The World That Science Built: technology, Tolerance and Terror

Today was a good day. Work was as usual, but then I went to a lecture given by John Polanyi. He is a Nobel Prize Winning Laureate in the Chemistry field. He has been awarded the distinction of University Professor by the UT. Only 2% of the faculty can hold this distinction, and currently only 30 faculty members hold this title.

The title of the lecture was “The World That Science Built: Technology, Tolerance, and Terror”. Here is some information on John Polanyi if you want to know what he did: about John Polanyi

Anyways, it was the first time I was in Convocation Hall since Frosh week. I never though I’d get to go in it again until I graduate, but I was wrong. The building is quite nice I must say, but the seats are so uncomfortable, I could not get comfortable the whole time.

However, I pretty much did not understand anything the guy was talking about. Everything that came out of his mouth was beyond me knowledge and went completely over my head. Even during the question and answer period, I understood some of the questions, but once he spoke, I was gone. I don’t think he clearly answered any of the questions, instead opting for going around each questions with a whole bunch of jargon. Of course that’s why I think, but then I didn’t understand it, so what else can I say?

What disturbed me most was the way the crowd handled themselves. Every time a person asked a question, there would be multiple people getting out of their seats to leave. This was like so rude man. I was disgusted with the respect they show for him. And I’m not just talking about students who don’t know any better or think they’re too cool to be there, people of middle age did the same thing. Can’t they just wait until the discussion is over? It became so noisy that once Prof. Polanyi finished answering a question, the MC said that was the end, because so many people were getting up and leaving. I mean you wouldn’t leave in the middle of a movie, why this lecture? So to all you guys who left early, not cool man.

Today’s drive downtown was a breakthrough. It basically took me about 15 mins to drive downtown. This is astounding time in rush hour, I don’t know where everyone went. The fastest it ever took me around that time was 30 mins upwards to an hour. So where did all the cars go? Anyways, I was thankful cause I was late going downtown.

Funny thing, my friend and I bought a pizza to eat and we ate it on the way down. I finished it up at Sandford Fleming building and placed the box down while I went to the washroom. My friend stayed outside. I walked out, saw the box and the cardboard had been cracked (Pizza Pizza crack the cardboard) so naturally I thought my friend cracked it, but I could not find him. Then he came, and he asked me if we won, I was like, you cracked it did you not? He was like, nope. Somebody had actually come and cracked it, and he said it was this guy nickname Mr. Hat. Cause he saw him while walking. What a guy, taking advantage of every thing.

Current Events Today:
- Ron McLean is not coming back to Hockey Night in Canada. He said he could not give in for a lower salary that Peter Mansbridge, news anchor.
- Ozone hold shrinks, splits in two. Article

Tonight I watched The Practice.

That was a good episode. I missed so much lat season because of school. Sunday was not a good day to watch tv for me, and you can never tell whether it's a repeat or a new episode.

Anyways, I can't believe Lindsey is in jail now for murdering her stalker. That is so bad.
And get this, John Berlutti went to this lady, who had her daughter kidnapped 16 years ago, to give her money from the person who kidnapped her daughter. Now there was some context of this story I missed from the first 15 mins, cause I missed it. But this is a weird case, and that is something dumb to do. But again, I missed something, there is some information with this case that I missed.

Anyways, have a good week. I will be back tomorrow.

My Problem
This weekend has been okay actually. I haven’t done much, but it’s still been pretty good. Yesterday night I went to dinner with a few peoples. We went to Day & Night. It was not as good as the first time I went a year ago, but it was still alright. Although I was a bit disappointed when the waiter messed up the price. He quoted me the price on this pork steak and when the bill came, it was $1.00 more than he said. Now that’s not a big amount, however it’s the principle behind it. I mean he told me a price, I expect it to be that price, because it’s not on the menu. Anyways, I didn’t bother after I complained to him.

Lately I’ve been feeling very defensive and rude. I find I don’t have any patience with people, and don’t take anything from anyone anymore. Like for example, last night I wanted to activate my VISA which had expired and a new one came in. So I called in the telephone banking and did went through the IVR and waited. Then it told me their system was down and they’d connect me to one of their associates. So again I waited. When the operator got there, she asked me to repeat my card number and my name. Then she told me after that their system is down and told me to call back tomorrow. So I totally almost freaked on her. Basically what I felt was, if their system was still down then wy are you asking me for my card number and wasting my time. Just tell me it’s down, sorry can’t help you, call back tomorrow. But no, she had to go through the repeat your card number, what is your name. I don’t know why I am so impatient now.

Basically I find now when something goes wrong, I take it out on the person who it is related to. Like yesterday night, Shirley asked me what I think about CCF. She was asking me because she was talking to Catherine and they came to the conclusion that people look like they are in groups, and it’s like you always sit with people you know etc. And although this is true, but it’s like human nature. And then she was saying how it was so evident at Kowloon by the people we sit with. But I was like, we had two tables, not that many seats there. We are bound to sit with people we know whether we intend to or not. I don’t know, I became very frustrated. But another thing is it’s one thing to identify the problem, but it’ totally different and much bigger problem to try and make it better. And CCF is a relatively large group, so there are bound to be groups and people we are closer to, and there is nothing bad with that. Fact of life is we can talk easily with some people and not so much with others.

I don’t think I can stand people as much. Maybe it’s just because I’ve become irritated a lot and don’t feel like taking anything from anyone anymore. But I don’t want to be so defensive, it become irritating for me too. So if anyone finds that when I talk to them, and I become increasingly defensive, please do point it out.

I have received many negative comments on my hair lately, somewhat bothers me actually. Not to say I don’t invite constructive criticism. The worst one I got, which I almost freaked on this girl for saying, was if I wanted to get a girl, I better cut my hair. Oh my, I almost freaked on this girl for saying this, and she already had been saying other things that irritated me a lot the whole night, but I resisted, it was hard. Anyways, I’m gonna still keep it for a while, keeping mean not cut it. We’ll see what happens later. This is the beginning of the 11th week I have not cut it.

TV Update:
The best show last week I watched was ER. If you hve not watched it, you missed a good one. I am going to summarize, so don't read further if you intend to watch it. Basically last season ended off with a scare of small pox. They found the same disease in Congo, and they never said what it was, just some form of Monkey disease. Romano got his arm chopped off by getting too close to the back blade of a helicoptor, that was the nastiest thing I saw. Nobody big died.

