Friday, June 17, 2011

11:14 PM - No comments

No day feels better than a Friday

My week thus far have composed of hitting the snooze button on my alarm multiple times before realizing it's the afternoon already. My slow work ethic has somehow slowly made it's way up to eventually completely finishing the first four weeks of material I originally planned. Just today, I managed to write down a few main ideas for some of the MCAT verbal reasoning passages. In addition, I finally saw the movie Super 8, in my opinion it's one of a kind movie where it successfully executes the combination of horror and comedy all into one bundle. The fact the main actors in the movie are kids make the acting so much more tolerable, by tolerable I don't mean bad, but much more genuine and believable. The movie is very nostalgic in the sense that it really brings back childhood memories and even throws in a little romance... (remember your first ever crush in grade 6?). I really have no idea how to end off this entry, however, I do enjoy ending things off with a topic to ponder about. Is it better to be ignorant? or tolerant? Some say an ignorant person is stupid, others say ignorance is bliss, but tolerance is patience with virtue. I personally think a little bit of both is ideal, consequently, nothing in the world is ideal and we never achieve exactly what we want. I guess it's just a tragic flaw in any character made by "god".

Thursday, June 16, 2011

11:59 PM - No comments

Things to live by

Some of the major influences of my life include both people I'm close to and those that are only read in books. Below I've listed some of my favourite quotes and philosophies that I live by, some are made by myself, other's are by famous people who's names I needn't mention.

"You can never have enough knowledge, but a little bit of ignorance is enough"
"Be who you are and do what you believe in because those to mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind"
"Be accepting of failure, but don't fail willingly."
"Failure is an opportunity to begin again, more intelligently."
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever."
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

12:26 AM - No comments

Moving the speed of light

The concept of moving the speed of light has always eluded me. The thought of moving in a dimension where time is slowed is just so unfathomable and unimaginable that whatever plausible scientific explanation to me is nonsensical. Quite on the contrary however, I well believe that humans achieving the speed of light is eventually possible. For instance, many physicists say that it is impossible for humans to acquire the speed of light as that is a physical limit to our space and time continuum. If you look at our universe however, it is a limitless ever expanding vacuum encompassing everything in existence, therefore, if we look at the big picture, there is actually nothing to limit our true potential.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

10:33 PM - No comments

The past always looks better

Everything in hindsight looks a lot better, I'm not sure why this is but it's true. When reminiscing about an event or memory from the past, everything just seems a little brighter. When living in the present, or "in the moment" as they say, we don't always have an appreciation of what this moment actually means or how much we'll miss this moment once it's gone. Only when we're "out of the moment" and in the future when we look back, and realize that this moment is rare and won't happen soon do we appreciate our friends or our family more. These heartfelt moments aren't always obvious, they sometimes come in small disguises such as always picking up a friend to go somewhere together, or always studying with a group of friends, these seemingly mundane activities seem very "normal" or anything but special. Once we stop engaging in these activities, and we relive the moments in our memories do we finally perceive how heart warming and "nice" these moments actually are.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

1:49 PM - ,, No comments

The key to the future is knowledge of the present

Friends from my most favourite television show. Largely responsible
for the type of person I am today.
Past couple of days I've missed a few entries, mostly because I haven't had an access to my computer during the day and come home relatively late to have energy left for blogging. Bad news aside, I feel my MCAT studying is slowly pick up more pace, although still at a glacial speed, I feel slightly more sense of urgency to understand and make progress. I feel what a friend told me the other day is very true, having others around you also studying MCAT helps you to stay motivated and on par with the others. The popular saying "you are are what you eat" I think in this case can be translated to "you are what your friends make you to be". After all, growing up as a child, you're one biggest influence on the type of person you become is either your parents, or the friends you hang out with. These people are so crucial in shaping how you respond to external stimuli such as interaction with people and dealing with stress. I think personally, my parents were a huge influence on myself academically. During the later years of high school, most of my friends chose the path of a less ambitious academic career such as college or apprenticeship, however, I was among the few people I hung out with to pursue University, let alone medical school. Over the past few years I believe I've learned a lot about myself. I find that I'm the type of person who thrives off the personality of others, absorbing both their good traits and sometimes also their bad ones. I find myself having a lot more humility after University as opposed to much more temperamental and sometimes arrogance back in high school. Fortunately, I realize for me to improve as a person, I can't just force myself to become someone I'm unfamiliar with, but instead, meet different kinds of people and expose myself to every possible personality.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

