May 22, 2004
Growing Up
I remember some time last fall, my co-worker went on a date with a 19 year old girl and he was hesitant. He wasn't hesitant because he was worried about whether she looked good or funny or charming (her friendster profile already provided him with those details), he worried about her maturity level. "19 isn't that young", I would interject. I mean, that's only 1 year younger than me and 3 years younger than him. “Oh no, those years are pretty crucial. I changed so much within that period of time. You really grow up”, he replied. Pretty unconvinced, I knew I already done my bulk of growing up. I mean, I steared away from the catty gossipy nature of high school girls and strengthen my opinions and morals. There really isn’t all that much more left.
For the past few months, I’ve been trying to practice my Chinese ‘cause well, it sucks now. I never thought a language, especially a first language, can leave you like that but it does. Urgh, disturbing. My Chinese vocabulary is at least 5x less than it used to be.
Last day at work I decided to listen to the radio station online. AM1470 and FM96.1 were playing latino music and AM1320 was a dead link. So I did a search on google and found some Hong Kong radio stations. There were a few songs but mostly it was informal news. It was 6 in the morning and the weather was going to be 28 degrees celcius today. It rained last night. There was a lot of talk on Taiwan and U.S. I was pretty surprised at all the talk about U.S. I listen to an American station every morning FM104.3 (yes, I am aware that I’m a real radio head and I don’t mean the band radiohead) and they hardly ever mention any news outside of the United States.
Later on, I realized the talk was about Taiwan wanting its independence from China and of course, there was U.S. intervention. They talked about possible war. As a person who believes that natural disasters should kill us before other humans do, I don’t like the idea of war. But all countries have history and I am uninformed that our world is a pretty shabby place. If anyone is interested, here is a brief history of Taiwan independence (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-07/21/content_246916.htm).
It disturbs me how little I know about our world and it wasn’t until this year when I took anthropology 100 (and it’s a damn good course) that my perspective on the world changed so drastically. There is so much I want to know and that I believe I SHOULD know. It is my JOB to be informed. I really do want to make a difference in this world someday. It doesn't have to be anything big. It could just be by being informed and informing others. Before this year, I was ignorant to the happenings in Rwanda, the history in the Middle East and the devastation of globalization.
I guess my co-worker was right.
May 17, 2004
Pictures from last week
So as the title suggests, here are some pictures from the past week. I tried to find the most normal looking ones...but even then, some normal looking ones didn't turn out too normal :P So here are the pics! (I'll write more about the pics later)
Last day I received a call from Mel sayin, "We're in front of your house!" So I quickly whipped some outside clothes on and met them outside. What's w/ this picture? Dinah took a similar picture of me in the 9th grade and had it above her bed (or at times, in her wallet) for years. I know she longs for me. =P
We then take a walk to Douglas Elementary school and on the way, we would stand in squat-like positions at intersections and take pictures
It reads: We was here. Who the bad grammar? Gonna be dinah! Who found the felt pen between the table cracks and started doodling w/ it? Gotta be Dinah.
Wen was saying that the last time she went for Karaoke was 6 years ago so we decided to go! It was soooo much fun!! Yea we really did look like this. :P
Some of our fav sings were Michael Jackson's "Beat it" (and that WAS the only part we knew) and Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" (along with the William Hung actions of course!)
Anh celebrated her 21st (oops, almost wrote 31st) bday with dim sum and check out this menu. Mmm mmm mm...spicy grandma tofu (straight translation of Mah Poh Douw Foo)
Yvonne's glaring at the dim sum girls pushing their little carts pass us and never looking at us.
Group Pic
An oh, here's another one!
Okay now you can all stop whining about how I never put up my pictures when I take horrid candids of everyone =P
May 12, 2004
First day at Children's Hospital
Oh hey! Guess who's happy go happy again??! Now that didn't take that long, did it? :P
Today was my first day at the visual neuroscience lab at Children's Hospital. Was I ever nervous! I tried not to think about it too much 'cause I hate psyching myself and rather keep things low key :P
The lab is great. The people are really friendly and I'm actually going to do some major programming (oh what fun :P) If only I weren't so shy! Around them, I'm so soft-spoken, quiet, polite, refined...which is so not me! (Okay, minus the polite :).
So my summer goal is to be myself and just loosen up when talking to others. (I'll look at my gr.8 self for inspiration in that department)
Anyway, I will be volunteering there every Wednesday for the next month and during July/Aug, I will hopefully be volunteering there 3-4 days/week.
Some of you asked what I do there and I can finally give you an answer! I will be using MatLab to program a random dot kinematogram (RDK) experiment.
