avon

Joined a photowalk with UBath's photosoc, seems like it'll be a fun club to be part of:

I was pretty conflicted over the arrangement for the last photo, I prefer this arrangement better aesthetically (mass of leaves against blank sky) and thematically (the two subjects facing away from each other). But compositionally it makes sense to switch the two image around so the curve is leading into the middle instead of away. Oh wells, my photo, my preferences.

My mom came up with a great title for this: 动与静

building your legacy

Another successful WISE conference comes to a close :)
Much thanks to our team, and then coffee. Comi-Con downstairs was pretty alright too.

Here's another song from Noel Gallagher's new album:


I really like the energy of album, which is perfect for crunch time, aka now.

warm fuzzies

I really, really miss yearbook comments.

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Had a LP team farewell dinner tonight at Ciao Wine Bar, everyone wrote some warm fuzzies on each other's cards. Now I'm in a bubble of heartwarming-ness. I'm really glad that I did YNCN, this club has the best people, both in caliber and personality. Will miss seeing their faces :(

In other news, here's dinner:

Catalyst

Happy to be invited to the Catalyst Canada Honors dinner today, it was tres inspirational as expected.
(cool fact: one of the champions was the mind behind the Dove real-beauty campaigns)

The dinner is to honor those in high level corporate positions who champion for inclusiveness.

A memorable quotation regarding how we've progressed:

The standard went from "look like a lady, act like a man, and work like a dog" to "look however you want, act like yourself, and work like a dog". The last part is hard to get rid off.

Or as Alex says, "hustle is universal"

But the main take away is how these people are using their influence to provide opportunities for others to advance. Things to think about:

• How to best be a mentor?
• Generate dialog amongst everyone, men and women, minorities, about inclusion. 
• What impact do I want to have?
• Get these people as speakers for the WISE conference haha.

super plasticizer

Today was eventful:

First time experiencing cast day, late concrete truck made everything more hectic. Did USPV testing on concrete in the afternoon. Conclusion: the material labs were helpful! Unsure whether I got more concrete on my pants or more Vaseline on my hands.

Finally secured housing for next year! So relieved and excited. Finding a "good" (which in my definition is spacious kitchen and bright room) place to live that's affordable is a near impossibility downtown. Can transfer my efforts to furnishing and decorating now!

Also had a Launchpad meeting, which is always fun and gives me energy. Our year plan is really ambitious, and I say this with a mix of pride and nervousness. 

sweep

UTEK was fun. Did by expect to be runner up to finals (y) 

Meet swifter 2.0, isn't he adorable?

The team worked exceptionally well together despite me not really knowing half of them. Glad I got to know them better though. 

Leggo next year!

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Oh yeah laptops flash drive completely died. Sad. Appointment is on Tuesday sigh. 

connect

Yay WISE breakfast went well! The success makes the frustrating planning process worth it. 

I talked to two reps from MaRS, whom both offered very good, and relevant advice. One is about keeping your options open,especially when looking for new opportunities. Second is to ask potential mentors for advice, instead of straight up asking for a mentorship (is this like you ask someone out on a date instead asking them to be your boy/girlfriend?). Third is to have clearly defined mission and vision (I always thought this was such a chore and was just for looks) to refer to when conflicts arise within a team. Remind the team members to look beyond the current anger/frustration and remember the goal that they signed up for.

The last point is so true, convinced me to more likely stay with WISE next year. 

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In other news, laptop down. Trekking to fairview to fix "orz

2014 goals

^I miss having titles unrelated to the post content, but this should be the last of them.

Happy New Years ^^

My last moments of 2013 was spent playing Chinese checkers and cards with family, none of us actually noticed when the clock ticked to midnight. It's strange that so much emphasis is placed on an arbitrary division in time. Regardless, a new year is a fresh start.

The theme of 2014 will be to do and create more.
My resting state of last year (ugh using this term makes it seem so far away yet in actuality it's only been less than a day) seem to have been seated in front of the computer and just endlessly scrolling through the interweb's offerings. While there are great content to consume, consumption is a passive activity dictated by the content creators. So I endeavor to be on the creating side more.

