Packed lunches

I was sitting around with some of my classmates today at lunch.

One of them was telling us how his mother keeps on sending him to Hamilton with tupperwares and tupperwares full of food. He said he couldn't keep up, and had resorted to throwing food out, because there was simply too much of it.

I was very jealous, since I've been eating take out for the past few weeks, since I have no home cooked goodies. (I would cook, but the place I'm renting doesn't have a kitchen...)

Anyways, the guys said I shouldn't take the lack of homecooking to mean that my parents don't care. After all, their parents live in the GTA, whereas mine are several hours further away, making the prospect of regularly giving me tupperwares upon tupperwares of food an unfeasible proposition.

We then asked our other classmate where his parents live, since he didn't have homecooking either.

It turns out his parents live in Vietnam. He fled Vietnam in a boat when he was 16.

So yes, I'm a big softie whiner.

Surprisingly hilarious

That is one lazy cat. (link courtesy of Janet!)

Wait for it...

I've been living in a state of delayed gratification for... my entire life.

Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. For as long as I've been out of the house, I suppose. Which honestly feels like it's been forever.

Anyways, since leaving the nest, I've always lived in a state of flux. Since I'm always moving, I never know where I'll be next, or how my needs or circumstances will change.

This has led to a pattern of consumerism where I'll only buy things if they're cheap, easy to pack or disposable. Likewise, my housing for the past eight (!) years has more often than not just been a place where I store my (limited) assortment of knickknacks. Places rarely feel like a home if they are chosen and furnished with ease of exit in mind.

This is about to change!!! The days where I see something nice and think "..if only I had a place to put that.." are about to come to an end! I'm going out west, and I'm determined to make myself a home.

On that note, guess what I bought this morning? A wii! (btw, Robbie, if you're reading this, I shipped a wii to your house this morning. I hope this is ok.)

I haven't even decided when I'll be moving out, but already, I've stocked my yet-to-found home with the stuff of dreams!

Opportunity cost

The thing about doing anything is that it will inevitably keep you from doing something else.

I've committed the next five years of my life to learning how to do a very specific thing, and now I can't help but mourn the fact that my obligations will make it very difficult (impossible?) for me to travel/play/sleep as much as I'd like.

I suppose that's why people tell you to travel and enjoy life when you're young, before life's commitments catch up with you.

The problem is that this in my mind, this "freedom" is somewhat of a myth. Observe the graph below (note: This is fairly representative of my life... it may be different for others, I suppose.):



As you can see, my free time drops with each degree I pursue, until you get hit the depressing low point which is going to be my next five years of residency. You'll also notice that my job security has been doing the exact opposite.

There lies the rub. When I have the most free time, I don't have the future job security to enjoy it, so I have to spend my free time doing things like studying to ensure that I will have better security in the future.

And now, I'm looking at enjoying the most job security I'd ever had, yet I'll have no time whatsoever to enjoy it.

Does this make sense?

At least I don't live in Hong Kong. My poor little cousins there study harder in primary school than I ever have.

Gliding through the night

Last night,

over the squeak of the bearings in my over-used rollerblades,

I heard the clatter of hooves, and six deer, in two groups of three, clattered across the road in front of me and disappeared into the night.

Brave New World: Redux

I have written recently regarding the new electronic frontier that is Web 2.0.

It is interesting to monitor the uptake of this new technology. Not on a population level (although I'm sure that's interesting too. Facebook has literally exploded in the past few months in my demographic. From zero to everywhere.), but rather on a personal level.

More specifically, who have been the early adopters and who have been the late stragglers?

Malcolm Gladwell has written about the hunt for cool and the characteristics of those cutting that edge. I think there is a certain open-mindedness that is needed to be the first to innovate, but my thoughts on this topic remain largely unformed.

I have, however, noticed a bit of a trend among my friends who've been resistant to the "new" web. They were among the very first online, back when "the web" was still a novelty. They were online back when the internet was text-based, and "Freenet" and "MUDs" were in vogue.

They were in fact, the very cutting edge of Web 1.0!

...and yet they were the last to adopt to Web 2.0?

