first minute of the first episode, it flashes a mysterious scene which is slowly explained in the subsequent episodes. This forms a nice overarching plot tying together each episode's individual detective case.
The main character is quite cynical haha, which is a refreshing change from most protagonists. It'll be quite interesting to see how his character develops throughout the series. It'll either be excellently done or a huge let down. So many ways to ruin a good mystery e_e"

ANYWAYS. The ED song is awesome ;D

Watch it ;D

permeating wind

2011-11-09T21:11:00.000-05:00

This weekend will be dedicated to IRP notes, next weekend will be Trig identities, joy.

真昼の光そよぐ風に乗って
君を迎えに行く
車走らせて
それは二人で観た映画の様に
影の中にずっと消えた幻

君はまだそこで泣いてるの
遠い日々を想って
なぜにそんなに悲しい顔するの
射し込んだ日射しに髪が光を揺らしてる

ああ明日になればきっと届く今は聞こえないけど
そうずっと今よりそれ以前より上手に笑えるはず
ああ明日になればきっと届く今は聞こえないけど
そうずっと今よりそれ以前より上手に笑えるはず

君はまだそこで泣いてるの
遠い雨に濡れて
なぜにそんなに悲しい顔するの
さめた日射しを光が突き抜けて

ああ明日になればきっと届く今は聞こえないけど
そうずっと今よりそれ以前より上手に笑えるはず
ああ明日になればきっと届く今は聞こえないけど
そうずっと今よりそれ以前より上手に笑えるはず

alert

2011-11-07T22:24:00.001-05:00

Photoshop is a great way to procrastinate.

This place has ridiculously delicious orange iced tea.

there will be time

2011-11-06T13:50:00.000-05:00

^oh Prufrock e_e"

The extra hour from Day Light Saving time was spent savoring the wonderful world of fiction before the inevitable return to face my UT National essay "orz

These two novels are great:

Awesome cover art to boost ;D

Super Sad True Love Story

The son of a Russian immigrant, protagonist Leonard (Lenny) Abramov, a middle-aged, middle class, and otherwise unremarkable man whose mentality is still in the past century, falls madly in love with Eunice Park, a young Korean-American struggling with materialism and the pressures of her traditional Korean family. The chapters alternate between profuse diary entries from the old fashioned Lenny and Eunice's biting e-mail correspondence on her "GlobalTeens" account. In the background of what appears to be a love story that oscillates between superficiality and despair, a grim political situation unravels. America is on the brink of economic collapse, threatened by their Chinese creditors. In the meantime, the totalitarian Bipartisan government's main mission is to encourage and promote consumerism while eliminating political dissidents. In the midst of all this, in a world where anyone's sexuality can be rated at the touch of the screen, where the privileged can live forever but the unfortunate die too soon, there is still value to being a real human being

This Is Where I Leave You

The death of Judd Foxman's father marks the first time that the entire Foxman family—including Judd’s mother, brothers, and sister—have been together in years. Conspicuously absent: Judd’s wife, Jen, whose fourteen-month affair with Judd’s radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. Simultaneously mourning the death of his father and the demise of his marriage, Judd joins the rest of the Foxmans as they reluctantly submit to their patriarch's dying request: to spend the seven days following the funeral together. In the same house. Like a family. As the week quickly spins out of control, longstanding grudges resurface, secrets are revealed, and old passions reawakened. For Judd, it's a weeklong attempt to make sense of the mess his life has become while trying in vain not to get sucked into the regressive battles of his madly dysfunctional family. All of which would be hard enough without the bomb Jen dropped the day Judd's father died: She's pregnant. This Is Where I Leave You is Jonathan Tropper's most accomplished work to date, a riotously funny, emotionally raw novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind—whether we like it or not.

Both books feature a rather chaotic setting which supplements the humor quite well. What I really enjoyed, more so was impressed by, in Super Sad True Love Story is the difference in perspective between Lenny and Eunice. Their account of the same event is painfully different, even the font changes haha. The author also managed to create sympathy, or at least pity, for both characters.

This Is Where I Leave You is also about falling apart and not quite coming back together. The Foxman siblings' constant exchange of sharp words is quite entertaining and offsets the severity of the events each of them went through. It was hard to put this novel down, evident in my early wake up this morning in attempt to finish it. It uses cool words too ;D "calamitous"

...
...
...

on a side note:
Wish my SimCity looked like this
and

eye of the beholder

2011-11-05T21:55:00.001-04:00

Fuzion Autumn Experience prix-fix coincides perfectly. The service there is really good and well worth the price during this annual event.

Butternut Squash soap for starter

Mine & his entries

The hearts were a cute touch haha, chef you are awesome XD

milestone

2011-11-04T20:25:00.000-04:00

love you<3

Crunch

2011-11-03T18:56:00.001-04:00

I follow the seasons through starbucks drinks. Holiday cups have popped up already, aka 6 month of winter has started. Thankfully its makes a good occasion to wear scarves, dunno how else I would survive.

Their peppermint brownie cakepops are great :]

M9-P

2011-10-31T17:27:00.002-04:00

This files under "want so badly but can never afford it unless I win the lottery"
(watch in HD)

Ah Venice, I want back T_T

post secondary

2011-10-30T13:31:00.003-04:00

Went to UofT campus day with a pretty packed schedule, came home with a dilemma.

Chemical or Civil?

If I pick chemical, I would minor in sustainable energy and then pursue a graduate degree in nuclear engineering (or some other energy/industrial related field. Process? Pharmaceuticals?) If I choose civil, I would lean more towards the business side (minor in engineering business or get an MBA) and work as a sustainability consultant (specializing in urban planning? Or do restoration work on heritage sites, but that's less realistic). It wouldn't be hard to work as a consultant with a chemical degree, and I can focus on the facilities of a nuclear plant if I decide on civil.

Also not the end of the world if I don't choose the right one, first year courses are pretty much the same for all of engineering, so switching majors won't be toooooo hard.

Advantages of Chemical:

More theoretical / closer to fundamental sciences.
More job security
Higher pay (industrial / energy sectors)
Broader range of job opportunities / more specializations. (Though civil has a lot too)
Courses sound more fun learning about concrete/steel.

Disadvantages of Chemical:

If I do choose to work in industrial / energy sector, won't likely to be located in a major city.
Probably more competitive. This is solely based on the fact that the chemical presentation was located in a bigger room. As well, my chem mark is currently my lowest, I'll still get in, but omg it's gonna look bad "orz

Advantages of Civil:

More prepared, I did think this is what I wanted to do for 4 years.
Pretty buildings ;_;
Get to face a wider range of problems.
Can also have good job security/benefits if working for the government.

Disadvantages of Civil:

If not working for the government, job opportunities tied to construction tends which is tied to the economy. Whereas energy is always needed.
If working as consultant, will have to be good at dealing with people e_e

K gonna leave these here, revisit in December and make a decision then. Who knows what could happen in that span on time.

carbon allotropes

2011-10-27T19:28:00.000-04:00

^I ~~will~~ must do well on the next chem test. It's ridiculous how many stupid mistakes I've made in that course. Stupid doesn't even account for how severely preventable those mistakes were "orz Honestly.

But I feel better, thanks to my awesome new phone and another period of art book obsession.

We're made for each other <3 Though I do wish Siri's British voice sounded more fluid.

And if that's not enough money spending, here's two artbooks that I have my sights on.

新海誠美術作品集空の記憶 ~ The sky of the longing for memories ~
I'd have to say that I'm a bigger Shinkai fan than Ghilbi, probably since I haven't watched alot of the latter's work. Ghilbi artbooks are also harder to find @_@ Most likely going to have to order these through Amazon.cn, unless any of you know a good place in Toronto to find artbooks?

背景画集草薙 V
Mainly getting this one cause of FFX and XII's background artwook. Sighh, I wouldn't be playing video games if it weren't for these ;_;

follow/escape

2011-10-25T18:00:00.000-04:00

The stress of an English essay is terrible, mainly because I'm terrible at wording. Becoming slightly better at moving past an awkward phrasing and revising it when I'm done the entire piece.

