Science Expo

Fun day at the conference yesterday :)


It's obviously going to be good if the freebie pens are stacked up in a tower. 

The keynote speakers were cool, the first was Nicholas Schiefer, national science fair winner, TEDxToronto speaker and shad friend of one of the conference organizers. He talked about how planning should be done in moderation (I totally needed to hear that) and that some of the best things in life results from serendipitous events, or what he calls 'happy accidents'.
The second speaker was Dr. Brad Bass, a professor at UT's center for environment. Coincidentally, he was one of the speakers that the Haig System Dynamics seminar tried to invite last year. I found his research to be almost an exact match for what I want to do if I pursue civil engineering. Some of the things he's worked on are green infrastructure design (one of which, green roofs, is now a Toronto by-law), modelling complexity, and community energy systems.

Moving on, the workshops were also pretty interesting. Got to experience pipette-ing, a daily task that my mom does.

Was pretty bad at it <_<" The dye kept leaking out of the gel durr. The instructor was amazingly fast and precise, goes to prove that practice does indeed make perfect.

The design challenge was alright, reeeally generic topic haha. More like a mix-up of two generic challenges, pasta tower and structure that protects the egg.

Our tower was really, really bad e_e" It's so badly balanced, mainly due to the marshmallow layer between the two bottom cups (wrapped by newspaper) and the badly joined central column of spaghetti in straws. Yeah I should not be a structure engineer LOL. Thank you awesome tablemates for making it work.

Though the best part of the conference is, of course, making new friends. There were many many Shads there and due to the magic of the program, it's really easy to connect with each other. There were quite a few that will be attending this year, and battles of which campus is superior ensued. Obviously I had to assert Dal's reputation of having the best food and our complete dominance at the Shad Cup >D
That aside, it was awesome meeting everyone :]

floating clouds

This will get me through studying for the physics test.

shoot, drown, hang

It's been a gooood weekend :]

Finally accomplished putting photos up on my wall. I actually feel a lot better with my shad friends and gritaly scenery overlooking me xD


Also finished reading The Architecture of Happiness, a notable quotation:

What we call a home is merely any place that succeeds in making more consistently available to us the important truths which the wider world ignores, or which our distracted and irresolute selves have trouble holding onto.

The book was alright, wasn't as captivating as his TED talks. It talks about the many aspects of what makes a building 'beautiful' and in turn how they affect the residences. To support these points, the book leans heavily on architectural theories and philosophy, perhaps I just overestimated my interest in both of the abovementioned subjects. 
Need to prioritize interests @_@

Overall, didn't get much (read: the minimum) amount of schoolwork done, oh welll. Had lots of fun and ate way too much haha. My revised list of best ice cream favours is as below:

1. Corn, can't believe so many of you never had/even heard of this. It's amaaaazing.
2. Milk, it's like vanilla, but better (read: not overly sweetened). Just got a pack today *u*
3. Green tea/red bean, they pretty much go together.
4. Chocolate, though most are too sweet. 
5. Haagen Dazs strawberry, more accurately vanilla with strawberry swirls. The cheesecake version is also delicious.
6. Maple or pralines. 

Ahh I can't wait for summer to come!
but first to get through the remaining four months of school, must maintain 95% average D<

Bokura Ga Ita

This is the most touching shojo manga I've read. (H&C conveniently falls into another category)

(a friend of mine actually really looks like Nanami xD)

Was reminded by a tumblr that I follow to catch up with this series. I'm at a loss for words except woahhh and it's really good. Perhaps I'll be able to articulate better in a short while, do you ever feel that your mind is still completely occupied by whatever you've just read/watched for a while afterwards? My phone just rang and it reeeeally scared me haha.  Final chapter....e_e" please be scanlated soon!

(It's been a good weekend, knight run daily releases and only 1 chpt left of ffxiii main storyline.)

preserve

Catch up post with various food photos ;D

At La Vecchia


Atmosphere was nice for dining (chandeliers!), complete hell for trying to photograph what you're eating though.(Tried to fix the abysmal iPhone flash in PS e_e)



Calamari Sofia
The appetizer was really good, texture of the calamari was right, taste of the sauce was right (soaked it all up with bread), and came in a very generous portion.

Had ricotta and spinach gnocchi with a creamy tomato sauce for main dish, it was alright.


Tiramisuuuu *u* The spongecake was actually soaked in espresso, unlike the asian variety. Kinda weird to eat with fruits though.

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Interlude of a telescope from a class trip to the York University Observatory. It was pretty cool, in the figurative sense, and very very cool in terms of the temperature inside the dome.



...

Back to food,

Went with Ryan to a HK cafe and stubbornly ordered dessert despite being very full off the main course.



Bread cube lolol. It was pretty good, though it alone would have sufficed for the entire meal.


And finally went to SweetLulu today. It was the restaurant that a convenience store owner recommended during City Mosaic.The food was tasty, waitress was really nice and attentive, and most importantly you get a laaaarge portion. Unfortunately there's no photos since Grace is camera shy and the one of me turned out blurry.