A random list of things I would like to do / make:

• blend facial oil and masks (so much cheaper than buying too)
• have a self sufficient supply of commonly used herbs (starting with basil and green onion)
• learn another cuisine (Japanese? Korean? Indian?)
• go on more walks, preferably with my camera in tow
• take more trips! Currently dreaming about Northern France attracted by the promise of the best sea salt. Also the tea producing regions of China. Or the Japanese countryside! As you can see, my travel ambitions are all motivated by food. 

For school, primary goal is to keep up the grades in hopes of funding third year with scholarships as well. Also trying to engage with professors more, but haven't figured out how exactly.

In terms of extracurricular, the main focus is on Sky Garden to ensure a good season with abundant harvests. It's the one thing I'm absolutely sure that I love doing, and through it I want to be more involved in local foods/sustainable agriculture movement. Related to that, UT has this cafe coop called Harvest Noon that has a weekly bread baking program! Volunteers can even take home half a loaf, which is clearly why I'm interested.
Unfortunately, my certainty regarding Sky Garden doesn't extend to WISE. While I believe in our mission, our dependency on sponsorship really bug me. It's almost like a catch-22, without the sponsors the events can't happen, with the sponsors it's no longer our events. Shall see how the rest of the year goes, though I want to stay and make it better, cause it definitely can be.
Otherwise, want to rejoin Solar House (the final design is pretty awesome harhar) in the summer and attend TEDxUofT! Also should learn some software in my spare time (SketchUp, Revit), but I've been saying this for a while now.

Oh yeah I should definitely visit waterloo, he..hehee..hehehe

winter 13 revisited

I feel proud that my shopping list is dwindling in size (y).

Revision for winter&fall:

• Everlane Ryan tee nah it's okay, cut is not perfect. Plus I have more than enough tops.
• Thick cotton striped tee 3/4 sleeve bought couple of days after making the initial post. LL Bean's sailor shirt went on sale and I got the navy/cream version. Very happy that it's a thicker cotton material.
• Black loafers, now a cheap pair. still looking "orz
• Awesome thick wool socks for boots. will obtain once I make it to Costco
• An actual set of suit items. Blazer, skirt, pants, all matching. Thinking of BR or Club Monaco during boxing day sale. Ugh tried on BR ones, cut was bad. Instead I'll probably just try to match a skirt to my current blazer. But I mean engineering interviews aren't that formal, I can probably do without a suiting set.
• Conference dress. bought one from H&M, need a topper with it @_@

With these revisions in mind, here is the iterated version of the shopping list:

Gap legging cords / trousers / Uniqlo ocbd / Frye jillian oxfords / Talula shrunken exeter blazer

I debated about getting coloured cords, but then realized how much simpler and streamlined my wardrobe would be if I just stuck to neutral pants. Plus I regret getting my parka in purple, makes colour matching such a pain (does not go well with brown boots).

And one can never have too many blazers.
Thinking if I get the new blazer in black (it'd be the baby twin of my current one), maybe I can just match it to a pair of trousers and let that be the default interview outfit. I prefer skirt suits, but there's been huge debates on FFA about skirt vs pants for engineering interviews. The essence of the debate is really about how to handle the massive gender inequality in the profession, and whether its a better strategy to downplay (pants) or emphasize (skirt) the fact that you're a women.

So WISE has the potential to be great, though the current activities of the club is more focused on making industry connections rather than specifically targeting the issues faced by women. I also would much rather hold smaller, more intimate events, but our sponsors really push for attracting bigger crowds. Anyways off topic.

This post has a lot of silhouette inspiration.

harvest

Bounties of the week:


Peppers, tomatoes, basil, mint, cucumbers, and white eggplant (!). Not pictured is the lettuce, but there were 2 full buckets of them.

EX!

So far in love with the University of Exeter campus.


Specifically,  in love with the view from my residence. Today I just saw horses grazing on the fields to the right.

This, of course, comes with a price. The amazing view is a gift from the topology, which unfortunately means that the rest of campus (and everything else) is at the foot of the hill. So to get to pretty much anywhere else, it's a long walk down, followed by a very miserable descent up. During the campus tour, the guide informed us that Exeter students have good grades and good calves.
To think of this positively, I'm pretty much forced to exercise. And climbing the idyllic hill is so much better than squats.