Smallville was very good too. Definately one of the better shows on tv. Clark saved Lana from a tornado and Chole still will not admit her deep desire for Clark. She went so far as making Clark say they only want to be friends.

CSI another great drama had their Miami spin off last week. It was not as good as original CSI. Anyways one of them had this scene where they showed ripping off the face of a dead person to get to the brain, that was very nasty.

Friends was alright, but not as good as hoped. Basically everything straightened out, nobody getting married, but Ross wondering how come Rachel said yes to Joey to get married.

Current Events Today:
- Dalton McGuinty, Liberal leader for the Ontario Provincial government wants to raise the age level children must stay in school for to 18, instead of the current 16. He says "This is the information age".
- $7.7 million set aside to improve the conditions on the 404. Thank goodness, now if only they can fix teh 401, 427, Qew, gardiner as well. I think the material and civil engineers need to get to work on some better concrete for the road so it can withstand the conditions of Canada.
- Blue Jays win 7th in a row today to end the season. Do I smell WORLD SERIES next year? nope.

The Ultimate Matchup

Alright, two times within a week is impressive now.

Okay, so I have a lot of different stuff to talk about, but I'll spread it over the course of a few days, but the worst part is I'll probably forget it come end of this post.

So James and I decided to go head-to-head in blogging. I don't think he stands a chance, cause I got no school. But come more often to check out what I think or what I saw, or just what's happening.

I went to CCF tonight, but again I only caught the last half of it. It was a prayer night. I got there, I peeked in and saw people praying already, so I couldn't walk in there, so I waited outside. Then one or two people stepped out to either leave or go to washroom but there were still going at it. I felt impolite to disturb their prayers but luckily I went in during their transition. It was an interesting way of doing it I thought. What they did was break the Lord’s Prayer into four categories and they prayed for different things. Anyways we talked about the different Christian groups on campus and prayed for them.

Afterwards, we didn’t do anything together, last few weeks we did something. So I went home, but then I decided to drop by Hosanna’s fellowship since it was relatively early. I saw them which was so nice. I have not seen them in like over a month I think. It was just nice seeing them again.

So we ended up going to Crabby Joe’s. Although the whole time I was hearing them say it’s called Crappy Joe’s, cause I’ve never been there, so I was like, what a bad name. Anyways it was eating again, half price appetizer after 9PM, sweet deal.

I think I’m getting really fat, I am gaining a lot of weight. Today I went to Oriental Feast for lunch (that’s a buffet), then I had Kowloon for dinner, then after that appetizer at Crabby Joe’s. So much food, but I couldn’t not eat, that wouldn’t be polite. Anyways, so I get home, and I gained like 6 pds or something from yesterday. Luckily for me I think I have a high metabolism so by tomorrow I will be back down to my normal weight.

Oh, I am thinking of buying the DVD for Scorpion King, what do you think, a good investment/purchase? I have not seen the movie, but I kind of want to see it, please give me some advice on this one.

Oh, I got the self learn Mandarin CD from my co-worker last week, but I keep on forgetting to take it out of my bag so I have not started, but I am going to learn. I am looking forward to this, hopefully I’ll see some results.

Oh, Frank Yong told me to comment on this e-forum and I have become attached to it now. I constantly comment on it. Check it out, at this e-forum, he posted one about “Has LIFE gotten Worse due to Technology?”. There are a lot of interesting topics on there, and some not so good. One that I find particularly interesting is the one about the “Great China Firewall”. Check it out.

Current Events Today
- Tiger Woods loses twice in ONE day. Ryder cup, loses both matches against Europe.
- An accused murderer who escaped custody is captured in Whitby where he was hiding under a backyard residential porch.
- Nortel is down to $0.70 CDN on the TSE. Get ready for a reverse split.

At times like today, I wish I had a digital camera.
I saw so many things today that would make great pictures.

1) I was driving up Hurontario on my way to the QEW when I see this cop on the other side of the road, he was standing there getting on the road. Next thing he does it wave down a car coming by signalling him to come on the sideroad. That guy must of been speeding. The cop must of taken the radar shot from very far way, I wonder how far they can get? Cause by the time I saw the cop, he was no where near the radar-gun, and neither was the car. Anyways, it's be an intereting photo to take I thought.

2) I was at work and I saw thie fly come up to a book I had in front of me. It was to the side, and I didn't want to kill it with anything I had near there, so what should I do. I can't just leave it there, and if I just swat at it making it go away, it may come back to taunt me. I had to do something, so I decided, I'd take a fling at it. The fly was not too smart, it allowed me to come very close, aiming, and flinging. It swatted it across the desk able to see it struggle upside down to get back up. Not dead. That was a great picture right there. Too bad. Anyways, I told me co-worker in front of me to look, and he said "eww" and took a piece of paper and flattened it. Like I said, noa avery smart fly, by the time, it had already gotten back up on the right side, but did not fly away.

3) Again on Hurontario, I was stuck in volume traffic and there was a school bus a couple cars down in the lane next to me. Then I looked and there was this kid in the back seat dancing. He was moving his hands, and his head, and anything else while making sure he did not get out of the seat. Man that would of been a funny picture, I was just laughing in the car.

So those are the things I wished I could of taken a picture of, they were some funny stuff.

-J

Life next few weeks

Unexpectedly, the periods between my blogs have been longer and longer. Why did I not expect this? Because I am not in school, so why wouldn’t I have time to blog more. I mean I encounter a lot of things that I can write about, so I won’t run out. But I just can’t find the time, or the effort to blog.