7:39 PM - ,,,,,,, No comments

The sounds of summer

Deceiving as the title may be, this post isn't actually about the music of the summer, but rather the entertainment I've surrounded myself thus far. As the boredom is slowly creeping it's way into my life after the high adrenaline exams, I've been watching a few television shows to change the pace and have a good laugh once in awhile. Two shows that have particularly stood out to me so far is Modern Family and Arrested Development. Modern family is a relatively new show with the pilot episode being in 2009 and successfully completing its second season this year. The major plot line being around a "modern" yet some what dysfunctional family. A very satirical approach at looking at the American dream, the shows focuses on 3 main families. The first family is a wealthy business owner into his sixties indulging himself with a beautiful young Columbian wife and her son, the second family consists of a gay couple raising a Vietnamese child, and finally the third family encompassing almost every aspect of the American dream with the soccer mom, middle working class husband and three children. My favourite aspect of the show however, has to be the characters that bring to life the comedy and humor behind each and every scene. Each character has some major faults and although expressed in different ways, affect the other members of the family on a hilariously but also urgent level.

In comparison, the second show "Arrested Development" is similar to modern family in that it is also revolving around a big family, although the Bluth family in Arrested Development is much more dysfunctional, similarities can be drawn both physically and through the humor. Interestingly, the characters in A.D. (Arrested Development) are much more developed than the somewhat shallow characters in modern family, and also builds around a much darker undertone. The amount of frustration and face palming I went through watching the first season of AD was all the more proof that is was captivating and hysterical. The plot of AD centers around the Bluth family company, a big developer for building houses around the United States. After the father (President of the company) is arrested for fraud and other illegal activities, his son Michael Bluth is forced to become the new President and keep is selfish money hungry family together. The main irony in the show is the emphasis on family - almost every episode, the phrase "family first" is mentioned yet relationships they share can hardly be called a family. I have yet to finish the series, once I do I'm sure I'll have a much better and complete opinion about it.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

12:52 AM - ,,,, No comments

A little bit of change

I've decided to create a separate blog dedicated to web designing and website building. I figure that I'll keep this blog for personal entries so my thoughts can be more organized. The other blog is http://designsurge.blogspot.com and I will be using that as a showcase for all of the designs I make in the future.

A slight reference to the WWDC that was going on today,
I hope apple brings better news than just another iOS with only
slight differences.
Back to my "personal" stuff, or what I always like to call the daily rendition, I'm finding studying MCATs at home much harder than anticipated. My motivation the past couple of days to read and take notes on rather dull subjects have come to a peak. Just today, I managed to not even complete one entire chapter of notes on chemistry. I've always believed that in order to get the best results in anything, forcing yourself will never expose your true potential, however, I think in my case, I have no choice but to force myself to concentrate and study. If I don't force my self to stay motivated, I won't achieve any results at all. Starting tomorrow, I think a realistic goal for myself is to complete two subjects in MCATs. I figure my originally proposed schedules was insanely restricting and very hard to keep up that intensity.