This is my favourite place on campus, Reed Hall. It's gorgeous I know, might as well be a castle from a fairytale (though I haven't been to a proper German castle, so this will change). Apparently couples who met on campus often come back here for their wedding.
Beats my love for Hart House by a tad due to the garden surrounding it:

The tour also said this is the largest collection of botanical species (I am perhaps not technically correct here) outside of the Kews Garden in London.

Following are photos that were phone edited (via viscocam, which I forgot how much I liked) when I had too much time:

The Forum, a very costly, newly built student center. The ceiling is rather awesome.

Fresh (or so I think) berries from M&S foods (I totally did not know that they sell food). Had some of the non-abominably sized strawberries, delicious.

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Something I've been trying for this trip is to take less photos and spend more time actually looking at whatever I would be taking a photo of. Being more present I guess? So far it's worked well for London, 200 snaps for 3 days. My Gritaly count is waaay above that.

London-ing

A quick catch up of the time I spent in London.

Overview of famous landmarks:

Clockwise from top left:

• Westminister Abbey and Big Ben: (well actually the clock tower of Westminister, the nickname just refers to the bell inside, which has its distinctive sound because of a crack). Did not have enough time to visit these two, the photo was taken from the Thames River cruise.
• Traflager Square: quite a nice place to relax, and right next to the National Gallery.
• London Eye and House of Parliament: much grander looking than Canada's haha. The house was originally wood, and was plotted to be burnt down in the gunpowder plot. That didn't succeed, but 2 drunken lords manage to start a fire that burned down 75% of the building.
• Tower of London: guess this is suppose to the Vatican equivalent (not fair comparison either). Went to see everything inside of the crowned jewels, there's some interesting rooms haha. There existed a Lion Tower that kept exotic animals, including a polar bear that was tied to a rope so it could fish in the Thames.

Yours truly being a tourist at Traflager Square:

The lion is symbolic of Britain (like the eagle is to USA). It's also a favourite of the Assyrian kings as I later learned at the British Museum. Saw very little of the museum, was dying of fatigue and heat instead.

Change of guards at the Buckingham Palace:

The guards were followed by a mob of eager tourists, which was quite futile since there's been people queuing at the gates since morning to get a good view.

A bridge who's name I forgot but still has to mention as a civil engineer:

The bridge was opened by the Queen, but soon experience major swaying problems and had to be closed down by the police a few hours afterwards. The architect denied that the bridge had any faults and instead blamed the way that Londoners walked (which would be a lot more believable if everyone marched like soldiers but no). Eventually, after a great sum of money has been spent, the bridge was fixed. Tsk tsk.

More buskers at Covent Garden:

Tightrope walking Frenchmen, and violin players (y) They entertained me while I waited for check-in time to arrive. Covent Garden was originally the vegetable and herb garden for local nuns.

Also had lunch at the Coven Garden Market, Jamie Oliver had a joint there:

Woodmen's Pizza at Jamie's Union Jack. A tad salty and not the most British thing to order. In fact most of the meals I ate in London were Italian, like the Tagliatelle di Campagna I had at Bella Italia (it's like Swiss Chalet, but better).

Overall I wasn't as impressed by it as I was by Rome, but Rome had a longer history so it's also not quite a far comparison. Was still great though, wish there was an extra day of free time, so many things were left unvisited!

snail

So I'm #2 in civil, whoo!

Let this be motivation for me not to slack off this week. Bring it MSE midterm and ESP quiz (which is basically a shorter version of ESP I's final wth...). Reading week is at the light at the end of the tunnel!

Who am I kidding, I've piled so much work onto reading week that I'm gonna shut myself in a room and work for 2 days (at least) straight.
Task list:

• CME notes & vocab.I'm so screwed for this midterm, so many new terms to know && I suck at reading topographic maps. My previous belief that I was good at visualization has been completely shattered. 
• Programming extra problems. Been majorly slacking on this, so there's still a page of week 4's to do and then all of week 5, 6, 7 whoo e_e Also should practice writing code by hand. 
• ESP CDS. Don't think I need to further elaborate on how painful this will be.
• Calc WeBWork, aka lyryx for calc. Took a look at the questions, they don't seem too easy durr. And really should do Wiley on top of this to be prepared for the 2nd midterm.