So to catch up on life,

Tried out nail stamping for the first time, with mixed feelings.

(Camera's auto white-balance sucks, and the incandescent setting turns everything else a bit too blue.)

The first stamp (thumb) turned out beautifully, minus my little mistake of not aligning it perfectly. The subsequent fingers were pretty bad though. It was really difficult to pick up the intricate details (the dashed lines between the dots), and that's with the Konad special polish. Not sure if it's because I waited too long, or not long enough @_@" Overall I'd say it's worth it as I will never be able to consistently freehand this level of detail.

Dad brought along the rest of my Taobao order as well ;D

Love Asian snacks, om nom nom nom nom *u* I grew up eating the 3+2 crackers haha.

Pixiv Fantasia III!

There's quite a sad story behind this. Originally, I ordered two artbooks, one of pixiv (this) and one of Honey and Clover. Any one of you can guess which one I was more excited about ;_;" I was terribly disappointed when my mom didn't bring back "an artbook" when she came back from China, therefore all my hopes were pinned on the arrival of my dad. The moment we arrived home from the airport, I opened up his suitcase and scrambled to find my beloved H&C. Hmm, it's not there, slight panic. Turned to ask my parents where the second book was, and received this terrible, terribleee answer "what second book? o_o"
So to the seller of that H&C artbook, I hope you're rotting in a ditch somewhere <_<"

Anyways I'm happy with Pixiv ;D The quality of the bound isn't that great, but who cares, it's gorgeous.

...
...
...

As much as I hate cleaning, organizing stuff is a total delight.

YOU!

2011-10-20T22:19:00.000-04:00

So I postponed all work because YOU Innovate public voting started.
Is that a good idea? It will be if we win.

so please please vote for Ingeniosity at: http://yitc.e2.myreviewroom.com/vote/142/?search=weijie

Due to some weird reason, they don't actually let you see our video when you vote, so here it is :]

Vote, vote vote!

marbled

2011-10-18T21:35:00.000-04:00

10 minutes of escaping from reality.

Baked apple turned out really weird, it kinda exploded... Croissant courtesy of Philsbury.
Caramel & green tea is a great pairing. Green tea with any sweets is a great pairing <3

...
...
...

YOU Innovate video is submitted, all there left to do is bug absolutely everyone to vote on the 20th. And of course UT National.

Moro

2011-10-17T22:06:00.000-04:00

More music fillers! Two very different ones too.

Just watched Mononoke Hime, Ghilbi's works are truely beautiful :'D It made my decently bad day all better.

Gonna try to buy all of them on Bluray once I go back to China this summer *u*

Newest study music. The beat is so motivating haha, plus a hint of nostalgia of playing "Video Killed the Radio Star" on DDR.

All ready to slave over YOU Innovate video and English essay. kmn "orz

p.s. Concord grapes are awesomely awesome.

cross dot

2011-10-13T22:07:00.001-04:00

I notice that I've been posting up music due to the lack of other content. Life revolves around getting into university, which revolves around school and extracurriculars, and with hopefully adequate sleep mixed in.

But today was especially nice.

Doing pages upon pages of math review paid off. I think I did well on the test. If advance functions is not messed up, then early acceptance chances are not messed up. Unless of course English is.
Nerdy jokes are hilarious hahaaa. This is courtesy of my physics teacher, regarding vector multiplication:
What do you get when you cross a chicken and a turkey? (highlight below)
chicken turkey sinθ.
What do you get when you cross a chicken and a mountain climber?
You can't cross a vector with a scalar!
And one more video game related one from the comments left on Dark Souls:
A: sigh I've been here for way too many hours trying to record the map, I have no life.
B: What do you mean, you play video games, you have plenty of lives!
Caught up with Big Bang Theory. That was a great half an hour.

And now to tackle English essay, so going to fall any in-class writing assignments "orz

Pretend like there's no world outside

2011-10-11T22:46:00.002-04:00

Woah, I've had this song for a long time haha. Alex sent it to me way back in grade 8? Wish I could have a morning like this, guess I'd have to wait for extracurriculars to slow down when December rolls around. Can't you see that it's just raining?Ain't no need to go outside...Baby, you hardly even noticeWhen I try to show you thisSong is meant to keep youFrom doing what you're supposed to.Waking up too earlyMaybe we can sleep inI'll make you banana pancakesPretend like it's the weekend nowAnd we could pretend it all the timeCan't you see that it's just raining?Ain't no need to go outsideBut just maybe, laka ukuleleMommy made a babyReally don't mind the breakfast'cause you're my little ladyLady, lady, love me'cause I love to lay here lazyWe could close the curtainsPretend like there's no world outsideAnd we could pretend it all the timeCan't you see that it's just raining?Ain't no need to go outsideAin't no need, ain't no need, mmm, mmm,Can't you see, can't you see?Rain all day, rain all night.The telephone is singingRingingIt's too earlyDon't pick it upWe don't need to we got everythingWe need right hereAnd everything we need is enoughJust so easyWhen the whole world fits inside of your armsDon't really need to pay attention to the alarmWake up slow, yeah, wake up slowBaby, you hardly even noticeWhen I try to show you thisSong is meant to keep yaFrom doing what your supposed toWaking up too earlyMaybe we can sleep inI'll make you banana pancakesPretend like it's the weekend nowAnd we could pretend it all the timeCan't you see that it's just raining?Ain't no need to go outsideAin't no need, ain't no needRain all day and I really really, really don't mindCan't you see, can't you see?You gotta wake up slow

452

2011-10-10T20:57:00.001-04:00

Good study music :]
Even if I have absolutely no idea what the song is about.
用ってなに?久しぶりじゃん♪
どうしたの急に?なんか相談?
相変わらずだね♪元気そうじゃん♪
そういや見たよ♪こないだの新歓♪

クラス替えしてから顔見なくなったから
嬉しかったな♪踊ってる姿♪
あれで増えたでしょ?入部希望者
いやマジウケてた女バスが一番

でどうよ最近?新しいクラスメート
部活ばっかでやっぱ馴染めねぇと?
そっかそりゃ悩むわ~っw なんとかせんと!
って違うの?なに?仲良くやってんの?

じゃあなに?なんかあるかな?
あ、分った!テーピングの巻き方?
あ、それだったらサッカー部のオレが教え…

違うの…

好きなの… 好きでしかたないの… 痛いくらい好きなの… ホントに大好きなの…

好きって…あ、分ったよ!斎藤でしょ!?
そっか♪あいつはマジで最高だよ!
サッカー部じゃあ、ほら司令塔じゃん?
信頼厚いボランチでゴール前へのパス!

マジ!ハンパない精度!ホレるわそりゃ!
男のオレもカッケー!と思うし!
チョーお勧め!チョーイイ奴!って大丈夫!いねぇよ彼女!

あいつホントにサッカーバカだし!
好きな女なんてゼッテいねし!
気さくだから女子ともよくしゃべってっけどみなただ友達だし

で、どうする?告る?いま呼ぶ?それか…
それとなくオレ探っとく?任して!
幼なじみのよしみでオレがキョ…キョ…キョ…協力?

違うから聞いて!

好きなの… たっくんが好きなの… 黙ってたんだけど… ずっと好きだったの…
好きなの… 夜も眠れないの… 友達じゃダメなの… たっくんが大好きなの…

静かな放課後… 高鳴る鼓動… いつものバスケットコート…
今日は二人だけ…長く伸びた影… コートの神様…時間を止めて…

好きなの…(え?マジ?やべーって何それ?)
涙が出そうだよ…(ってかほんとマジでオレ?)
ホントに…ずっと…ずっと…(って泣くなって…落ち着け…)
たっくんが好きなの…(いや、オレが落ち着け!頭整理せい!ちゃんとしっかりせい!)

好きなの… 好きでしかたないの… 痛いくらい好きなの… ホントに大好きなの…
好きなの… 夜も眠れないの… 友達じゃダメなの… たっくんが大好きなの…

Who is John Molson

2011-10-09T15:59:00.001-04:00

^the answer to "who is the first Canadian to build a steamboat, but is more famous for his beverages?"