Next few weeks is busy for me, guess why? It’s September, Emmy’s are on tonight. So that must mean SEASON PREMIERES. Here is my schedule, and for your information as well: (The following are all season premieres starting after today)

Monday Sept 23:
8PM - Fear Factor – think it’s celebrity
10PM – CSI Miami – new show, spinoff of CSI
Tuesday Sept 24:
8PM – Gilmore Girls
9PM – Smallville – this is such a great show
- Frasier – Roz slept with Frasier and Daphne and Niles are getting married
Wednesday Sept 25:
8PM – Ed – underrated show, but the guy is gonna try and get the main girl, don’t know any of their names, except the guy, whose Ed of course
Thurs Sept 26:
8PM – Friends – last show last season Rachel said yes to Joey who held the ring while Ross was gonna come in
8:20PM – Scrubs – funniest new sitcom last year, ended with everyone hating each other
9PM – CSI – One of most interesting scientific dramas on
10PM – ER – THE BEST DRAMA ON TV
Sept 29:
8PM – Charmed – I don’t know why I like it, but it’s a good show
9PM – Alias – Main girl finds out mother who she found out was KGB is not dead, but alive now
10PM – The Practice – Best law show on tv
Oct 2:
9PM – Amazing Race 3 – Exciting show where teams go around trying to beat other teams to destinations

And this is my life, so if you want to find me, do some deduction and find me between commercials or between shows. I actually spent beginning of my lunch on yahoo writing all this down on my Palm so I don't forget.

I am sure there are some other ones on too, and they are prob great too, but these are what I try to catch.

Let me talk about CCF, since I’ve read about it a lot in others’ blogs. To me, CCF is still my fellowship. But I cannot make it this year, I would miss most of the program if I went downtown after work, so I have decided to commit to Hosanna’s fellowship GLU (God Loves U) fellowship for the year. However, I do find CCF is going to be tough this year. I am glad to say Henry has been appointed as Chairperson. I think this is a very good move actually, throughout the summer and seeing how the orientation things were going, I was a bit afraid of how things would turn out. I must say there are so many new faces in CCF this year, and a lot of repeat CCFers as well. This is encouraging that there is interest and that people do call this their fellowship.

But with every big crowd it’s hard to meet everyone, and this worries me. I mean the fellowship should be a close knit group, there should be no groups, cliques, etc. One of the committee members shared that they hope (and so do I) that this fellowship becomes family. And this is a good way to think of it, because we are one big family, very big. But the problem is, how can we say we’re a family if we don’t know each other, even their names. I can’t say with the huge amount of people who came last year I got to even know everyone’s name. Perhaps I should of taken some initiative to get to know them, but I am the shy type, and takes time as well.

So I have decided to not go to CCF this year which leaves me somewhat worried as well. I mean I know the fellowship will need me there as someone whose been there longer. And I think this will detach me in some ways from the fellowship because I will not be there, which worries me as well. But I know this is what I need to do, because how can I say I go to fellowship if I only make like 45 mins of it. I don’t gain a lot from it, I’d be hearing last bit of whatever the program is, and then eating dinner. So because of this, I have decided to go to GLU for the next year, with dropping off at CCF every once in a while so I am not totally detached. But there is something else I plan to do as well, but I’ll talk about that in another blog.

I spent Saturday with my parents whole day and night. We went to Toronto Chinese Community Church at night to go to their “Worship with Art” night, where they show how to witness using art, whether it is music, drama, paintings, or any other form of art. This whole night was in Cantonese, which I did know when I said I’d go. Now of course I did not understand it all, but the one I understood the most was the drama play at the beginning. It was a really good play with an old couple who is apparently on Showers of Blessing. Then afterwards, went with my parents, my aunt/uncle, and another couple for some drinks after. We had beer. Was kind of weird going to get beer with my parents, but oh well, why should I care?

Alright, I’ll share more later this week hopefully.

Current Events Today
- Gerhard Schroeder wins German Election joining with the Greens to form a majority government
- Not much else interesting besides death and war.

Scary thing happened Yesterday

Funny thing happened yesterday. I was at work, around 3-4PM. I got hungry (naturally) and so I had brought some snacks. Among them was an oatmeal raison cookie. So of course, it was a little hard so I figured I'd pop it in the microwave and heat it up for about 30 seconds. As usual I'd take some paper towel and wrap it. This allows heat to get in, but any evapouration of any kind can be soaked up by the paper towel. So I pressed 30 seconds and waited. I turned around to get some more paper towel, waited and suddenly, "What's that smell?". I look at the microwave and tons of smoke was coming out of it. I was so scared that there was a fire inside the microwave.

I pressed stop and opened it up and threw the cookie in the garbage. But the smoke was still there. Looking around, I think to myself, my goodness, what if the smoke alarm went off, I can't just walk away now like nothing happened. I saw some guys in the lunch room and asked for some help. Eventually we got the smoke away enough so nothing went off. Man, I was so scared that the fire alarm would go off. Last thing I need is the fire trucks coming to see what happened, oh, I just wanted a warm cookie. Last time I'll heat something up in there like that.

Now looking at my middle finger I have this mark on my skin as a result of the cookie when I threw it out. I looks kind of orange like, and it does not wahs off, I have no idea what it is. It's weird stuff.

One more thing, CCF ORIENTATION DINNER THIS FRIDAY (SEPT 13)
LOCATION: WYCLIFFE COLLEGGE (WY)
TIME: SEPTEMBER 13 AT 6PM
COST: $5
EVERYONE COME AND BRING YOUR FRIENDS.

Fighting Obesity

So I mentioned last week that the California Board has decided to ban soft drinks from their school. This decision was because they found that many students in their schools are, or becoming obese. So in order to fight this, they decided to ban soft drinks being sold in the school.

True, soft drinks do cause obesity I believe, because of the sugar. So by eliminating them will lowee the intake. However, kids these days will just find alternatives. I mean there are probably many other dirnks which is just as bad as soft drinks. For all we know, if they get really deparante, they'll just hide it in another container or something.

But the worst part of this is the impact it has on the school. What will happen is kind of going against their fight. The profits made from soft drinks sales amounted to a lot of money. If I could find the article,m I'd give you a figure, but I cannot. Well, this money is used to support extra curricular activities, such as sports, and clubs and stuff. Now I think to myself, if they lose this money, that just means cuts to programs. And cutting things like sports or clubs, will just cause the kids to sit at home watching tv, drinking their soft drinks athome, and not exercising. Now that alone will have more impact on increasing obesity than the soft drink will.

Eliminating the soft drink is just not logical. It is a bad decision. I am sure the ruling was made with good intentions, but the impact it has is substantial. I know from experience that cuts to extra curricular activities is really bad. When I was in high school, major strikes occured at our board which resulted in teachers refusing to participate in extra curricular activities. This meant no more extra curricular. This meant no sports, no clubs, no nothing. Many expert would say, and In do not have the proof to say this, but I do believe it is true, that the extra curriculars can help students in school. This is because it gives them some relief from their school work.