Aside from academics, there's building the rube goldberg machine for NEM, marathoning a chinese drama with friends, hopefully going to snakes and latte, and do some reading.
Yeah all those and sleep.

The last one's funny :D
and I'm glad to report that the effects of espresso is fully restored. Phew.

algae

So true to my words, once ESP kicks in, all sign of leisure activity on the internet disappears (with the exception of browsing through Jetpens).

But more importantly I've just been majorly slacking off this semester. Really don't want to hermit in my room and do work @_@ In fact I've probably spent less than 2 waking hours in my own room...
Sighh, "shoulda woulda coulda" will soon be applicable to this situation.


ANYWAYS.
Been meaning to make a quick update on the Sustainable Engineering Association's conference last Saturday. The speakers and panelists were alright, some really funny ones, others not so much. A memorable line was spoken by a UofT professor, who was trying to explain the difficulty of ceasing our dependence on fossil fuels through an analogy:

How hard it is to get off a drug really depends on how good the drug is. And this drug [fossil fuels] is really, really good. 

How he came up with the analogy on the spot is beyond me.

Aside from the content of the conference, I made the 2 following observations:

1. The default expression of most people is a frown, or at least the corners of their mouth is turned downwards.
2. The majority of the delegates at the conference really, really, sucked at asking questions. A specific incidence involved this guy asking a rather short question, and then following that with 2 minutes worth of rambling on what he thought the speaker might return as an answer.
   Though I'm not any better myself. I wanted to pose a question to the first speaker, but ended up wasting the entire questioning period rephrasing the question in my head that I missed the chance to actually ask. So at least the rest of them had the courage to actually open their mouth xD

Overall it was a good use of a Saturday. Bonus points for a trip to Bulk Barn afterwards (I am forever thankful to my Shad roomie for introducing me), I now have enough clodhoppers to last the semester :D

statement of interest

Today's deliverable is an impressive statement of interest for taking a summer course in England. And also finding a serif font that is a) legible in smaller font sizes b) isn't too spaced out in all caps, I really don't want to resort to Times for my resume @_@"

Haven't written anything English-y for such a long time, in fact the past semester ESP reports have been trying to make me unlearn everything high-school English has taught me (minus spelling and grammar). Now I'm halfway done and suddenly realized that I'm off-topic and should delete everything but the first half of the first sentence.
Nostalgic feelings~ (looking at you Prufrock essay!)
And now I'm typing up a blog post to procrastinate and temporarily ignore the fact I have to rewrite the entire thing.

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Okay I've written a new introduction. By the looks of it, it seems to be a (really non-rigorous) problem definition. I haven't really left the engineering writing framework haha.

At this point, I'm giving ESP the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's not as terrible of a course as us froshs think. Sure we gain no technical knowledge from the course (and how much of those are actually useful? There's software to solve integration and matrices anyways), but the "soft" skills that we should be learning will certainly be used. For example, and I'm not sure if this is by coincidence or not, an email from an upperclassman asking to set up a meeting followed almost exactly the format specified by ESP for setting up a client meeting. (Sorry this example will make little sense to those outside of UT eng.) As for the course itself, I think it's a giant lesson in time management. I would elaborate, but I've spent more time typing here than on my SoI, so back there I go.

HSPDE

UTHSDC...has successfully been completed!

It's such an accomplishment, the hiskule team has been awesome, the volunteers have been awesome, and never will I want to cut out letters from vinyls ever again.

Time to type out a long summary of the day, and well, of the night before too.
Actually no I'm way too tired to type, so here's a series of photos documenting the crunch night:


The war room, aka gb204, not a pretty sight.


To do list for the night...and subsequent morning.


What I spent 6 hours doing: cutting letters and gears out of adhesive vinyl. Never do I want to touch that ever again, my thumb on my cutting hand was legitimately shaking when not holding the pair of scissors. Though somehow it's still shaking now, so I have no clue haha.

Also my heartfelt gratitude for whoever did this last year,  I completely emphasize and appreciate your hard work.


lim n -> infinity...and beyond (actually there were 25, the extra N now sticks to the back of my phone case as a reminder of this night).