That question cause my team to tie with another school for Engineering Jeopardy, an event at the Mcmaster Science Olympics. We went into 6 rounds of tie-breaker, and finally to sudden death, which we emerged barely victorious. Although we got the first in our block, our overall score was pretty low and didn't end up getting a place.

The science olympic was really fun :]

My events were in the morning, so I had the rest of the day free to explore the campus. Went to a chemistry demonstration, which are always cool and guaranteed to have liquid nitrogen >D The professor made a silver coated cola bottle that I really wanted T_T I knew the answer to the giveaway question too! My rationalization is that because the guy in front of me and I both raised our hands, the prof thought it would be confusing if he picked one of us, so to be safe, he picked some guy at the front. *pout*

After the demo I grabbed Janice and headed to lunch. Went to Key Bistro due to the strong recommendation of a friend and a random Mac student that we asked for directions from.

Very glad that I listened to them :] The portions are HUGEE! Janice's pizza was larger than the plate itself. A single plate could have easily been split into lunch and dinner, good value haha.

Was so tired by the time we were heading home, 5:30am wake up is pretty brutal XD Overall a fun experience. Can't wait for the other science olympics!

distance*force

2011-10-08T11:58:00.001-04:00

You know something is causing you stress when it starts appearing in your dreams "orz

sigh scholarships & the extracurriculars that I took because of them. The fun and motivation diminishes proportionally to the amount of other work you have.

To be perfectly honest, I did waste quite some hours cause of the iPhone 4S. Some hours include the 3 that I spent yesterday looking for a case for it. That was not a good use of time. At least I was successful at stopping myself from researching apps, which could have easily consumed another evening.

Anyways! Still have yet to make my final of the Ingeniosity ft. Half Full, coffee break ver. But look at Sarah & Maggie's! Aren't they cute? ;D

Here's my prototype, I promise it will look a millions times better.

I have been making daily upgrades on the tumblr though! ;D Go check that out, especially this video and the Epik High Coffee song hahaa xD

visionary genius

2011-10-05T22:19:00.001-04:00

Steve Jobs passed away.

The irony of my iPhone 4s post precedes this is saddening.

To use this occasion for my advantage, we published Ingeniosity's FB page! This is part of my team's entry to the YOU innovate video scholarship. The challenge is to create value out of an ordinary household object, this year being the coffee cup, and document the process in a video. We'll be filming this weekend so stay tuned :]
(and please like the page & later the video.)

pomme

2011-10-04T17:20:00.000-04:00

10 days.
The wait is almost over. I can almost feel it in my hands.

iPhone 4S will be out on the 14th!
Super duper happy *u* especially since the while model is available from the start.

Just to be prepared, any app suggestions?

(in case that didn't impress you, here's an awesome printer.

SWYP: See What You Print from Artefact on Vimeo.

via thenextweb
)

guava juice

2011-10-02T15:30:00.000-04:00

Went on a downtown date with Jason in abnormally cold early October weather for his birthday celebration.

But first we had a score to settle.

Obviously I better at billiards, but he won't admit that until I defeated him 2-1. Had an awesome 4 ball streak in the second game *u*

Still had a while till Guu opened, so we went shopping at Eatons. Guys, with a few exceptions, are indefinitely faster than girls when it comes to purchasing decisions. We managed to go through Eatons in a bit more than an hour, compared to 3 or 4 that would have taken me if I went with girl friends.

Finally 4 rolled around, and as warned by Rui to arrive close to opening time, we made our way to Guu. I was overconfident in my memory of its address and realized 10 minutes later that we made a wrong turn. Had to call Janice several times to locate the restaurant, which in my defense, is quite hard to spot from the road. All this could have been avoided if the iPhone 5 came out earlier (press con is in 2 days, whoo!).

Anyways!
Upon walking through the door, customers are greeted by a chorus of "welcome!"

The interior the beautiful. Love the exposed light bulbs soooo much.

But what matters the most is the food of course.

Ramune, Baby Lulu (melon/guava virgin cocktail), and sashimi. The fish was quite good, but still not worth it's $8 price tag T_T

Gyu Shabu Salad. My favourite dish of the evening, reminiscent of kbbq beef wrapped in cabbage.

Unagi for Jason. The rice was pretty good, the cheese in it compliments it surprisingly well.

Takoyaki. Probably not the best place to order this as it came out to $1 per piece.

Grilled Saba. It was a tad salty, should have went with the cod.

It's pretty pricy, most dishes are around $7-9, which can add up really quickly. The portions are quite small too, which is to be expected as Guu is an izakaya. Overall it makes a great place to eat for special occasions.

It was still early when we finished, so we met up with Rui and the rest of the Nuit Blanche volunteers. Ended up hanging out at South of Temperance thanks to their privileges *u* Didn't end up going to the actual exhibits though, thanks to the bitterly cold weather. Retreated home and studied instead, bummer.

green ribbon

2011-09-29T23:01:00.000-04:00

If there's one thing that I enjoy doing and is pretty good at, it's gift wrapping.

Pretty proud of how this turned out :]
(I doubt Jason follows my blog and he's asleep by now~)

photonic

2011-09-27T19:05:00.001-04:00

The first month of school is always a busy time. Schedule starts to relax around mid October as initial motivation runs out. But will pick up yet again in late November as university applications becomes available.

A quick check in with marks:
math is doing well (100/100/97).
physics could be better (94/unknown).
chem definitely can be better, stupid inequality signs -o-" (70, only quiz mark though).
earth&space science has the most ambiguously worded test ever(unknown/unknown).
English all depends on current assignment and quiz this Thursday.
Tech can only hover around 95, but gonna put more effort in my drawings.

and now back to these

financial management

2011-09-26T22:07:00.001-04:00

Extracurricular is srs buziness.

情字何解怎落笔都不对

2011-09-24T17:31:00.000-04:00

Study drink is tea/earl grey latte (out of milk and yet to find vanilla syrup).
Study songs are either instrumental or Jay Chou.
I am so slow at writing, English will be the death of me.

Distinctly remember posting this up before, but couldn't find it. Always worth a second mention though ;D

兰亭序 周杰伦

兰亭临帖 行书如行云流水  
月下门棰 心细如你脚步碎  
忙不迭 千年碑易拓 却难拓你的美  
剩几阕 真心能给谁  
  
牧笛横吹 黄酒小菜有几碟  
夕阳余晖 如你的羞怯似醉  
我本已写 而墨香不退淤泥都有余味  
一竿朱砂 到底揭了谁  

无花风月 我提取的泥灰  
悬笔欲绝 那岸边浪千叠  
情字何解 怎落笔都不对  
而我独缺 你一生的了解  
无花风月 我提取的泥灰  
悬笔欲绝 那岸边浪千叠  
情字何解 怎落笔都不对  
而我独缺 你一生的了解  

弹指岁月 轻唱清歌净延绵  
青丝半截 回眸一笑你婉约  
恨了美 你摇铜镜叹 谁让你蹙秀眉  
而声回 徒留胭脂味  

人雁南飞 转身欲别离溅泪  
菊已八月 收揽回忆怎么睡  
又怎么会 心事密封搜刮谁睁着眼对  
落花怨蝶 你会怨着谁  

无花风月 我提取的泥灰  
悬笔欲绝 那岸边浪千叠  
情字何解 怎落笔都不对  
而我独缺 你一生的了解  

无花风月 我提取的泥灰  
手书无愧 无惧人间是非  
雨的蕉叶 又消瘦了几夜  
我等着泪 来提醒你爱谁

Feynman's Rainbow

2011-09-22T19:48:00.000-04:00

Just finished this book and want to share some of Richard Feynman's words of wisdom. Good practice jotting down inspirational passages from my leisure readings in preparation for the English IRP.

On how to stay motivated in the face of difficult problems:

I fool myself into thinking I have an extra chance. That I have something to contribute. Otherwise I may as well wait for him to do it, whoever it is.

Tried this before the math test today, got me oh so close to answering the last question.