What gives? Perhaps those who resist Web 2.0 are those who have the most invested in Web 1.0?

The intersection of my mouth and my money

I'm a fairly thrifty person. If I were to guess, I'd say that both nature and nurture have conspired to make it thus.

Now, as I am on the brink of finally making a salary of my own (oh, glorious day!), I would like to advance a new ethic of financial expenditure.

My current system is such that I buy the things I need (or want), and try to buy them for as cheap as possible.

This system is lacking. It is lacking because it fails to incorporate other values that I hold into the equation.

For example, I care about the environment, and about sustainability. I remember I had a friend once who bought two printers at the same time. There was sale on, so it was cheaper to buy an entire printer than it was to buy ink cartridges. By my previous financial paradigm, this makes awesome sense. But if I take into account the extra waste created ... maybe it'd be better to just pay more and buy refill cartridges.

You get the idea, I hope. Here are a few guidelines I was hoping to adhere to:

1. Buy local whenever possible.
2. Repair instead of replace when possible.
3. Buy used when possible.

In such a capitalistic society, our money talks louder than just about anything else. It's time that my money say something worthwhile.

iRack!

Was MadTV always this funny?

Brave new world

Maybe you've heard. Maybe you haven't.

The internet is a different place nowadays. It's become collaborative, social, participatory. The term "Web 2.0" has been used to describe this new milieu.

The lines between online and offline life is blurring.

Example: I'm sitting in lecture. The presenter mentions a disease I've never heard of. I Google it on my laptop. I find a cool website and a pdf paper. Someone behind me taps my shoulder, so I forward both these things to his email. While in my email, I notice someone has written on my wall. I learn that plans for the weekend have changed, so I change my tickets online. The friend sitting in front of me has "poked" me virtually. I poke her twice. Once online, and once again in the back.

Online/offline/online. It's become a fluid thing. We no longer have "online" lives and "real" lives. It has all become one.

I think there is a perception that things "online" don't happen at all. But they do. It's all just human interaction. It's all REAL.

I look good

Point 1: My purple hair looks awesome. At least that's what people have been telling me. They wouldn't lie. Would they?

Point 2: I borrowed my friend Alim's clothes today. (We had a special graduation dinner, and I didn't bring any nice clothes to Hamilton.) He stopped to talk to a couple girls he knew on our way to the library. I wanted to go change back into my own clothes so I said to him, "Hey, I'm going to take off your clothes," before walking off.

Point 3: I hope he didn't have his eye on either of those girls.

I am Lazy.

There was a time when I claimed that I was a procrastinator. I'm realizing that I am not this. I am, in fact, lazy.

The key difference being a procrastinator completes the task at hand, albeit at the last minute, whereas a lazy person.. does a lot of nothing.

What have a done in lieu of study for my exam?

I have bemoaned the power imbalance of the world.
I have bemoaned my sad vocal stylings.
I have bemoaned my lack of furniture.

It's all the internet's fault.

The lesson of the day is...

Don't use washrooms in Japan. Seriously.

March Madness!

I know that many of you are disappointed that I didn't run a March Madness basketball bracket this year.

It was just a hectic time of year.

To prove that I'm still capable of bringing madness to March, I give you this:

The sisterly unit modeling an outfit she bought for her recent cruise to the Bahamas!

 

My friends are smart!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the friends I've made from high school, from summer camp, from university... from all over really, are all going places.

Sometimes I wonder how it is that everyone I know is doing so well. Then I realize the common denominator. Me. I must be very inspiring.

Anyways, back in undergrad, I remember my friend Omar skipping computer classes to play GTA in our house all day, and then pulling all-nighters for any one of the myriad campus publications he wrote/edited/produced/lorded over.

While it may seem odd for a computer science major to spend so little time on his actual degree (The story regarding his honours thesis is probably best left untold...) and so much time on "extracurricular" events, this evidently all payed off.

Omar has been nominated for a National Newspaper Award!

Imagine rising to the top of your field just a few years after leaving university! I'm so proud.

Also, a quick note to my mother: Please be aware that I have streaked my hair purple.