So is this really a decision that will help? I don't think so. This is not the solution to obesity. A better solution is forcing kids to participate in extra curricular activities. Make them join something. In high school, it always seems like it's the same people joining the clubs and sports. I guess they are just the gifted ones in that perspective. But there are like tons of students who do nothing in their school. Why not try and make students participate?

Damn Yahoo.
I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole pisode of American Idol last night, so I taped it. I never got the chance to watch the whole thing, so I figured I’d wait til tonight to watch and find out who won. I dind’t want anyone to tell me, I refused to listen to long periods of 680 News, cause they were talking about it. And I even saw a headline on Yahoo last night that if I clicked on it, I would find out who won. So I did not click in naturally. Then today, just now, I go to Yahoo, and there on the headlines “Kelly Clarkson wins American Idol”. Darn. Now the show is ruined.
Now I know how you felt Richard, when you found out who won Survivor II. This sucls.

Anyways, here are some brief current event updates:
- West Nile Virus is active in Toronto. Five probable cases in the GTA, including Toronto.
- Jean Chretien supports the Kyoto Pact, US is stunned. Oh well, nice to at least see Chretien doing his own thing apart from the US
- McDonalds to use a new oil to make their fries, nuggets, McChicken, and Hash Browns. They better taste the same. Like another customer said, “I don’t go there for healthy food”
- SAC fair tomorrow at University of Toronto. Come out and support UTCCF on front campus. We have a booth next to KCF.

I'm off to TCBC English congregation retreat this weekend, too bad I did not find the time to write something.
I had this really good topic to write about that I heard last week that was interesting.
The California school board has decided to ban soft drinks in the middle and high school as a means to conquer over the growth in number of kids being obese.
I 'll write more about this next blog when I find time.

Also this weekend:

- CCF Frosh Orientation BBQ held TONIGHT Aug 30, 2002 at 6PM. Held at Woodsworth College on the UT campus.
- Labour day weekend, many people on the roads going north for one last time before the worse thing of all happens, school
- Frosh week for many froshes started either already or before Labour day Monday, good luck to all frosh
- OPP has a crack down on aggressive driving this weekend. Watch out!

Peace
-J

Update

My goodness, the times between my posts are getting longer and longer. It seems every time I write on this page now, I have to say this, that it's been a while since I last blogged. Well, I have a few things written down I want to write about, but not today, I'll just let you guys know what I've been up to lately.

Last Friday night, I went to a goodbye party for Tim Chin. He is going to Rome, how cool is that. Anyways, I never really got to talk to Tim that much, but when we were at fellowships, he brought much insights that helped me a lot. The one story I will never forget is this story he said the Pastor in Waterloo told him. He said he had this cat, and he always gave the cat this cheapo brand food, and the cat would eat it. But then one day the owner switched to this expensive brand of food, much better, the cat loved it. However, when the owner tried to switch back to the cheapo brand, the cat would not eat it anymore. This was because the cat was exposed to something better, and once you've had something better, you won't want to go back. This story was brought up when we were talking about Can we sin in heaven? And the parallel is because on earth, we sin because sometimes it feels good. However, once we get to heaven, we will of tasted something far better than sin, and then we won't have to go back.

This story stuck out to me, I know this because Tim tried to tell the story again a few weeks later, and I caught him on it. I was like, eh, you told this story already. So good luck to Tim in Rome.

Saturday I went to Wasaga beach. It has been so long since I've been there. Heck, I'm not even sure I've been there. However there was this once incident in my childhood that I remember, and my father told me it happened there. It's a funny story actually. What happened was me and my cousin were playing this game where you just go into a potato sack and slide down the slide. Well, I went down the slide, and looked around for my cousin, and I did not see her. I was thiking, did she leave without me? I have to go look for her. So my dad had left us two there to play, while he went to attend to something else. So no one else was there, and I could not find my cousin, so I went out to look for her. I walked all around and of course I did not find her. I ended up going to policemen cause I was lost, could not make my way back. They asked me, "What car does your dad drive", I told him "A Firebird". However, the funny thing is he drove a "Thunderbird", but they were close, so a child can mess that stuff up. But what's even funnier is we didn't even go there in our car, so telling the policement what car he drove was useless, cause it was not there. hahaha. We went in my uncle's car. So in the end of course I got back, dunno how though. So kids out there, stay where you were told to stay, do not leave.

While at Wasaga, we walked around and I saw these shoes I liked. I ended up buying them, but when I showed them to some of my friends, one of them was like, there is this purple thing here, you should go back and ask for a discount. So they convinced me to, and I went back. Bad move. Once I told them the problem, the owner was like "Well, I'll give you your money back then", and she went to the cash, got the money and held it out to me. She didn't even let me ask for a discount. So that did not go well, I must say that lady is a good salesperson, it was a really good tactic on her part, andI ended up walking out of there still with the shoes and no discount.

Sunday I went to go see Salvation play their last game. Unfortunately, they lost, but I believe they made the playoffs! Way to go Salvation! Good luck in the playoffs!

Monday I got home from work, made dinner and ate it. And I was on my way out of the house to go to the gym when the phone rang. Calvin asked me to go Go Karting, and I was like, yeah, so I went there. That was so fun, although expensive a bit. But I had a great time. I think it was first time I've ever gone, and I definately will go again, even though it's expensive. Sorry to Karen for taking you out, but it's all fun right!

So that's what I've been up to lately. I am having a great time, and it only get's better. Hope your having a good time too, and update me on what you've been up to.

Alright, lates
-J

How Disturbing

Again, it’s been a while since I’ve done this. I think it’s just I have less time now, so don’t update it as much. But let me share with you some of the stuff I heard over 680 News last few days that I’ve found surprising and disturbing.

So I think yesterday, I heard that there was this doctor who got his license taken away from him. Now you may think what happened? Did he sexually assult a patient or something, I think that is first thing a lot of people would think of. But this guy was a surgeon, and what he did was during a serious surgery, I can’t tell you what it was, he left the surgery. He left for about 30 mins while another doctor took over, then he came back half hour later to finish off the procedure. Now how disturbing is this? It’s totally dumb, what is this doctor thinking of? Now let’s think, what did he need to leave for, something important? Well, this doctor went to the bank to deposit a cheque. This story just get’s worse and worse.