On a rather different topic, whilst playing volleyball at Miliken recreation center, I was put on a really young team. My team mates were probably in highschool or junior high, but these kids reminded me so much of myself when I was in highschool. A sense of nostalgia rushed over me as I saw their reactions to some big blocks and major kills in the game. The reactions seemed so genuine and full of energy that I kind of miss being back in highschool, with no worries about my future or the daily stresses that seem to plague my mind everyday. As always, I hope tomorrow brings better luck and work ethic. Although, I am looking forward to going back to the YMCA and playing more volleyball, it seems to me that the one thing I look forward to these days is an opportunity to engage in any kind of physical activity.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

8:51 PM - ,, No comments

The one person we can always trust

Found this picture on Google images, don't remember what I searched.
Although the saying "we can always trust ourselves" sounds extremely cliche, the meaning behind it is undeniably true. Take for instance the simple pleasure of pain; when our bodies feel hunger, thirst, or exhaust our body will signify our brain by shooting electrical impulses letting us know what is going on. In extension, what I mean is that our bodies will never deceive us, unless we're affected by external stimuli such as drugs or a lack of oxygen, our perception of ourselves is almost always true. The point I'm trying to make is that neglecting our own feeling of our bodies may be more detrimental than what we would expect. From a purely scientific perspective, there is always a reason why we feel a certain way. Sometimes it may be due to environmental effects such as stress, however, a feeling of uneasiness for a prolonged period of time may be sign that an annual doctor checkup is needed. Why I bring this up is the unfortunate case my own mother experienced with constant uneasiness. In her case, she felt slightly uncomfortable for many weeks. Being the paranoid person she already was, she decided to get have a full examination by the doctors. I'll spare you the details of her results, but in summary she found a tumor somewhere in her body. Needless to say, a tumor, no matter what kind is always a bad thing. Thanks to her trust in her senses however, she was able to detect the tumor early and have it taken care of before any harm was done. The overall lesson I've learned after this situation is to always trust myself when it comes to our own physical well being, after all, no one knows our own bodies better than ourselves.

In more relevant news regarding my current situation, I've finally booked my G driver license examination date. If all goes well on June 24th, I won't have to worry about doing another drivers test in my life! I drove on the road today with my driving instructor to brush up basics and go other the testing procedure. According to him, I should be more than fine to pass the examination. In addition to looking forward to hosting my little cousin from China in the months of June, I think I will occupy myself with web designing and MCATs from now until possibly the end of summer,

7:08 PM - ,,,, No comments

Orange Red Business Style Website Template

Newest design in my up and coming showing of over 10 professional looking business style web templates. For this template, I decided to use some more vibrant and dedicated colours. Again, I think I came up with this block style layout from a combination of inspirational web designs made by designers I've come across in the past. I am hoping within the next few weeks I will be able to finish coding the designs and have a public release for anyone to download and use.

In all honesty, I feel the use of blocks make any design very simplistic yet retaining the sophisticated look of a professional site. Although I didn't take the time to anchor or map the distance on each side of the boxes, the integrity of the overall layout is not compromised.

12:05 AM - ,,,,,, No comments

Overdoing things

Unbelievable day today, spent over three hours play basketball at hoop dome and was absolutely drained. My original plan was to play at hoop dome for maybe two hours, rest up, and hit up volleyball at YMCA drop in. Overestimating myself as usual, I lost track of time completely going all out on every possession leading to eventual dizziness and major headache. By the time I arrived home at 5:30 I was completed depleted of energy, to make things worse I had no appetite. I figure it must be the consequence of a prolonged period of constant sympathetic nervous system stimulation. Although I followed through with my plan to play drop in at YMCA, I felt as if my body couldn't take anymore stress. Almost every muscle group on my body was aching, from my neck muscles all the way down to the tendons in my toes. The only good result I can see from having such a reckless day is hopefully having a good night's sleep. I am hoping to be able to resume my normal circadian rhythm in the next few weeks by waking up at 7:30 AM and sleeping at 11:30 PM.