Resupplying at around 11, my eating schedule has gone to hell for Hiskule.



Results of my night, fancy decorated hard hats given to the top 3 teams. 

Got roughly 5 hours of sleep that night, and surprisingly I feel more awake than days when I've got 8. And this is with a measly cup of timmies versus espresso shot(s). This is what the engineering course load does to you e_e" Walked to campus in the complete dark, the Oasis songs blasting in my headphones made the experience much less miserable. 

The actual day of the competition started out quite hectically. Majority of the exec team overslept and we were rushing to set up registration & a billion other things. Sad that I missed opening presentation, which thanks to the talents of our promo director, is pure gorgeous. My ppts ought to be at that level.

Moving onto construction time, I somehow ended up manning the store despite multiple, explicit expressions of unwillingness. The morning rush was just...not fun. There were sooo many kids scrambling in the room scourging for the best materials. This is definitely part of the competition that requires yet more improvement on (to be honest we did try pretty darn hard to revamp the materials sign out process this year). All was good after morning rush though.

Testing was also nerve-wrecking at first. 40lbs of weight should not be above a large tank of water... Luckily most teams' bridges were quite sturdy and none were tested to failure. Unfortunately, testing rules, despite our best effort, were not communicated effectively and caused some confusion amongst the teams. We also lagged behind schedule and had to scramble to get ready for presentations.

Presentation wise, there were really good ones and...doubtful ones. Many had solid justifications for their design, and tried their best to use APS terms (to great effect too). Others, the bs was very apparent, at least to me. I'm tempted to look back to my own presentation and see how badly I would grade myself haha. I've definitely learned a ton in these 2 months of university XD
The highlight of the day for me would have to be when I convinced this one group who wanted to forfeit the presentation to give it a try. By "I" I really mean Kenny who gave them a giant pep talk xD The group pulled off a rather impressive presentation given that they had roughly 4 minutes to prepare. 

Overall, I am so so so so so so so thankful for the volunteers that helped out. If I had the financial ability, I would totally buy them all drinks. They are super awesome and cleaned up the all the rooms while the final presentations were going on. So if by some fluke they ever see this, THANK YOU SO MUCH. And the amazing executive team, I honestly don't know how we pulled this together & I would have gone insane cutting all those letters without you guys.

...k that was way too much thinking for such little sleep, or rather all this typing should have been done for my BC assignment. I would finally like to thank the Honey and Clover soundtrack for keeping me awake until now.

One last photo :D
Giant Christmas tree at City Hall!

Can't wait to see the Swarovski one at Eaton *u*

matching dips

Contrary, or complimentary if you think about it, to my last post, this week is pretty awesome too. Lots of anticipated events, like today's presentation the Higgs Boson. UofT's head of Engineering Science physics option is a member of the ATLAS collaboration over at CERN and contributed to the discovery of a Higgs Boson.

It's like half of a dream come true to listen to the presentation (the other half would be a PEY placement there, hopefully they decide to upgrade the LHC too, that'd be double dream come true). Took some photos of certain slides, the presentation itself will be posted and I will definitely link to that once it becomes available:

 ^constructing the ATLAS detector, the bottom left photo is pretty much THE poster child for LHC haha. It's in absolutely every magazine article. Does look very impressive though.

 ^explaining how the different particles are tracked through the detector.

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and an accidental (as in I was too impatient waiting for the camera to focus) bokeh of the Dundas and University Ave intersection. Duplicating the layer and setting it on soft light does wonders.

piglet

Durr is this mini crunch time?

• 3 quizes (well this one this thurs and 2 piled together next mon)
• APS giant design project is starting this week 
• extracurriculars all starting as well(got Frosh exec on Hi-Skule! ;D and Solar House design team seems so awesome)
• ...feeling particularly lazy

uh oh

and there's summer plans to be figured out. I reaaaally want to go on an exchange @_@" It'll be so much fun, get to experience a new culture, and stand out when applying to summer position next year lol. Perhaps I'm too future oriented.