On how to not spoil your happiness:

She taught me that one has to irrational sometimes. That doesn't men stupid, it just means that there are occasions, situations, you should think about, and others you shouldn't ... My rule is when you are unhappy, think about it. But when you're happy, don't. Why spoil it? You're probably happy for some ridiculous reason and you'd just spoil to know it.

qft.

Lastly, the book includes a quotation from Einstein that appears in Zen & Motorcycle Maintenance (which is also on my reading list):

Man tries to make himself in the fashion that suit him best, a simplified and intelligible picture of the world ... and thus to overcome it ... He makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life in order to find in this way the peace and serenity which he cannot find in the whirlpool of personal experience

optical properties

2011-09-21T19:51:00.003-04:00

I like the rain.

Rainy days make the progression of time seem slower. I do everything at a slower pace, and in between notice how pretty things are. Appreciation is nice.

It's also nice how the rain subtlety paints everything the colour of the sunset. In the duration of time from when I took this photo to typing this sentence, the sky has changed from this mauve-ish purple to a grey-ed out navy. Considered describing the colours as mixtures of watercolour paints, but I haven't touched those since the summer @_@ Also an apology as the colour in the photo is photoshop enhanced. There was a great difference in what camera picked up and my perceived reality.

And now the sky has turned into an almost-black.

ouroboros

2011-09-20T17:26:00.000-04:00

Past few days feel like an endless queue of work to be done, which is not far from reality. This is not a full fledged complaint, yet. I actually feel energized while working on the tasks (like learning about electron orbitals ;D), only realize how tired I am during the short breaks in between (like now).

Should be all goood. Schoolwork has yet to pick up, the majority of my stress is coming from scholarship applications, rather, application. Loran award, such a far shot haha. It should be a helpful process though, forces me to evaluate my accomplishments over the past few years and start a mad dash to fill up missing areas, like music. Never guessed that this day would come, but I'm going to learn some basic theory and hopefully be able to play a certain Jay Chou song on piano. Putting it out here so I can't lazy out of it.

The first month has yet to be over, woah. TV shows, fall anime season and Noblesse arc 3 is starting, distractions are all set in place, time to start working ;D

edit: and for even more distraction, I've revived my tumblr. For efficient work, I need as good quality material to browse through on break as the work I'm trying to produce. Hopefully there will be some sort of theme to my postings on there as well.

honeysuckle buds

2011-09-17T17:40:00.000-04:00

Out goes summer and in comes autumn.

Autumn brings some pretty wonderful things with it, like cozy sweaters, rustic soup, roasted meat, long knit scarfs, and hiding under thick duvets. But one of the best things about the cooling temperature is the feeling of holding a steaming cup of tea in your hands. Whether it's traditional Chinese tea in a terracotta mug, earl grey latte from starbucks (must learn to make this at home!),
or this awesome package designed bagged tea:

via: yankodesign.com

starry skies

2011-09-15T21:35:00.002-04:00

This week was a cycle of feeling incompetent and motivated, hopefully it'll stay on the high. Scholarship applications will drain a lot of energy, it's a battle of willpower fought with essays and accomplishment lists.

Completely unrelated, brief anime talk.

No. 6 just ended. Last episode was majorly rushed, so many different emotions in the span of mere minutes. Overall I found the series quite enjoyable, especially since Sion, the main character, is actually capable.

Now to wait for Hanasaku Iroha's bonbori festival~

slumber

2011-09-14T22:05:00.001-04:00

I vaguely remember setting a goal to sleep more years ago. Guess what, I've finally gotten around to it! ;D It took a painful combination of shad sleep deprivation, grueling internship hours, and the fact that Jason sleeps so darn early.

Well kind of. I kick myself off the computer earlier enough to be able to turn off the lights before 11:00pm (note the sig figs). However I usually squeeze my daily reading time in there and end up sleeping at 11:30pm, which is still half an hour earlier. Nice.

Two good things come out from this habit change.
Firstly, despite waking up still being equally painful, at least I stay awake once I do wake up. No more dozing off in class! This is partially helped by having a highly energetic physics teacher in the morning.
Secondly, more reading done! This, like almost every other thought in this entry, comes with an exception. The Hamlet study guides that I borrowed before summer even ended have yet to be opened. Going through other books though! Currently have a biography on Richard Feynman and one in which Stephan Hawking and Roger Penrose argues about the nature of space-time. Appropriate as I wrote on my physics introduction assignment that I hope this course helps me understand popular science better.

Also appropriate is this awesome math doodle video that Ryan showed me:

bayonnaise

2011-09-12T22:09:00.000-04:00

Happy Mid Autumn Festival :]

Funny how my family decided to celebrate by eating out at Le Montmartre, a French restaurant, with some family friends, their idea haha.

Fresh flowers! The restaurant is pretty plain from the outside, but the interior is quite nice. Bonus points for the owner, who's actually french, being personally present. Our waiter is also quite good, a pleasant break from dealing with other much less than professional and full of attitude service personnel.

Anyways, all that would amount to nothing if the restaurant's bread is not good.

T'was delicious, the perfect combination of a crusty exterior and a fluffy interior. We all liked it so much that an additional basket was brought out during the main course.
psst Rui, we gotta come here sometimes XD

Les cœurs d’artichauts vinaigrette
Decided to be adventurous and try out an unique appetizer, artichoke hearts. It was alright, a tad sour but not a bad thing in my books as I'm use to sour asian appetizers.

Sauteed grouper filet with a tomato sauce. (couldn't find this on the menu on their website o_o)

I apologize for the LQ photo, sun was setting and the light got pretty bad.
Fish was gooood, cooked to just the right tenderness. The portions of everything is just right as well, there's always more delicious bread if you feel hungry afterwards haha.

Lemon Sorbet

Something nice and light for a chaser~

the blue sky starts to change colour deeply

2011-09-11T21:41:00.000-04:00

I discovered Suneohair through Honey&Clover (Waltz was and will be my ringtone forever and ever), though more of you might know him by Arakawa (ed 1&2). Regardless he is awesome and deserve to be known more ;D

(translations here)
すれ違うばかりの通りに
響かない乾いた声
ちょうどノイズと無音の真中
そんな感じ

並んだ影は
混ざり合ってるけど
染みこむように薄らいで
消えてる

思うよりも早く世界はまわってる
急がなきゃこのままここで
ぼやいてる時間も無いさ

知らない誰かの噂で
気づけば踏み場も無いほど
それでも夕暮れ色づいて
優しく包んでみせる

高い鉄塔の上に吹いてる
遠くから来る風に
飛んで行きたいな

すごいスピードで
瞬きも出来ずに
まるで時間は止まってる
間違い無く動いている

思うよりも遥か
遠くに霞んでる
昨日を思うよりも
すぐに明日がやってくる

ああ君はどんな空を見てるだろう
すれ違い紛れてく中に一人
そうどこで何を考えてるだろう
空は青く深く色を変えてゆくさ

そう僕らが思うよりも早く
世界はまわってる
急がなきゃこのままで
止まってもいられないな

すごいスピードで
瞬きも出来ずに
まるで時間は止まってる
間違い無く動いている

ああ君はどんな空を見てるだろう
すれ違い紛れてく中に一人
そうどこで何を考えてるだろう
空は青く深く色を変えてゆくさ

4U

2011-09-10T22:10:00.000-04:00

First week of grade 12 has gone by and I have not made a post about the subject. Bit of a problem as I had the plans to document my struggles and triumph as the end of my highschool days approach.

So far it hasn't been as busy as I anticipated, mostly because Advance Functions is barely past review stages. Still doing my homework diligently ;D One improvement over the previous years is that I'm not skipping over questions in which my answer doesn't match the textbooks. My hypothesis is that if I check homework more carefully, I will be able to do so on tests and avoid getting marks off from negative signs.

Clubs have yet to pick up either. Planning to dramatically concentrate my efforts this year in Engineering Club and WCC. I will, for sure, not have useless meetings in engineering and have more in club events (shad being the inspirations for a lot of them, thank you so much for sunday engineering challenges).