What this long word basically means is that the a user is shown a bunch of dots where a percentage of them is moving the same direction and the rest is moving in a randomized manner. We measure the level of coherence(when all move in one direction) necessary using a psychophysical staircase method to determine at which level can a person perceive the direction of motion of the dots in a global perspective. According to old data, people can guess correctly even when only 10% of the dots are moving in the same direction! Neat eh? Well I think it's neat :P
I think I'm really going to enjoy helping out here. I wish I could be more involved as once a week really isn't a lot of time there. But for now, I'm really happy with the way things have been and I can't wait for the ChildRun next month! It's a Children's Hospital Foundation 5k Run for raising money for Children with cancer. Our team name is called sp'EYE kids. Get it?? Spy kids? haha! Er okay fine :P
May 10, 2004
Murphy's Law sucks
Ever feel like when something gets resolved, another problem arises?
The yearbook is 99.99% out of my hands which is GREAT relief to me. IMPress forgot to inform me that for saddlestitch jobs, the yearbook has to be 11x17 instead of 8.5x11. Oops, right? Right. They also forgot to inform me that they don't accept pagemaker 7 files so I spent the whole last friday converting it to 6.5 which they could not open so I had to convert it to PDFs which didn't work and finally a postscript format work. I am so sick of the yearbook and everything associted with it.
So I spent the afternoon relaxing. Feelign rather bored and empty when stress isn't in my life.
But be careful what you say 'cause once again, I am back in the loop. It turns out the summer course I am taking is in conflict with a course I already took and I can only receive credit for one of the courses. Of course, when I went to speak with my advisor who checked over my courses, he forgot to mention that to me. And on top of that, when he signed my minoring form, that course was a required course. Now I know what Lil went through and understand her hatred for incompetent advisors!!! So now I don't have a summer school course, loss $50 on deposit money AND need to get a new minoring form.
Fun.
But truthfully, i'm so used to being stressed that I dont feel anything at all. I dive into alternative plans right away and I make quick mental changes in my plans. What a skill, eh?
So does stress look for me or do I look for stress? Sometimes I worry that I look for stress.
I am a real (stressed) oddball. My head's feelin a little numb from all this.
I love this song...
Another day has almost come and gone,
Can't imagine what else could go wrong
Sometimes I'd like to hide away,
Somewhere and lock the door
A single battle lost, but not the war
'Cause tomorrow's another day
And I'm thirsty anyway
So bring on the rain
It's almost like the hard times circle round,
A couple drops, and they all start comin down
Yeah, I might feel defeated,
And I might hang my head,
I might be barely breathing,
But I'm not dead
'Cause tomorrow's another day
And I'm thirsty anyway
So bring on the rain
Oooh...
No I'm not gonna let it get me down
I'm not gonna cry
And I'm not gonna lose any sleep... tonight
'Cause tomorrow's another day
And I am not afraid
So bring on the rain
and of course, there's the expression, "The best laid schemes of Mice and Men..."
---------
UPDATE:
So I called registration office and got my $100 deposit back (I can play an innocent convincer ;D) The yearbook is 99.9999% done. Work is great and I start volunteering at Children's Hospital tomorrow. Going for woon jai chee w/ Mel later today and as Lis puts it, she's going for pho w/ her hoes on Sat.
Life is getting good again :) I miss being happy-go-happy.
May 07, 2004
CS Outing
Hel invited me to her CPSC319 team outing tonight and we had a great time eating at ShaBuSen! I only knew Hel, Yi & Bern there but I recognized all their faces prior to meeting them today (Comp sci's the biggest department in Science yet everyone knows each other! Isn't that cool? :P). All the people were really laid back, friendly and fun. When I said I meet the best people in comp sci, I wasn't joking :O)
Anyway, here are some pics!
May 04, 2004
Clam Chowder
When I was younger, say around fifteen, I actually wanted to join the corporate ladder. I wanted to rise to the top in the fancy suits, 3-inch stilettos and after work, go home in my nicely furnished and decorated apartment in Downtown.
That image kept me going for awhile in terms of serving as a motivation to excel in school, in life. Somehow, that doesn't seem as appealing anymore.
It might've been the clam chowder if used as a metaphor for my life but now its like a saltine cracker on the side.
I don't know when it happened, but at some point, I became more concerned with making a difference in people's lives, I guess in terms of research and development in the medical area, particularly vision. Working at a hospital is very rewarding to me...and as weird as this sounds, I feel like I SHOULD be there.
But for now...here I am, working at an office in downtown, wearing my suits...and damn, am I craving some clam chowder.
Note to self: Checking your email 30x a day is unhealthy.
What goes down...
Hee hee hoo! Hee hee hoo! (that's me breathing)
I just got my mark back from a course I really despised. I mean, really, really despised. The stuff just went right over my head...but somehow, SOMEHOW even after getting a C- on one of my essays, I got a B for my final mark!! Now what have I learned from this 400-level philosophy? Quite a bit actually....
Marks aren't too shabby this term.
And IMPress has finally replied to me.
And lastly, I GOT MY EBAY PACKAGES!! Well, I'm picking them up tomorrow at the postoffice since I wasn't home today.
Things are looking up :O)