What I wish I can do everyday... play COD.
In other news, I've gone back to designing web templates once again. A task I abandoned years ago to pursue a career in "science" is slowly creeping back to me in the form of helping out a friend. In all honesty, I'm still VERY rusty compared to a few years ago, but the designs are starting to look much more professional. In addition, after completing a few templates, I feel a nice sense of accomplishment. I guess why I enjoy designing websites so much more than reading MCAT textbooks is that I can actually see the fruits of my labors come to fruition. After reading up on general chemistry or general biology I feel no sense of accomplishment. Even reading through the textbook a million times won't guarantee you a perfect score on the MCATs, and to make the pressure all the more, you have one or two maximum shots at acing the MCATs. Web designing on the other hand, can be improved upon easily, whether it be by looking at other designs for inspiration, or just learning new photoshop techniques. I say this though, knowing that the real answer is due to the lack of pressure required by web designing. There's nothing to loose if I fail at web designing where as everything is at a loss if I fail my chosen career as a science student. All in all, I think what can be learned from this ordeal is that the only thing pushing us to go forward is pressure. Without pressure we'd be so complacent in our lives with no goals or barriers to break that there would be no sense of accomplishment. In the end, what started as an upbeat blog entry turned into a depressing comparison of possible careers. At least I've established that pressure at times might seem like pain in the ass, but in the end, it is the one thing that all humans share, and the one thing that drives us to eventually do great things.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

1:21 AM - ,,,,,,,,, No comments

Web designing and website building!

It's back to business, a friend recently needed my help in building an entire site dedicated to web hosting and business directory. In addition, he needed a few web designs to possibly offer potential clients. I haven't done web designing for almost a year at this point, however, at one point I considered myself decent compared to the other services offered. Although I'm still a bit rusty at the coding, I've managed to brush up on some of the basic CSS coding and layout formatting.

Here's three designs that I recently came up with, only one of them is a fully coded and functioning website. I'm still working on translating the last two into complete functions. As you see, I'm very used to using block designs and working with dark backgrounds and depressing colours. Depending on what happens, hopefully I'll be able to post these web templates for free download and use!


 Basic black and orange design that is fluid with your web browser. Disregard the yellow highlights over words, as they are only markers for coding the site. First design after almost an entire year. This design is very simple while effectively demonstrating a stylish and modern website.











Here's my second design, this one I tried a different approach to the navigation as it is now on the side. It's a dark on gray layout so very useful for serious or professional uses. Again, not very complicated but serves its purpose as an elegant design.







Here's my final design, I modeled this layout after one of my parents' company website. This one is definitely my favourite design solely because I love using blocks, and this layout takes full advantage of that fact. As you can see, I'm slowly transitioning away from the dark and gloomy colours used previously.

Friday, June 3, 2011

2:12 PM - ,,,,,, No comments

In the shadow of our Capital.

The building representing Canada, the people and
our culture. Parliament Hill.
My trip to Ottawa yesterday was quite the change of scene from my regular routine. The drive East was much better than I had anticipated, the sun was out, there was a slight cloud coverage and almost no cars on the freeway. Aside from a few construction zones on highway 417 everything else looked absolutely beautiful. Getting to Ottawa took roughly eight hours due to stopping at Coulborg and Kingston along the way to run errands. Finding parking after entering the heart of Ottawa was quite the challenge, having construction left, right and center made the task all the more difficult. Nonetheless, as you can see from the pictures, I made it to Parliament Hill successfully! What made the day all the more pleasant was the lack of tourists - the tourists that regularly swarm the scenic capital area taking pictures, guided tours and talking obnoxiously loud were absent. Almost the entire Parliament Hill was free for the enjoyment of myself, my mother and a few other serious looking politicians. Although I had never planned to take a look inside the Capital building, I never ruled out the possibility. After asking about the guided tours offered for the inside of parliament, it was brought to my attention that yesterday was the first day of work for the new house of commons. The elections for the new speaker of the house was currently underway and all tours around the interior was cancelled. This didn't bother me too much, however, I realized that I desperately needed to get more informed about the politics of my own country.