Speaking of shad (and I will be continuing to talk about that for soooo long to come, it's actually really close to a life changing experience that I'm only beginning to truly appreciate), I really miss being in a room where every single person tries to make the most of out of whatever's currently happening. The positivity really feeds off one another, I remember people going to their 3rd choice seminars and coming back the very least not bored. Heck I even paid full attention in biology focused lectures which I would otherwise just tune out at school. Though attention is not a concern this year as 7/8 courses are electives which I'm interested in.
I've gone off topic, the reason why I brought this up is because in shad (reason why my house group had so much conflict), or even enriched English last year, it doesn't feel awkward raising your hand and talking all the time. But in the science classes that I really like and want to ramble on and on in, I'm thinking "how many questions should go by before it's not awkward again to answer". As my current English would say, it's not students fault but rather the education system etc etc etc (this is a whole discussion for another day).

...blah don't think the above paragraph is an accurate representation of what I have in my head. This is another really big problem, I have trouble expressing myself when it comes to my opinions. Perhaps this is how my impression of uncaring formed to Alex, maybe I subconsciously avoid having to express opinions. Problem acknowledged and will work towards problem fixed.

go second week gooooo.

17 years

2011-09-08T17:59:00.000-04:00

So the year has revolved again to the day of my birth.
The specialness wears off bit by bit every time haha. It's still loads of fun celebrating with friends&family, and using it as leverage against them ;D

And so, since it is my birthday today, I ask thee to listen to this awesome and ridiculously catchy song about physics ;D
(Jason told me to do something fun rather than chem hmwrk, so blame him)

and also listen to Richard Feynman (maaaaajor contribution to physics) talk!

this summer

2011-09-05T16:46:00.000-04:00

So what do I do on the last day of summer vacation? Anticipate Final Fantasy Versus XIII.The song is fantastic *u*
Shall lessen the pains of waiting with XIII and XIII-2 (which you will get right Sean? ;D).

In more productive terms, I'm all ready for school in terms of supplies.Tis the year of sticky notes and quality writing instruments (in which the lazy me has resorted to Staedler and Sakura fine liners).

shopping ban until boxing day

2011-09-04T16:15:00.001-04:00

^don't think that's toooo unrealistic.

Recent damages:
From PMall trip/two people shad reunion with Cynthia ;D

Totoro bag for school! A surprisingly good find from Smart Maple. It's roomy, shows an aspect of my interests, and durable enough to survive me launching it across the hallway :]
The folder has a panda AND four leaf clover, how could I say no?

From a highly productive shopping trip with my mom. It's so much more relaxing shopping with parents haha.

Thick grey cardigan from Zara, think red cardigan from Esprit (could have gotten a cheaper one from Zara as well...), tights from Smart Set, and shorts from AE (40% off yuhhh).

I realized the majority of the items are grey. This is not helping my predominately black & white clothing, which perhaps can be an excuse for some colourful scarf shopping (after boxing day of course).

Desert boots from Aldo.
Was deciding between these or combat boots, decided on the latter but ended up with the former. Productive.
Anyways I loveeeee them ;D The heel provide a nice height boost while being low enough that it feels like walking with a flat shoe. Been wanting a pair of suede shoes for a while too, they look and feel very nice. Only downside is that the material is extremely high maintenance, this baby isn't going anywhere near rough weather conditions. Though it's good practice for me to take care of my stuff for the day in the distant future that I have enough discretionary income to purchase luxury goods.

Researcher1

2011-09-02T13:20:00.001-04:00

The last day of internship started off beautifully with a seemingly molten sun peaking over the horizon.
Going to miss watching the sunrise every morning.

The day was a perfectly normal day, going through resumes on Monster and digging through LinkedIn for the darn lead roles. Been working on those roles for well over a week and I can swear that I've gone through almost every civil engineer with mining experience in North America. Alas I still couldn't find a good fit for the position.

Although the tasks I do aren't the most exciting, I did learn soooo much about resume writing. It pains me so much having to read through and extract information from badly formatted and worded resumes. Please don't be one of those people, I have to read through them, but your hiring manager will just toss it right out.
So as a reminder to us all, here are what you should never ever do.

Not stating what you are within the first few lines. Never should anyone have to figure out what your profession/job title is. I'd even put it in close proximity to my name.
Not having a 'Summary of Qualifications'. Cannot stress enough about having keywords that match the job description. It's likely that the HR personnel have a) a program that filters by keywords and b)hundreds of applications that s/he needs to quickly determine if one is a good fit or not. If anything, this shows that you carefully looked over the job posting and personalized your resume for it.
Not formatting. There's really no excuse for this, there's millions of downloadable templates for word.
(ties in with the above) Long paragraphs of text. No one wants to, and so will not, read that. I personally find the best combination if you have a lot to say is to have a sentence or two describing what you role was/what the project was about, followed by specific accomplishments in point form.
Irrelevant experiences. But don't have long missing periods of time either. Let's use an example that I see often: a professional immigrant spent a few years doing odd jobs while getting his/her license in Canada. A good solution that I've seen for these cases is to first have a section listing ALL of your experiences, but with only title, place of employment, and year. Following that is the section with the actual details of what you did/etc. for those relevant experiences.
Using empty words, aka filler sentences that really says nothing. It's a waste of time and space, which are precious commodities.

A final lesson that I learned is that offices and TTCs are freakin cold. Another intern and I were in full autumn wear and still feeling the chills. A pashima is the most useful item ever.

operation SUCCESS!

2011-09-01T22:09:00.003-04:00

I am very, very happy to say that after 2 unsuccessful trips downtown, Grace and I was finally able to eat the shepherd's pie again!
Memory has slightly exaggerated how good it tastes, but it was still quite delicious :] Plus it's a hugeee portion for less than a combo at fast food restaurants!

Went to visit a family friend's office in the heart of the financial district afterwards. It has quite the view of the downtown.

Looking up Yonge St.

More towards the lakeshore.

inkling

2011-08-31T19:26:00.001-04:00

Here's Wacom's new insanely awesome tablet (that I desperately want)to distract you guys while I write a round-up for my internship experience.

another video distraction as i probably wont be writing it anytime soon. Laziness is setting in before school even starts @_@

Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds from Western Australia from Colin Legg on Vimeo.

A Fairytale For The Demon Lord

2011-08-30T18:54:00.006-04:00

read here

I get the feeling this is going to turn into another Ares.
Mainly in terms of scanlation speed, but also hopefully in terms of awesomeness.

amazin'

2011-08-29T19:15:00.005-04:00

Later addition:

(dunno why formatting is screwed up, I apologize)
This is also amazin' & what I want to do with my life. No, not appear on TEDtalk though that'd be cool, but to design sustainable cities :] If that doesn't work out, there's always the heavy industries to fall back upon with twice the pay xD
Anyways,

Attending Shad and the internship afterwards has easily made this summer one of the most memorable, not to mention productive, ever. What better way to reminisce about all the events than the official shad blogs? :]
Today is my internship blog day and you deserve to hear more my experience than just complaints about sleep deprivation.

Just as four weeks of Shad went by in a flash, so did my four weeks of internship. As I'm finally use to waking up at the crack of dawn, suffering though the morning commute, and learning the countless three letter acronyms in the field of engineering, it's time to say goodbye.

My placement is at Cronos Consulting Group, a small search firm that specializes in the fields of science and engineering. The office is a very open environment, in fact, I remember being told on the first day to ask lots of questions, provide feedback, and especially to eavesdrop on the senior consultants conversations. Everyone is very outgoing and chatting with them over lunch is always a highlight of my day. However, my favourite part is the little wrap-up meeting we do before we all depart for home. Someone, usually my supervisor Afifa, reads an interesting piece of news article and we, as a team, discuss how it affects us as a business. It's like a leveled-up, way more awesome version of all those critical reading exercises that we do in school. Through these discussions, I learned about the field of engineering and how it interplays with politics and the economy.