What is this doctor thinking, leaving during a surgery? Someone put their lives in your hands, trusted you, and you leave to deposit a cheque? Luckily, the anesthesiologist found this disturbing as well, so he reported it. This got to me a lot while in the car. I was like, what has this world come to? Are our little priorities greater than that of someone else’s life? I couldn’t say I’d put my life for someone else’s right now, I guess come time, it could happen, but I don’t see it really likely. I don’t know why, but I just think it’s the way we live our lives, us first, others second, it’s like a natural reaction. But if you think about this, of course we’d put our lives first, this is just the world works. I guess that is one of big reasons why we cannot become Jesus, it’s a selfish world.

The next thing I found a bit disturbing is that the World Youth day organizing committee reported a $30 million deficit, although they still say “it was successful”. They say the big reason why the shortfall of money is not enough people as expected, and another reason is many pilgrims did not pay for the events. Now what is with this? How come they did not pay for this. How ethical is that, you go to a Religious event, and you don’t pay for it when it is expected? I don’t know what is wrong with these people that did not pay, like they come to this for God, and what do they do? They go with unclean hearts because they go out of deceit. And seriously, I guess for those who could not pay for it, I think if they asked their church, they could pay for it.

And so how do they plan to make up this money? Well, of course, go to the churches, as for the followers to donate some money. They plan to print ads or something, and as for those in their church to pay for it. So it comes down to the people have to pay more.

Alright, this is all I talk about tonight. Have a good night, and God Bless.

What makes people like me quiet?

Wow, I am totally not dedicated to this blog anymore. I need to update it more often. Anyways, last blog seemed to spark some interest in what I have to say, and I am pleased. It sparked some interesting stuff, and this leads me to today’s blog.

Now there are quite a few individuals who would say I am quiet, a shy guy. Now I would not say they are totally wrong, in fact in many ways I could agree with this. However, there are of course reasons for being quiet and shy.

Reason #1: Not feeling comfortable with the environment. By this I don’t mean the skies, the weather, I mean what is around you, the surroundings. When you talk into unfamiliar territory, many people tend to shy away from being noticed too much. Try not to offend anyone the first time around. I think I get this a lot, when I go to places, I need some time to adjust to what is around me.

Reason #2: Not feeling comfortable with the people around you. This is one of the biggest things with quiet people. It’s the fact that you don’t feel too comfortable with the people around you. Now it’s not necessarily to say that they are boring people, or that their personalities clash, it’s that at that moment, nothing has made them bond. I think this is one of my major problems when I am around people. It’s the fact I don’t feel comfortable around them. I could not say I can tell them anything that is on my mind. I think that is one thing we should all strive for, is that to find people we are comfortable around. That is really the whole best friend issue. I think for me, I have made a lot of friends in my time, that I try to get to know people, however there is always this obstacle of something holding the relationship back from taking it one or two steps further.

I think one of the things that tend to make myself quiet around people is the fact I don’t feel very comfortable around you. That is not to say you and I clash. But it does mean there is something between us. Maybe we just don’t get to talk enough to really be closer friends. I couldn’t say I would share my whole life with everyone. However, if could say on a good day, I would be willing to share more when I feel like it, and if you ask. I don’t go around spreading my deepest thoughts about myself to everyone.

This may also mean because when we talk, there does not seem to be much interest beyond the old dull stuff like “how are you doing”, “what have you been up to”, that kind of stuff, I find it rather dull. I can’t say I don’t ask the same stuff, but it really ends when you almost always answer something like “it’s going good’, “ah, work, school, etc etc” those kind of answers. If you look at the answer “it’s going good”, where is the really to go with an answer like that? I mean it’s good that everything is going well, but what comes after that in a conversation, it’s harder. So try as much as possible not to answer peoples’ questions with answers that end conversations. I know sometimes it’s hard, but try once in a while. And I will do the same.

Reason #3: Childhood experiences. Reflecting back on my childhood, I would have to say there are times that things have happened to affect my life now. When I was in elementary school, in the early years, whenever there was a parent-teacher meeting, the only thing that ever came out of it was I talk too much in class. Every single year I’d hear that from my parents. And also, I’d hear from my parents to think about what I say before I say it a lot as well, not from the meeting though. So now, I can honestly say I think a lot before I say anything. I try not to hurt people’s feelings, not to offend people, what will they think about me if I say it? All these question go through my mind before I say something. Maybe I just think too much now, which causes me to talk less.

So these are three reasons why I, and probably several others are quiet people. I can honestly say I have not cared as much lately, and I say more, but that is only when I feel totally comfortable around those people. So still something holds me back, and I hope one day I will be able to be comfortable around more people.

But again, back to something I mentioned in my previous blog. If I try to create conversation with people, and I keep on getting like one word answers, obviously that conversation is going no where.fast. And if I am not getting anything to work with, I guess too bad.

Alright, if you made it this far, thanks for reading my rants.

Current Events Today
- Heard many speeders everywhere this weekend, via 680 news. Heard of a motorcycle popping wheelies at 220km/h. Heard of a cop with siren on chasing after someone at 160km/h, and having a vehicle going 180km/h passing him. Hahaha, dumb fool. And a lady going 160km/h and giving the excuse she was running out of gas, so she needed to speed to get off next exit ramp.
- I heard Friday night, JDS Uniphase recently sold a company it had acquired a few years back when it’s stock was about $155. It bought the company at that time for about $700 million. It now is selling the company off, while it’s stock is at about I think $4, and selling company for less than 2% of what it paid for at $9 million. Good business there. Buy high, sell low.
- Two stables burned down at the Woodbine race track two nights ago. This killed about 31 horses who were trapped in the two stables.
- Canada overtaken last day by India to place fourth in medal standings at the Commonwealth games. Even though they finished with so many medals, it is at somewhat a disappointment that they fall to fourth, because it has always been a running between England, Australia, and Canada for top three medal finishers. Oh, correction, they had more medals, but India had more gold, so they get third place.

Friendships

This blog is about friends. And although I know many people have written about this, and have some of the same feelings as I, I still feel a need to blog about this.