The capital building of our nation in all its glory.
I've been to only a few capital cities in my life: Beijing China, Tokyo Japan, Washington D.C., and Ottawa Canada. The one thing that strikes me most when comparing these capital cities is how different our own capital is from the others. Both Beijing and Washington have a mini army of law enforcers and police guarding every possible exit and entrance of the capital buildings. While Tokyo, being the capital of a demilitarized nation lacks such visible law enforcement, contains a deeply ingrained culture represented in the architecture of their buildings and the legacy left behind by past emperors. All three of the previously mentioned Capital cities successfully demonstrate the prowess and global dominance of their respective nations, whether it be in military power, or their rich culture. Ottawa, the Capital city of the glorious and free nation of Canada, however, lacks either of the patriotic presence or a significant and identifiable culture. What I realized instead, was a quiet city built around the multicultural community that has come to define Canada. Perhaps what separates us from other nations is not our lack of patriotism, our lack of one specific culture, or our lack of history. But, instead, I think it's the myriad of different cultures represented in our demographics that successfully make Canada one of the greatest countries to live in. The colourful demographics seen in Canada is an effective representation of a mini globe. The different ethnic groups and cultures that define our entire country make Canada a microcosm of our world, no other nation demonstrates this effect as clearly and elegantly as Canada.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

1:19 AM - ,,,, No comments

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? Not always?

Suitable image descriptor of what I'm starting to feel.
A day ago, in the onslaught of the 40 degree Celsius weather I realized two important things. The first being that pain is one bittersweet blessing in disguise that most of us take for granted. Secondly, it seems that some things that fail to kill us, or in my case not even close to killing me, actually made me both mentally and physically weaker. To explain what exactly I mean, take my first example for instance. I decided to walk to the library that day in my slip on sandals, the pseudo Japanese style where there's a split between your big toes. Either the nauseating heat distracted my senses or I was hallucinating, but the sandals had caused so much blistering on the bottom of my feet that by the morning of today it had turned into a serious infection. What surprised me the most was not the intense bleeding or even the puss secreted by infection, but, it was from the lack of pain. Had I felt the pain earlier, even before I went to sleep, or better yet before I went to the gym I would probably be able to walk normally right now. In retrospect, now twelve hours after I realized the infection, it seems that this seemingly small wound caused an entire day of fatigue and restlessness. I've always believed in the saying: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger", but in this case, I just can't imagine how it can possibly make me stronger in any sense; whether it be character building, mental strength, or physical strength. Aside from not being able to walk normally, I officially cannot work out at the gym, play volleyball, or walk to the library. Talk about killing "3" birds with one "pebble". Not only has this small injury impeded my study routine, it has effectively caused significant delay in my work out schedule possibly leading to physical incompetence in the future. Obviously this might be "slightly" exaggerated, but I just feel slightly exasperated.

Heading down to Kingston and Ottawa tomorrow for a little change of scene, maybe even a bit of a mental relaxer. Hope it will bring a turn in the tides of my unlucky fortune in the past few weeks.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

1:03 AM - ,,,,, No comments

Good things come with moderation.


32 Degrees of a daily high and a humidex of over 70% you can be sure summer is finally officially start to kick in. With the majority of the day feeling more like 41 degrees Celsius I couldn't help but feel slightly delirious walking both to and from the North York Central Library. As if my day couldn't be any harder, a mind numbing headache decided to rear into the back of my head and completely destroy my already lacking concentration. At the end of what was supposed to be a productive day, I was barely able to finish the readings I assigned myself in the previous week.

I don't think I'm gonna bother going into details about the latter part of my day mainly involving getting packed in the face, not once, but three consecutive times during volleyball. Well it's safe to say my headache never went away. I think besides having such a depressing day, I've learnt that any good thing in large amounts usually results in disappointment. Take weather for example - too warm brings headaches, too cold brings the shivers, but, a moderation of the two brings peace and a ease of mind. I'm hoping tomorrow will bring better moderation and an increase in productivity.

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