My role at Cronos is to assist the senior consultants by scavenging the internet and finding appropriate talents with experiences relevant to each of our client's requirements. It's a lot harder than it sounds. This is my first "real" exposure to the engineering industry, and as I've mentioned, the jargons and technical terms sound like a foreign language! I&C, PLC, DCS, LCA, CFD, FEA, P&ID, PFD, LNG, that's just a sample of the more frequently used ones. I also had to be clever with my search terms and methods, luckily my supervisor provided me with sheets upon sheets of reference material. The task is also as rewarding as it is challenging, I've developed many transferable skills that will inevitably carry onto other areas of my life, such as knowing how to write a killer resume. In addition, having read through countless other successful engineer's experiences, I've developed a better idea of how to achieve my own career goals. Aside from my routine work, I was also assigned a special research project to do on next generation biofuels. It was tons of fun and the perfect chance to apply the research skills that I've accumulated over the month.

As I finish my second last day, I'd like to again thank everyone at Cronos, especially Afifa, Aliya, and Adam, for all the patient help and feedback they provided. Also thank you Shad Valley for connecting me to Cronos and making my 2011 summer one that I will never forget.

Read about the rest of placements over at the blog! I went through all the entries and couldn't believe how much shads were placed at Cronos' clients.

And entry about the actual program:

The topics of the day were Engineering and Medical Device Development. Both were extremely interesting and helpful as this year's project theme is designing a product for disabled Canadian children. The involvement of the amazing Spiderman in demonstrating the concepts of engineering was, well, amazing.

Rec time consisted of an intense game of ultimate frisbee. All the Shads got deeply involved in the game instantly, bringing out their competitive spirits.

In afternoon seminar, we were introduced to the principles of project management. A challenge of planning and building a tower from various office supplies was assigned. After much deliberation, my group finally triumphed(ish). Although I'm not sure how much of the principles I will remember, the activity definitely foreshadowed the challenges to come in our House projects.

Speaking of which, today I was particularly surprised at how productive House time was. My group had our fair share of debates during brainstorming sessions, but we managed to come up with several ideas to conduct further research on. It is going to be a challenging month ahead, but I'm sure that it will be an experience that we will all remember.

Again, posts from the rest of the shads over at the official blog.

假装出一个不舍的模样

2011-08-27T20:17:00.003-04:00

没话讲我们互相在假装
你的电话还在响
下一场什么人约你去了什么地方

我喜欢用眼睛说谎
单纯善良的模样
这是我掩饰流血和受伤最好的红装

你说过让我成为你唯一的肩膀
可是我和前面的一二三四一样
你很忙总没时间来理我
现场编出的借口却漂亮

你说过想要跟我去任何的地方
可是你还是选择自由自在飞翔
能不能有一点点的哀伤
假装出一个不舍的模样

你在我的身旁化妆
超短裙撩人的模样
有点稍刺鼻的芳香
调皮的问我你今天漂不漂亮

车窗里的谁在等
和你的朋友不太像
我微笑着送你出门
然后对自己说谎

没话讲我们互相在假装
你的电话还在响
下一场什么人约你去了什么地方

我喜欢用眼睛说谎
单纯善良的模样
这是我掩饰流血和受伤最好的红装

没话讲我们互相在假装
你的电话还在响
下一场什么人约你去了什么地方
我喜欢用眼睛说谎
单纯善良的模样
这是我掩饰流血和受伤最好的红装

swirlings

2011-08-26T16:07:00.003-04:00

SEO would hate my titles, they're short and often unrelated & uninformative xD

Why am I sitting in a terrible posture at home instead of the shad reunion downtown? Summer cold. Why u no strike any other daaay T_T" Wanna be endlessly walking around eaton while catching up and then pigging out at kbbq, graaaaah. Instead I'm trying to ignore the pain in my head and the box of tissue that's half empty already.

Of course NASA posts an awesome video and I forget my unfortunate situation for 25 seconds.

To quote one commenter (who isn't trolling, stupid, or raging): black holes take om nom nom to a whole other level".

...
...
...

p.s. Redundantly fixed the issue of being difficult to get back to homepage after commenting. Now the comment box pops up and there's a beautiful button on the sidebar that would gladly direct you back.

clover

2011-08-24T18:10:00.003-04:00

Decided that 3-column was getting a bit crammed, so back to basics I go. Believe this is the most white space I've ever had (once you scroll past the sidebar).

Also easier to integrate into a secret project that Rui and I will eventually bring into existence. Not being negative while brainstorming is so hard e_e" must remember that venture capitalists will rather invest in a solid team than a solid idea.

sporadic

2011-08-23T21:39:00.002-04:00

My mom's Epiphyllum flowered, she is very proud. It's edible too ;D

summer

2011-08-21T20:56:00.004-04:00

looking at this

lush strokes of summer rain by Verne Busby

while listening to this.
^saving these moments for the long canadian winter.

What is a Parent?

2011-08-20T20:59:00.005-04:00

Two events today reminded me about the English summative last year. First being borrowing some Hamlet study guides from the library. Second being family friend coming over and discussing about sets of infinities (Cantor slash is sooo genius). Despite all the agony about writing it as a canon, it turned out pretty well. Thought I'd share it as school is starting soon xD

It is October 6^th, 1975 and Albert Einstein is at the Munich airport first class lounge waiting for his flight to Copenhagen. He is glancing over the current newspaper while sipping a mug of steaming tea. He has been sitting there alone for a few hours due to a flight delay. The door opens and Niels Bohr walks in, also carrying a mug of tea.

Einstein: (looks up) Good day fellow traveler, has the delay affected you too?

Bohr: Good day to you too. Yes it has indeed. I’m thankful that I have finally found the lounge, otherwise I’d likely still be pacing around in the boarding area.

Einstein: How inconvenient! Have there been any updates?

Bohr: I’m afraid not, there is always much uncertainty surrounding flight delays.

Einstein: (mutters to himself) sigh, always uncertainties.

Bohr: (continuing) Is that earl grey tea you are sipping?

Einstein: Haha yes. I always see a dear friend of mine drinking it and now it has become a habit of mine as well. Are you also heading to Copenhagen?

Bohr: Of course, going back to my birthtown you see. It’s been quite a long while since I last set foot there. How about you, what business might you have there?

Einstein: I’m actually paying a visit to my friend’s place of study, the one that I just mentioned. It’s actually the 90^th anniversary of his birth tomorrow.

Bohr: Might…might the place you’re referring to be the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the university?

Einstein: Why certainly, you know of Niels Bohr too?

Bohr: (chuckles) Believe it or not, I AM Niels Bohr.

Einstein: (gasp) I haven’t seen-

Bohr: (cuts Einstein off) Wait, how did you know that I like earl grey as well? (longer pause) My goodness, Albert?

Einstein: Niels! This is certainly an interesting turn of events. It is quite unbelievable that we would meet again just as I am about to visit your institute. I would have never dreamed of, though I am certainly glad to see you.

Bohr: It is great meeting you again Albert! I would have likely never recognized you without your distinct haircut. Oh I have sorely missed you! Though you haven’t changed much in all these years, still so certain about everything haha. I’m telling you, for the umpteenth time, your deterministic view is not the natural way.

Einstein: Oh please, let’s not start this again. Without such resolve, I certainly would not have been able to accomplish everything that I did. Oh, you must have heard that the university has named the institute after you?

Bohr: Yes haha, it’s too great of an honor.

Einstein: Nonsense Niels, when did you become so modest! It has served as the focal point of theoretical physics research for decades. Not to mention that you certainly deserve it, your theories laid the foundation for the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics! Though I must tell you, for the umpteenth time, although the interpretation explains the perplexing experimental results, your probabilistic view is not the natural way.

Bohr: You were the one that said not to start this again. But thank you Albert, you flatter me, living a few more years sure makes a person humble. Though truly, my contributions pale in comparison to yours.

Einstein: If only you were this humble during our debates haha. You know that I respect your theories as much as I oppose their implications. They are certainly as important as mine.

Bohr: Says the man whom the public refers to as ‘the father of relativity’; they never called me the father of quantum physics! Haha, though that’s probably because there are just so many other qualified candidates, great men like Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, and Werner Heisenberg. Even yourself, dear Albert, should be considered one as well; your postulation that light consisted of individual quanta, used to explain the photoelectric effect, is what started it all!