But yeah, so far, exchanges in terms of preference:

• Research at National University of Singapore (what Tony did, probably tough to get accepted @_@" dem engscis taking all the spots)
• Summer courses at TsingHua (most convenient option, as family knows ppl in BeiJing. Though there might not be summer courses)
• Japanese language courses at Nihon University (its in the middle of Tokyo...but I wanna be in Kyoto. Meh, will nonetheless be an awesome cultural experience, and hopefully I won't have to wait for subs/can read raws for the many mangas that will never be finished scanlating coughsaiyukicough).

Gotta start researching on profs/courses @_@

transition

Durr it feels like it's been summative season since forever. Been working on them since April "orz

Physics - done, don't think it went well though
Chem - almost done. CFCs are a pain to relate to the curriculum, they don't react e_e"
Earth & Space - presentations are so stressful and bothersome.
English - reflections, kill me now. SAP reflections were bad enough already.
Tech - drawing after drawing after drawings. No more free periods ;_;

BUT 2 MORE WEEKS OF SCHOOL AND IT'LL BE OVER.
(and next week is essentially a break, 2 days of school yehh).

Continuing with the cheery note,

fullcredits.ca is launched! Check out our facebook page as well :]
In short, Full Credits is a website that provides high school students with resources that assist them in preparing for post-secondary education. We have university supplementary forms, various program application forms, and helpful articles.
Been working on this since November last year and still sooooo much left to do. Goal is the have a good amount of content by September in time for the next year's applicants. Follow our progress via fb/twitter/rss!

annnnd lastly, got a $10000 (well technically 7k for first year) scholarship from Waterloo! I would be so much happier if UT offered me a similar amount "orz Really crappy feeling having to reject loo's offer.

McKinsey YLF 2012!

Mckinsey YLF is so fun :]
and once again the shads are everywhere haha. Will do a full post tomorrow after the conference ends, but let's just say that their office is AMAZING.

K actual post.


Let's just reiterate that it was amazing :]
Both in terms of the content and the people there, quite reminiscent of Shad times <3 (I think this is the highest compliment I can give to a program haha). It's such a small world haha, especially with shads, there's mutual friends everywhere.
The conference is organized around the concept of leadership and what consists of a good leader. The McKinsey facilitators broke it down into 3 core principles: a source of inspiration, a good idea, and an ability to motivate others to change. Activities were then organized surrounding each idea.

First was a mini design challenge surround designing a new utensil.

Brainstorming


and products. Aren't they beautiful? ;D

Following that, we got to act as actual consultants for a non profit organization. My group worked with Pathway to Education, an organization that promotes academic success in priority neighbourhoods.

Don't we look pro sitting around that conference table :]
It was very exciting working with a real case, the sense of responsibility and the weight placed on our opinions is quite exhilarating (redundant I know). We were tasked with coming up with effective ways to engage their alumni community. It's pretty cool trying to come up with ideas within their tight restrains, hopefully this is a sign that I'll enjoy engineering (damn nagging doubt about making the wrong choice about your future e_e).

Then came lunch, beautiful time ;D


Buffet style is terrible for me, always too greedy. Sigh I can't live on campus, gonna gain a ridiculous amount of weight haha.

Quick interlude about McKinsey's office, which is AMAAAAZING. Omg it's so pretty, and functional. Large windows with fantastic views, the most comfortable office chairs, whiteboards that rotate fresh board space out and prints directly what you write on it (I have a vid, but isn't allowed to post it, but trust that it is totally awesome), and

a collection of snow globes from all across the world :]

Afternoon was focused on a source of inspiration and determining your personal leadership style. A specific exercise was to create a dream swimming pool with people of the same leadership style.

It's totally not the most awesome cause it's in the shape of a clover :]

Day two involved exploring how to change the behaviour of others. A model that was used involves four approaches: Role modelling, Fostering understanding and conviction, Developing skills and Help and reward. A couple of videos were shown as examples of these approaches, these two especially stood out:



Now if the TTC can implement that ;P

Last but not least, our solutions for the non profit organizations were put into a skit and presented to the other groups. My group modeled ours after Lion King, if you squint really closely, you can spot a yellow blob of fur representing Simba xD

The balcony coincidentally worked really well as Pride Rock haha.


T'was a good two days :] I don't even feel bad for not doing any schoolwork.