Today I organized a dinner for my friends from school, mostly engineers and some Life Science peoples. I thank you all for coming out tonight, and I really appreciate the crowd. Although I ask you, and everyone else too, was our gethering missing something? When you meet with friends, do you feel your missing something?

I think for me, I do feel I am missing something there. Most of my friends are not in Computer Engineering like I. They are mostly in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, I have no idea why, it just worked out that way. But throughout the year, I would hardly get to see any of them, and because of this we grow apart. Even though every once in a while, we all get together, have a dinner and such, it still does not help enough. I find for me we grow apart, to the extent we can't even to each other. It is hard to keep up friendships while in school, and especially when you are in demanding programs, and don't see each other often.

I find that it gets harder as time goes on to keep these friendships alive. However, I do try. I think I organize the most dinners out of all of us. I don’t mind organizing stuff actually, it took me a couple minutes to write an e-mail, some time to find a restaurant, and then send it off. It took me about an hour, with frequent stops in between to organize this dinner.

But why do we grow apart. I can tell you one thing, in first year when I met most of them, we had some classes together. That helps a lot. However, after that year, we no longer shared classes anymore, so the time we all spent with each other got shorter. Third year came along and it got even worse, we were all busy. Only before the holidays did we get together. So now most of us are working, and we all try to get together once in a while, although in my opinion not enough. However, I think one barrier that stands between us all is distance. We don’t all live within a block of each other, which is a HUGE barrier. I live in Mississauga, which is not very close to North York or other places.

Another barrier that stands between us all is the that I find that people in general that live on the east side (North York, Scarborough, Markham, Richmond Hill, you get it) are not willing to come to Mississauga usually. This is in a lot of cases. I was talking to a friend about this last Friday, we were talking about how Mississauga needs a Chinese dessert place. However, the problem is it won’t survive because the ones in East side can survive because people in Mississauga are willing to go all way over there to get some, whereas the east-siders are not willing to come over here. Now I am saying in general, so nobody bite off my head.

I think for a friendship to last, there has to be a lot of effort if you don’t see each other everyday. This effort has to be from both parties (we’ll call them A and B). Because if one party (A) really wants it, and other party (B) does not really care, but it wouldn’t be bad if it does go well, then it still does not work. Because there comes a time when the A gives up because B is not making any initiative. Not showing initiative shows A that they don’t care whether you are their friend or not. It is not important to them, so why bother with someone who does not care. So fro all you out there, show some interest in a friendship, because it does not hurt to make a friendship. And if you think you have no time for it, then it is obviously evident that you don’t find friendships important, and then why does anybody (including I) even bother?

So I hope all of you spend some time to get to know people. Find the last e-mail you got a hold of, and e-mail that person to get to know them, it is worth your time. I hope one day I will get an e-mail from you.

A weekend I remember

Wow, I'm taking a while to update this blog. I guess I value my sleep a little more now.

So what happened this weekend. Let me tell you a thing that I found disturbing that I saw this weekend. I was taking the GO train downtown on saturday afternoon. I walked onto the platform and there were tons of people laid across the platform, waiting for the train. I couldn't even walk there. But I went behind them, and as I got to where I wanted to stand, I see some girls, and you can tell they are from out of town, standing in the middle the of train tracks. Right then I wanted to say something to them "What in the world are you thinking? I don't know if you even speak english, but can't you see the dumb sign? Don't cross the yellow line, your going to get yourself killed. I don't know what you do in your country, but here we don't do that." But I didn't. Eventually they got off.

But then they went on again, walking on the tracks to the other end of the platform. There she was dancing on the tracks, sometimes waving a flag, I have no idea what country. And of course, when one person starts doing something, more people followed. This was absurd, it is so dumb. Even if they don't care if they get killed, at least don't put yourself in danger that may cause another person's life to be put in danger. That includes kids who see her walkign there, then they'll follow, and when the train comes, they may not get off the tracks. And what about the train conductor, his/her life could be ruined if they ran over you. Seriously, think about what you do and how they can possibly affect others before you go dumb stuff like that.

So I was walking tochurch from Union station, taking the underground Path. I stopped at The Gap at First Canadian place, enpty as expected. So I walked around, looking for what I wnated. Found some good stuff, not hving to fight with others to get them, it was so nice. Then I was trying on this visor in the chag\ngeroom area, because the mirror was there. And I was talking to this girl working there. Then she asked me "oh, do you work at the Gap?" I was like, "no, what would make you say that?" So anyways, I found it weird she'd ask me that. She said I looked like I did or something, I dunno.

On Sunday, I went to see Sylvia play softball in the Mississauga softball league. They're league is run so differently than CCSA. I was a bit bothered by some stuff, but it really doesn't matter so much. But I can tell they are not nearly as competitive as the CCSA league, however I do find adding some competitiveness adds some fun too. as long as there is not too much.

That's it for now, I am at work now, so better get back to my work. Hope you had a good one.

Oh, one more thing I found funny. After service on sunday, everyone was standing outside. I was talking to Shu-Ling when , oh man, forgot his name, but this guy that goes to our church, he's black. And then for some reason, they were talking about skin tone, and how Shu-Ling was no where near his skin colour. Then I put my arm up against his, and it was ALMOST as dark. Man, I am becming so dark these days, too much sun!!!!

Okay, now for sure I am done

-J

A walk down Memory Lane

Today I went to the gym after picking up my dad from the GO station and dropping him off at home. The place where I work out is right next to the baseball diamond I used to play in, Clarkson Park. Tonight, there was a little league night game.

After finishing my work out, I walked outside, and the game was still on so I thought to myself, hmm, why don’t I go take a walk over to see the game a little. I still remember playing on that field at night. Mosquitoes biting, lights bright as ever, and the trains every so often passing by behind it making tons of noise.

So as I watched, it brought back to many memories for me. I still have my jerseys from playing, the jockstrap (hehehe), the baseball caps. And as I look on, I don’t know why, but I miss playing, even thought I had a miserable time my three years playing.

It was in the late years of elementary school I played. The first year, I was playing on this team that I knew nobody. I wanted to play with my friends, but as luck would have it, I didn’t. That was a horrible rookie season for me individually. As a team, we did great, I got a trophy to prove it. But for me, I think I had a total of three hits the whole season, and two of them came in one game.