Einstein: Well, like Newton said, ‘If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants’. I could not have viewed photons in that light without the work of all the academics of the past.

Bohr: (laughs) when did you become so clever with words too? Though I must reiterate, your insistence on the probabilistic interpretation of quantum physics being incomplete is wrong. You were fundamentally involved with its development, how can you not see the theory as a child that you have so carefully brought up?

Einstein: Hmm, surely I refine my theories as carefully as I would have brought up my children. But unlike parental love that is unconditional, I realize later that some of my theories are incorrect and I instantly disfavour them. Clearly that is conditional. Remember the cosmological constant that I added to general relativity in order for the equations to result in a static universe? Afterwards I recognized my mistake and immediately removed it.

Bohr: However, like a doting parent, you tirelessly defended your other theories. You recall when you first published your paper on the photoelectric effect and claimed that light can be quantized? Every other physicist, myself included, fervently rejected that notion. Nevertheless, you stood by your theory.

Einstein: Of course I would turn defensive if someone attacked my ideas, certainly anyone would. Besides, all of you should be thanking me for firmly standing my ground.

Bohr: Perhaps it will be easier to answer if we come up with an agreed upon definition of a parent. There are just so many possible angles that you can approach the subject with.

Einstein: It certainly would. If you think back to Newton’s quotation, I think it wonderfully describes what a parent is in the context of your question. (pauses for a while) In that sense, all the great scientists and philosophers of the past would qualify as our parents.

Bohr: They, borrowing your favourite concept, certainly would. Following that logic, a parent in this sense should be defined as the provider of guidance to you through your development, whether physical or intellectual. Therefore, I am correct in titling you a father of quantum physics.

Einstein: No, no! I must object, Niels. If a birth parent abandons his or her child, he or she has also relinquished the right to be called the child’s parent. I have already expressed my disappointment with the theory when you and Max Born declared the first quantum revolution to be over in 1927-

Bohr: (cuts Einstein off) You sure expressed it well, the line in your letter to Born saying ‘I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice’ now appears in many popular science texts.

Einstein: In which you so cleverly replied that He not only plays dice, but He throws them where we cannot see. (Pfft) As I was saying, although my theories continued to contribute to the understanding of quantum physics, as I did see potential in it, I have long diverted from the probabilistic model of the world that it, through the interpretation that you favour, implies. I have abandoned it and so should not be identified as a father of it.

Bohr: I must disagree with that refusal Albert. Haha, look what we end up arguing about even though you were certain to avoid debating around this topic.

Einstein: (sigh) Let’s shift the focus back to what constitutes a parent.

Bohr: Please, let me finish. As I was saying, you sustained your involvement in the development of it even though you deemed that the integral uncertainties in my interpretation are a sign that it only ‘grasped an important fragment of the truth’, which of course is wrong. Anyways, is this not comparable to a mother who raises a child born from accidental circumstances? The fact that she brought up the child despite the unintentional reception makes her worthy of her parental title. Ah, this reminds me of Michelangelo! He was reluctant to paint the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, but that doesn’t make him less of a painter.

Einstein: Of course it does! The will is of upmost importance. For example in football, a game I’m certain that you are familiar with, an accidental goal does not reflect as positively upon the scorer as an intended one. Though, I must admit that you do flatter me with the comparison to Michelangelo. He is certainly one of the great masters and, according to our agreed-upon definition, worthy to be considered our parent.

Bohr: This is an interesting turn of topics, please elaborate on that idea.

Einstein: Pardon my unfamiliarity with the arts, but I believe that he pioneered the Mannerist style. This fits our definition as the style served as guidelines for future artists. In addition, we have also agreed, such a rare occurrence, that the scientists of the past are, in this context, our parents.

Bohr: Haha it is rare that we agreed upon a subject. Michelangelo was indeed a leading scientist of his days, among his many other professions. He was quite a daring person too, studying human anatomy from corpses when it was banned by the Church.

Einstein: There are certainly a lot of obstacles that us scientists have to face, though I imagine it to be more difficult by magnitudes back then.

Bohr: A likely conclusion seeing that the only obstacle we’re currently facing is just an unpredictable flight delay haha. Seems like I’ve ran out of tea, excuse me for a moment. (leaves and returns with a full cup of tea) Speaking of Michelangelo, have you seen his round painting the Doni Madonna?

Einstein: Certainly I have, though I believe most people would know it by Holy Family. Why do you bring that up?

Bohr: Our discussion about parents and Michelangelo reminded me of the subject of the painting. The Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph are the caretakers of baby Jesus, and in accordance to what we’ve agreed upon, they fully qualify as parents.

Einstein: Following that logic, they would certainly qualify. Though what interest me more are the five figures in the background. There has certainly been a lot of controversy surrounding the five naked figures. Some have identified them to be Michelangelo’s statues of pagan gods. They would also constitute a parent, no?

Bohr: I suppose, as each civilization does build upon a previous. Speaking of gods, what interests me more is the true parent of baby Jesus, the Holy Father God. (pauses) I just had such an interesting thought! Pardon my unfamiliarity with religion, but I believe the Bible states that we are all children of God. Oh Albert, you’re going to hate what I’m about to say, but since God also created humans in His own image; therefore, we are our parents!

Einstein: You are right, your conclusion certainly does not sit well with me.

Bohr: (interjects) Perhaps you’ve just been sitting for too long.

Einstein: (sarcastic laugh) Very clever. Though it is certainly in your style to believe in absurdities like these. Please, let me finish. As I was saying, your argument deviates from our agreed-upon definition. You are proposing that because we are a projected image of God, whom is quoted to be our father, then we would be our parents in reality? Ridiculous! Oh Niels, you’re not going to like what I’m about to say, but we are not our parents!

Bohr: Ridiculous not! My argument does not digress from our agreed-upon definition. We do provide ourselves with guidance through our development.

Einstein: Ridiculous so! How are we to provide guidance for ourselves if we have neither insight into nor experience regarding the future?

Bohr: We hypothesize and extrapolate from our past knowledge of course. You are a theorists yourself, how else do we work!

Einstein: Our knowledge is learned from the work of our predecessors, therefore it is others that provide us guidance. Take yourself for example, your atomic model is based on the discovery of hydrogen’s spectral emission lines.

Bohr: Your reasoning is flawed, where would the first piece of knowledge come from then?

Einstein: It does not need to be another human that teaches us. Many discoveries are made by observing the great Mother Nature. Again, take Newton for example, popular account goes that it was a falling apple that inspired his theory of gravity.

Bohr: But it is Newton himself that synthesized those observations into a theory. Nature only provides the raw data, which is completely different from guiding our development.

Einstein: The data certainly guides us through our discoveries! The only way to determine whether a theory is correct or not is to check if it’s predictions matches the known data. Speaking of which, airports keep track of everything, they have massive amounts of data! How is it that the delay is still not fixed!

Bohr: I do wonder about that as well. Perhaps instead of quarrelling, we should analyze this system and devise a better method.

Einstein: Splendid idea, it certainly would be useful and would be a welcoming break from trying to unify gravity and electromagnetism.

Bohr: Oh there’s always a chance of it being more difficult.

Einstein: The probabilistic view is-

Bohr: (cuts Einstein off) We are not arguing about this for god knows how many more hours of this delay there still is.

Einstein: (under his breath) He certainly would know…

Haha, in retrospect, I feel rather silly playing puppetmaster to Bohr and Einstein and talking about their theories that I barely understand.

11-060

2011-08-15T21:23:00.004-04:00

Edit: a more practical find: Ten things every Microsoft Word user should know and Become an Excel ninja (my business teacher wasn't kidding when he said excel will get you your first job).

More wisdom from Seth Godin:

Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Found on a random guy's linkedin profile that happened to fit a search criteria that I ran at intern. I actually have a huge grin and is 'rofl'ing on the inside whenever I find something interesting, which thankfully is fairly often.

Bonus: for the engineer-wannables.

"busy busy busy"

2011-08-14T21:36:00.006-04:00

Two down on my list of five books suggested from Shad. Of the three remaining, one is about material science, another about changing the world, and the last about how right brained people will dominate the top jobs.