Queen West is a cool district haha, so many unique shops there! The original purpose of Grace and my visit is to visit The Paper Place (we're such stationary geeks xD). That store did not disappoint, they carry an insane amount of gorgeous paper *u* Ended up purchasing a sheet to turn into a book cover, and a pack of thank-you cards.
@janice: there was only one store with prom-y dresses and I was scared to go in as the dress in the window displayed cost $900 <_<" All the other clothing boutiques were intimidating too.

Wandered around some more and sat in a tea shop for the remainder of the afternoon. And now the ridiculously long act II scene ii of Hamlet e_e

therapy

Finally caught up to House again! Last few episodes are pretty good, a good dose of House messing with his team (the paintball gun and index cards, hahaha) but also lots of serious moments. Plus there's Chase eye candy *u*

The ending song for episode 12 is amazing as well, fits the event that transpired well.



Got my first acceptance from McMaster! UT would you please hurry up? e_e Doesn't it make more sense to accept me and then invite me to dinner? ;_;

dananana

Going through Monkey Majik's Best of Album, good stuffff. Thanks to Kenn for featuring them long long ago.



They sound so nice live *u*

sidereus

Waiting for the day when I can have this on a wall:



Meanwhile, derive derive.
(and figure saponification out)

12-1t

First transmission marks, whoo!
/starts the painful anticipation for early acceptance.

English - 90 (yeah I dropped 6%, let's not talk about it)
Advance Functions - 98 (didn't drop, yeeeeeee!)
Chemistry - 96 (+5, I have no idea how I pulled this off, maybe second term marks are just worth more)
Physics - 94 (+2, thank you Mr. M, I am forever grateful)
Earth and Space - 100 (+1, ahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaa oh mannnn)
----------------------------
Top 5 average: 95.6% (Y)

Architectual design: 93 (oh well, doesn't matter. Plus the max possible mark is pretty much 95)

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and looks like the god of delivery heard my prayers ;D
(forgive the bad lighting)






The text is a weee bit too close to the edge, but that's completely my fault.
I feel so pro now 8D

Today's a goooood day.

walking refrigerator

Look what came in the mail today! ;D


This provided much needed relieve from the whole bunch of work this week. Or rather, the physics lab and looming calculus test and chem lab.
(mini rant)
Sighhh, error analysis in physics is both fun and sooo frustrating at the same time. Great that I'll be doing loads of these in university. Anyways, I can't seem to think properly for this lab. Made very elementary mistakes in the first draft and just really confused myself (and others) from there on. But alas, it is near completion (and hopefully correct too)!
I really ought to get my teachers at least a thank-you note at the end of the year for putting up with me haha.

But back to the cellophane wrapped package of joy.

Moo mails a free sample of their products to anyone and anywhere (free shipping too!). The contents are as follows:



Postcards: these feel really, really nice. The only other item that outshines the postcards in paper quality are the Luxe cards. If I had a larger budget, I'd print photos on these (free double sided and printfinity, Moo's specialty that allows you to have a different image for each piece) and hang them on clothlines *u*

Minicards: I actually ordered 50 of these as personal business cards. Though they are quite small, half the height of a standard business card but less than the width. The paper, as with every item, is excellent.

Business cards: The ones printed on standard paper are slightly more rigid than the ones on 'green' paper, probably because they are laminated (matte finish).

Luxe cards: Really, really, really nice. A richer/fancier me would totally get these.


^not that great quality of a photo, watch the official video instead:



*eagerly waiting for the arrival of my minicards*

combustion

Interesting concept from theburninghouse:

If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It's a conflict between what's practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question. 

My answer:


List:

• Blanket (had this since grade 1 in America)
• Macbook (photos and Honey & Clover)
• Watch
• Keychain (useless to have keys to a burnt down house, but clover keychain!)
• Clover necklace
• Gritaly sketchbook (keeping this forever)
• Past diaries 
• The God Particle by Leon Lederman (what introduced the joy of physics to me)
• iPhone
• Pens: Sakura Micron, Pentel Graph 600, Lamy Safari. 
• Moleskine notebooks
• Past sketchbook
• Correspondents & cards from friends (read through them this afternoon, you guys are the best :])
• Trevi fountain print 
• Scarf (thank you Janice!)
• Stuffed rabbit (had this ever since I can remember)
• Fossil messenger bag (carried me my stuff through Gritaly and Shad)

Not pictured are my oxfords, those will be on my feet as I escape.

A large amount of sentimentality I decided to bring with me haha.

Tekkon kintreet

Just finished watching this. It's a visual feast.
(I also found the Nezumi and Kimura subplot to be very touching.)

Such a better use of time than doing chem. If I mess up the test I'll just rewatch the movie to feel better. Though scholarship money is on the line, hmmm, if I have a 95 average by final term I'll buy myself the artbook (along with a shinkai one *u*).

Work hard~~

ending theme:

the background art!! *u*

Q is for heat

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.