That game was very special for me, I don’t know why I did so well in that one game. I was playing all my friends that game, who were all on the other team. And one of the hits, I got off my good friend Peter Pellegrino (who I don’t even know where he is now though). And the other hit was off this supposedly amazing pitcher. So that was the highlight of my season, I don’t think I got another hit that year after that game.

The next two years I played was even worse. I don’t think I got a hit in either season. There was something wrong with me, I don’t know what. I sucked. I could not hit a ball for beans. It was me and this other guy I knew going head to head for worst batting average. Needless to say I did not have that much fun playing. I think I felt a lot of pressure to hit. The coaches were always yelling and hounding on players. And I think there was a lot of self pride in that I wanted to do amazing, but I just could not hit the ball.

So as I was watching today, it reminded me a lot of my days playing. I heard coaches yelling unnecessary things at the players. This one kid dropped a fly ball in the outfield, and this coach guy started saying in the dugout “we practiced that all Sunday…” on and on. All this disappointment is not good for a child. I wanted to yell back at the coach today, I had the urge to. I think it was the me of my childhood wanting to say something again.

I wondered as I stood there if I could hit the ball of that kid on the mound. I was thinking to myself, you know, I don’t know if I can even now. It’s shameful. But I guess I’ll never get a chance to try. I gusss thinking back I don't regret playing little leage, although I am still a but sad I did so poorly. I guess all I can say for those of you out there who do poorly at somethign is to keep on trying. I tried little league for three years and did very bad. Then I started CCSA, and I think I can say I am relatively good now. although they are two different leagues and ways of playing, it build confidence a little. I had not thought of little league in the longest time until now.

As I think back, I can honestly say those events scarred me for life. I remember before starting playing CCSA, I was very scared to play, and I was reluctant to play as well. This was because I knew I could not hit the ball, and I didn’t want to embarrass myself again by reliving the moments. But alas, I don’t remember how, but I did sign up, and here I am so many years later and still playing. I must say I think I’ve improved a lot over the years, even Yee Lee said that to me (thanks Yee Lee). But I am glad I faced my fear at that time. Even though CCSA softball is totally different from little league baseball, it was an obstacle I faced and I went over the hill.

I was thinking to myself as I left, if I’d ever push my children to play little league baseball. My parents never pushed me to play, I asked them myself when I knew my friends were playing. But I was thinking to myself that I’d want them to play. I’d want them to do well too, I don’t know why, maybe I just want them to have something I didn’t.

Current Events Today:
- Stocks rally big time today after a tumbling drop the past few days
- Loonie gained more than three quarters of a cent today, after losing more than a cent in one day two days ago
- Pope’s first vacation outside of Italy in 24 years, as he goes on a boat cruise on (ahem) beautiful Lake Simcoe

What happened...

I don't have any opinions on much right this instant, so let me update you on what's been happening in my life last few days. For those of you who care, read on. Judging from those who voted on my poll, obviously not everyone cares, and that's fine.

So Saturday I got up early after sleeping late to go to the gym. I had a great workout that morning, cause not as many people there. But then I did this inclined sit up on this bench, and now my abs are killing. Everytime I push on my stomach, it hurts now. But nevertheless, either it's working, or something is seriously wrong.

Then I went uptown with my parents and I got my hair dyed. That's right, I dyed it a golden-red colour. I like it, but I can't seem to get the styling the same way it looked coming out of the place. Unfortunately for me, I don't have a digital camera, so you don't get to see it unless you see me in person. I like the colour, and my parents don't care, they said it looked good. But you know, the weirdest thing. Usually, when I walk around Pacific Mall, I hardly ever see people I know. But this time, I bumped into like three different people I knew. So it was weird, but it was nice to see some familiar faces I have not seen in a while.

Sunday I went to church, and then we had a softball game. Funny thing happened before, I borrowed some tapes from Natalie a few weeks back, and I was going to return them to her, but when I brought my lunch to eat with everyone else, expecting to see her there, she was not. I found out she was not coming to the game. So I placed my lunch, my bag, and the tape down on the ground. The after finishing lunch, went to my ride's car, and we left. By the time we got to the DVP, I had realized that I forgot the tapes on the ground in front of the church. hahaha. Luckily some other people were still there, and they knew they were mine, and they brought it for me. But wouldn't it be funny if the tapes were just left there?

The game was another cheerful and fun game. Again, team Sanctuary had a fun time playing the Bridle Trail Chinese Baptist Church. I scored 2 runs on 2 mediocre hits but alas, we still lost. But weird thing this day. Nobody seemed to have a good read on the ball, the sky was very white like the softball, it was hard to see. That rubbed off on hitting to, as both teams seemed to be not hitting too well. We kept on popping up all over the place. So now Sanctuary has played 8 games, and we have 0 wins and 8 losses. But the biggest thing that happend is Team Sanctuary took a big hit this game in terms of losing players. Out vital players Jasmine Ng and Cindy Law are leaving us for rest of season, so the question now comes as who will fill this void?

I am here at work right now, doing this on my lunch break, only because I decided I would not go out and eat everyday this week. It takes a hit on my wallet, and it hurts. So only a few days this week. But this gives me a little time to slack off, and write this blog, and reply back to some important e-mails.

One more thing, the word I forgot about from Friday's scrabble game is:
Pate: Means top of the head

so hope your all having a good day, and if you made it this far in reading, well, thanks for reading.

-J

A Great Night

Alright, have not done this in quite a few days.

Let me tell you what happened today. Of course I went to work, which was okay. But the best part was the stuff I got out of work. I got this new virtual desktop that I'm a little skeptical about, but I'll try it out. Then I got this new Shell and Desktop Manager that I really cool. I love the way it looks.

But don't go yet, got some better stuff.

I went to James Lau and Megan Wong's birthday party. I look forward to this actually, I had a great time last year and equally as much fun this year. The food was good, Angie's Beef with Onions was very good, even though I am not a big fan of onions, I still ate it and the taste was very good. Yee Lee made this very good Tomato and Clam Linguini, like she said, something small and simple.

But the best part was yet to come. I played Scrabble for most of the rest of the night. Let me tell you, I was stretching for words all night Let me give you some detail on the words I came up with, got challenged on, and WON the battle.