But for now, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and Player Piano (links to their wiki page):

Two things that I really like about both books, first is that...ugh how to describe, I'm so bad at articulating my thoughts. You know how some books are describe as "sucking the reader in"? I felt that these two stories pulled me up on a cloud and I floated through their universe. ...I come up with random analogies that I hope is an accurate representation of what I actually think/feel. Gots to work on the transfer of thoughts to words.
Anyways, second is because the endings are realistic (appears to be a common theme in books that I like xD). Guess they could count as happy endings as the character comes to a realization or acceptance of their situation, although it might be far less than ideal. "It's (what you get out of) the journey that counts not the outcomeee"

Here's an interesting analysis (at least to those who had Giardine for English) of Player Piano. It's covers everything we love in class: the hero journey, Freud, character in the book reflecting the author (Catcher in the Rye), etc. Also, the analysis mentions how the main character constantly questions his motives for wanting to rebel against the system, which is the main reason why I like the book so much. Although it was obvious that the character would rebel, the process in which Vonnegut makes the character struggle and doubt keeps the plot suspenseful, and of course, realistic. Too much manga with protagonists that are absolute in their belief/resolve xD

Lastly, I leave you the opening quotation from Cat's Cradle, a line from the book's made up religion:

Nothing in this book is true.
'Live by the foma* that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.’
The Books of Bokonon. 1:5

*Harmless untruths

orange iced tea

2011-08-13T19:17:00.003-04:00

Downtown adventure with Rui ;D

First, we spotted the mythical new TTC trains. My internship co-workers wouldn't believe it without photographic evidence.

IT LIGHTS UP! Easily impressed I am.

But onto the actual reason why we headed down, for some brunch at Utopia Cafe :]

Patio seats ;D
Weather was a tad hot though, wish the walls aren't there to block any breezes.

Rui discovered the place due to it's poutine being featured on blogto, so obviously we had to see what the hype was about:

First thought: HUGE PORTION! We each ate half of it and was already full. It is really good though, especially the fresh cheese curds that actually stretch as you pull the individual fries apart *u*

The portions for the main course is huge as well e_e

Rui's chicken and avocado burrito at the back and my breakfast burrito in the front. Om nom nom, only had room for the salad though, the actual burrito and rice are being shafted to monday and tuesday lunch. Stomach space is a more precious commodity than money xD

Pepper plant behind us ;D I suspect the jalapeno pepper in my burrito was once in those planters.

Rui's pile of leftovers. She was beast enough to finish half of the burrito.

Afterwards we headed to Orange Alert, a cafe by the AGO.

My orange iced tea on the left and Rui's blueberry lemonade on the right.
Sooooo good. They're not kidding when they say freshly squeezed, we watched in amazement at the barista juiced oranges and lemons behind the counter. I want kitchen appliances for my wedding *hinthint* xD

Nice quite environment~

and lastly, Jetpens order came! ;D

Technically only the turquoise drafting pencil is from jetpens. Rui is nice and gave me a Natto MBDM to try, and the Sakura Micron is the result from a moment of weakness at Curries~

many red cars

2011-08-11T21:31:00.004-04:00

Today is a good day. ^who gets that reference

Actually fell asleep on the TTC, so dreaded 930-1030 did not happen. This alone is enough for a good day haha.
Found future city to reside in and future university for masters program, it's backed by MIT yo. Good things come from googling random details of people's resumes.
Got praised for good tagging job at internship. It's honestly a hard task to do, I have no idea what 70% of the terms mean.
Fridaaaaay tomorrow! Aka get off at 2 and ramen afterwards *u* Awesome enough to almost break into that song.
Going to turn computer off so I can make more progress at Player Piano. Vonnecut's other book, Cat's Cradle reminds me of the reference that this post's title makes, at least in writing style and chapter structure. I hereby promise to post about the two books. Please yell at me if I don't.

edit: forgot reason 6, found this awesome webcomic: A Fairytale for a Demon Lord. I still have a soft spot for everything Norse mythology related cause of RO...but even so it's a good read!

continuing

2011-08-10T21:47:00.004-04:00

Shopping, window or not, proves to be effect at distracting myself from reality. Reality in this case being I'd have to sleep in 10 minutes to avoid the dreaded damned if I do, damned if I don't (gonna fall asleep if I stop working, gonna fall asleep if I read another line of resume) that occurs between 9:30-10:30 daily.

All items from Aritzia. I've recently started to love that store, wallet reacts by cringing in agony.

...evidence of sleep deprivation is my sudden realization that it's "flowy" and not "flowly". K off to bed.

charmed

2011-08-08T20:12:00.001-04:00

Most satisfied purchase in a long time, mostly due to the fact that I haven't been shopping T_T

Dress from Costa Blanca, charm bracelet from Fossil.
Gonna buy a new charm each year, the bracelet will be full once I graduate from university ;D

Fossil, by the way, is my absolute favourite accessory store. Brought Sarah and Patricia there, now all three of our wallets will bleed ;D I was a hair width away from snatching this from the shelves and running away. coughbirthdayiscomingsoonhopemoneymagicallyappearscough. I kid, maybe. Doesn't help the fact that I've wanted a portfolio/envelope clutch for the longest time, sighhhh.

Let this be motivation to find a job once summer is over.

熟悉的侧脸

2011-08-07T21:27:00.002-04:00

I would have a haul post up, but feeling extremely lazy atm.

那时我放开你的手
转过身只剩了保重
你话都没说却哭了很久很久
我喜欢坏坏的女友
我喜欢刺激的感受
你单纯太过多余了那些温柔

你消失在无名大街
从此就没有再见面
好长的时间再没有你的来电
在后来酒吧的房间
舞池里跳动着音乐
熟悉的侧脸喂

迷人的笑脸吸引视线
慵懒的靠在陌生的肩
黑色的眼线你的指间
有一点轻蔑

在谁的怀中会有感觉
被爱的深夜我在想念
明明是为你才会改变
却回不到从前

然后我安静的发现
两个人已经没有任何语言
曾经你纯真的永远
让我不顾一切开始怀念

sparkle

2011-08-04T19:04:00.002-04:00

My first impression of the area while waiting for the bus to arrive:
The houses around Royal York station look like they leaped straight out from a classic fairy tale. I'd expect some poor princess exiled from her kingdom by an evil witch living in one of those houses waiting for a prince charming to come through the surrounding trees on a white horse *u*
Must be the combination of luscious gardens and wooden accents on the facade. Bet they're cheaper than downtown condos too T_T

Think I'm quite fortunate to have my placement at a small company. They give me sooo much to do, there's some task to be done literally every minute. Two benefit of this include that I gain a lot more experience and that I don't fall asleep. Getting better at the latter.

Off to friday! The day everyone looks forward to cause we get off at 2pm~
Also excited for saturday, meeting with 2 other shads, Sarah and Patricia, for shopping&dinner date. Can't wait till bigger reunion later in the month!

Karmatic

Q is for heat

brogue

Continuity

nami

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

metaphors

vincere

happy lunar new year!

"DONT PANIC"

spins

rosemary hill

king of a nutshell

arrow of time

6-3b-a / 7

multiple choice

log

天天向上

camel paper

2012 goals

hindsight 2011

under the stars

timeproof ink

holidays

t-10

essence

pastels

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

riddim

Just a dream with you and me

sharing water

equinox

Now's the time to find out why

and let there be light

UTHSDC '11

cradle

12-1

Oryx and Crake

fridge in the milk

the sheppard pie effect

relativistic

ultima

identities

babes

UN-GO

permeating wind

alert

there will be time

eye of the beholder

milestone

Crunch

M9-P

post secondary

carbon allotropes

follow/escape

YOU!

marbled

Moro

cross dot

Pretend like there's no world outside

452

Who is John Molson

distance*force

visionary genius

pomme

guava juice

green ribbon

photonic

financial management

情字何解 怎落笔都不对

Feynman's Rainbow

optical properties

ouroboros

honeysuckle buds

starry skies

slumber

bayonnaise

the blue sky starts to change colour deeply

4U

17 years

情字何解怎落笔都不对