Hie: To hurry up.
Aero: Air; atmosphere
Mut: Another form of "Mutt"

And I had one more word that I forget, that means "top of the head", of course I did not know all this, but then I learned a lot that game. I won the game, so that was fun.

Second game was not as fun, I was doing poorly that game. Brian Lee is a very good scrabble player I must say.

anyways, hope you all had a great day, if I figure out what that word is, I'll tell you.
Hope you learned something tonight.

-J

Difference between Men and Women

Of course I need to break this topic down, it’s way too broad to talk about. What I want to talk about is the difference between working for a women and working for a man, working for being like immediate supervisor.

I have had experience with both worlds and the in between, I’ll get to that later. First off, last two summer I’ve worked at CIBC. Let me tell you, the bank is full of women. The ratio must if not 1:1 close to that. For both summer, my direct supervisor has been a women. In fact, both summer the people I’ve worked around have mostly been women.

In this setting, there is a lot more chit-chat. The break happen much more often and then the chatting starts about several things. Last summer, countless times we talked about weddings (because one of them was getting married), talking about kids (one of them had kids), and then tons of other stuff. This includes all personal stuff like buying a house, car accidents, little things that happen. The topping on the cake happened one day when they started talking about bras and breasts. I think this happened a few times. They’d be talking about how after babies, her breasts were not has perky. She’d countless times refer to this mousepad she have of her family when she just had the second baby, and how her breasts have changed so much. Anyways, this is too much information. Even at that time, I knew I had to get out of there, me and this other guy decided to leave the room, we could not hear more.

So this is the stuff you get when you work with women. Especially when your on a team, and I was “seconded” in this boardroom all the time with them. So talk goes on forever.

The second scenario is happening now. I am now working for a technology company, and let me tell you, the guy girl ratio has got to be more like 10:1. Now in this environment, it is totally quiet. Guys do not talk. I tell you, almost everyday you get this period where you hear nothing, it’s absolutely quiet in the whole building. It is kind of weird, everyone is so focused on their work. Everyone is staring at the computer screen, reading a book or a spec.

Any talk that goes on is totally different. During lunch, any talk that goes on almost always is about something that either has a computer in it, or needs a computer to run. By that I mean electronics and software games. My coworkers always talk about the games they play, or DVD players, home theatres, oh, and cars.

So it’s weird not having the talking environment anymore, I kind of like that more. It seems so much more relax, and you get to know your coworkers so much more. I know so much about my coworkers from CIBC, and their everyday lives. Yet I don’t feel the connection as much at my current workplace.

Okay, now, the in between. By this I mean homosexuals. Yes, I have worked for a homosexual. Yes, they are not really in between, they are of one gender. But close enough. Sure, this guy was not a transsexual, so he’s not really in between. But I worked for a gay guy when I worked retail in Eaton Centre. I didn’t know it at first, but eventually I found out (not the hard way). But this guy was fair, and really nice to talk to. Nothing wrong with working for a gay person, they act like any other person, so it’s no ig deal.

So conclusion, if you need absolute focus when working, try not to work around too many women. If you like the occasional talk, then that may be better for you.

Current Events Today:
- New plans for the World trade Centre site revealed today.
- Palestinians disguised as Israeli soldiers bomb a bus near a Jewish settlement, then shoot at the people trying to escape killing 7 and wounding 14.
- Workforce in Canada getting older, says census. (That’s because all the young people are getting canned because of the lack of seniority.)

HIV Positive Muppet

There was a story I read on Yahoo about this issue. It said that politicians are worried about having this HIV positive Muppet being aired on Sesame Street on American television. I quote:

“…five members of the House committee on energy and commerce said the Muppet would be unwelcome on American TV”. (Article)

Last week, Sesame Street show executives announced they would ad a new muppet to their line of muppets that would be HIV positive. This muppet would be on the African version of Sesame Street, because one of every nine people have the virus in Africa. This was a very bold move by the executives, one that causes a lot of disruption and worry among everybody.

So are we ready for a character on TV being HIV positive? From what I remember, there has not been one character on television (and definitely not on children’s television) that has HIV, unless they are to die after a few episodes, or after a season. I don’t think that’s the intention of Sesame Street executives. I think they want this muppet to survive for a long time, to fight against this virus.

I have this feeling inside it’s not such a good move. I don’t think the world is ready for a character on television to be HIV positive. And even moreso, are children ready to see this on television. Sesame Street is aimed at an age audience of 2-4 yrs old. I don’t even know if they will be able to understand what HIV is. The show would have to like explain it every episode, or very often, otherwise, new children viewers would be lost.

While I do think children should learn about HIV at an age of influence, isn’t 2-4 a little too early? I’ve heard many time over and over that we have to teach our kids this stuff early to prevent it from happening. However, I think 2-4 is way too young. I guess kids that are older still watch the show, I know I did. I’d place the Sesame Street audience at 2-6 yrs old.

But the weird thing is, I’m not even sure the adult audience is ready for an HIV character on TV. Just thinking back, it took a long time for the television audience to prepare for homosexuality on television. I think it was the show Ellen that broke the ice. And now I think the only hit show with a gay person in it is Will and Grace.

But I also think adults should be ready for it. I mean it’s not such a bad thing to see on television. It’s just something someone has. Heck, how many times in the show do you have to mention it, it would be just like any other show. The one thing that would make a show with an HIV positive person on it suck, would be if they have to mention it every episode. Like that have to make this special thing about it every single time I watch the show, that would get me a little bothered.

So this article has US republicans saying that is it unwelcome on television in their country. First of all, what does the Department of Energy have to do with this? I think the Republicans have a point, that it’s risky having it on American television, especially to that young an audience. But on the other hand, will they understand it? Even if they don’t, that’s not the excuse/reason for putting it on the air. It may help them realize the existence a little sooner, and when they grow older, and actually learn more about it, they will have been exposed to it already a little. They have heard the term. So it might not be a bad idea, although risky, as they may lose some viewers because of parents, but I say go for it.

Current Events Today:
- Stock Exchanges down again, it looks like another tumble
- Ontario says they will arm their police with stun guns. They say these are perfect weapons, as it attacks the nervous systems to paralyzie for a second, with enough time to detain the accused. This will not kill nor harm them, just make them vulnerable for a short period of time.
- Canadians healthier, wealthier, but pessimistic. (Story)