May 29, 2003
i've been reading a lot in the news in recent years about how girls are drastically ahead of boys in all areas of school. it use to be that girls dominated verbal and language sections, while boys were better at math and sciences. that's changed now among elementary and even high school students with girls generally taking the lead in all subjects. i don't know about stats in university, but i do know that in most programs (with exception to maybe some engineering programs and computer programs), females outnumber males in nearly everything.
the question is, why are girls doing so much better than boys? most people attribute it to the fact that boys mature much later than girls and so girls start clamping down on school much earlier. i don't buy this. if this was the case than there wouldnt' be an academic differences in really young boys and girls (long before maturity). i think it's mostly because of the push from society for women to be more independent, have a working career and stray away from the traditional housewife stereotypes. but this whole time that women were getting this push, males were staying put. and now, we've (males) fallen behind. it's about time that we start pushing young boys to work hard in school and not just attribute everything to "boys just being boys".
i attended a laser safety training session today from 9am-5pm. it was the single most boring experience of my life.
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May 27, 2003
just came back from the blue jay game and i must say, toronto (as a city) is missing out on a good thing by not filling up skydome every night. i went there and i can honestly say that i had a very good time. it's a great place to go after work: chill out and have some dinner, go to the ball game, relax and chat with friends. all for 10 bucks (not including dinner of course). it's really worth it. the atmosphere there is also very good. the crowd is into the game. finally, the blue jay TEAM is actually very very good. right now, they're an offensive powerhouse that's fun to watch because of their youth and athleticism. granted, i probably enjoy baseball a little more than the average person, i wouldn't say i'm a huge fan. it's really a good time for everyone.
so next time you have some time and have nothing to do, head down to skydome and watch a blue jay game with your friends or your significant other. you won't regret it.
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May 26, 2003
hmmm. sometimes i wonder if i should really post my so-called 'deep thoughts' about friends, family, religion and life. usually, when i have comments on such topics, it's so crystal clear in my head when i'm thinking about it, but i usually forget it by the time i get around to writing it on my blog.
sometimes i really think about what kind of direction my life is taking. why in the world are marks so important to me? why are they so important to so many people? i think that for most people, it's the ultimate desire to make lots of money. i know that sounds sad, and maybe a little cynical of my peers, but let's admit it, money is the driving force behind a lot of our actions. i just think that i can do so much better than that. is it money that drives me to borderline obsess over my marks?
it use to be that i could spend 8-10 months during school worrying about getting good grades, but when summer rolled around, i always had such a fulfilling and thrilling experience that it sorta masked the depressing focus of my life during the school year. i spent my summers showing children a fun time in a loving, caring environment. summer camp was about treating everybody the same, something that a lot of these children didn't experience for 50/52 weeks in the year. i spent my summers giving 2 weeks off to parents who devote their lives to taking care of their children. i truely admire parents of disabled children, the mental and physical stress they go through must be extraordinary. i was happy to give them a little time off.
last summer, i spent my time teaching kids! just thinking about the fact that i had a positive impact on so many kids across ontario made me happy.
so back to my point, i could get away from the obsession with grades with very rewarding and fulfilling summers. i can't say this summer is exactly the same as all the others. i really think that next summer, i've got to go back to easter seals camp so that i can recover my sanity.
i hate the fact that grades rule my life. however, i try to be optimistic. i work hard now so that i can make a difference in the future. and i think that i can do that by being a physician. they say that there's a course in every medical school that teaches you to be an arrogant prick. someone remind me to skip those lectures. and if you find that i'm not, come tell me.
yvonne and i have a plan for the future. we're going to try to make a difference. not just throw money around to charities, but to actually take some action. so when we establish ourselves when we're older, we're going to take our money and start a charity. that charity is going to be used to build a camp for children with disabilities. yvonne and i are going to take our summers and run the campno matter how busy we are. that is something worth working for.
THAT is my goal. all i have to think about is that my hard work now, and my obsession with marks now, will ultimately be used for something that is not only good, but for something i'll love to do.
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May 23, 2003
with three weeks of work, officially under my belt, i can honestly say that i have a genuinely firm idea on the research i'll be doing for the remainder of the summer. it took me three weeks, but it's like a light clicked in my head in the midst of all my reading and experiments. my thesis will revolve around doing data analysis comparisons between rejected and real data read by the mass spectrometer... sorry, i'll spare you the technical jargon of what my thesis/topic will be, but i'm excited because i UNDERSTAND it! which is absolutely fabulous. look back at my blog entry from the beginning of the month and you'll read something to the effect of "i have no idea what the hell is going on". now i do, and i can work towards a goal of trying to prove something.
i'll admit that i would have preferred to do this kind of research on wet lab stuff (playing with chemicals) and not computer data analysis, but now that i'm on my way, this stuff is sorta interesting and i'd like to see where my hypothesis takes me. i guess this is what drives professors and researchers forward, this genuine interest in testing out theories and ideas. i've never had this feeling before, up until this point, i've always had information fed to me. things are so much more interesting when you're trying to figure out things in a neat and orderly (not-confused) fashion. it's great!
=( i can't believe that we didnt' get a top three pick. stupid MEMPHIS (who had the 6th most lottery balls in the draw) STOLE our top three pick away from us. and memphis doesn't even get to keep the pick the stole! they have to give it detroit! if you have no idea what i'm talking about, that's okay. the point is: stupid raptors never get anything to go their way.
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May 20, 2003
women in professional men's sports leagues.
as you probably well know, annika sorenstam begins her journey into the PGA this weekend at the Colonial. i really have a difficult time assessing the situation. one part of me is curious as to how the best female golfer in the world compares to the best male golfers in the world. the other part says that divisions between genders in pro sports was put in place for a reason. sorenstam attending the colonial puts down the validity of the LPGA. if the goal of the best female golfers all of sudden becomes to enter the PGA instead of focusing on the LPGA, what does that say about the status of the LPGA? no more than a junior league i'd say.
as for how she does this weekend, i think she'd be hard pressed to make the cut. if she does, more power to her. one thing's for sure, i'll be watching this weekend if annika manages to make the cut and play into the weekend.
on a side note, i can't wait to see how good that 14 year old korean girl phenom golfer who is over 6 feet taller and can drive the ball 290 yards becomes.
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May 15, 2003
work stupid blog. work.
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May 14, 2003
*HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUST!!* Have a good one. To celebrate, we'll go see Matrix: Reloaded tomorrow and perhaps wings and beer sometime soon.
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May 11, 2003
*HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!* Even though there are probably no moms who come and read my blog, we all HAVE mothers, so I guess it's kind of appropriate... kind of. Well I'll be heading out for the annual mother's day dinner at some chinese restaurant. as a family, we usually go to these dinners really early. we do this for a few reasons. 1) my grandmother sleeps at like 7pm, hahhaah 2) we want to avoid the crowds and inevitable waiting that exists even if you reserved a table 3) we generally eat dinner pretty early
i saw IDENTITY a few days ago. for those of you who didn't see it with me, don't go see it. i mean, it's not a horrible movie, but i really expected it to be really really good. the premise of the movie was creative and the critics said it was pretty good. what ruined it was the 'twist' or denoument at the end that explained the movie, it wasn't terribly well done and was kind of stupid...
i lost two pretty important documents. usually i keep all my letters from friends, banks, taxes, school etc... in one place. i've gathered quite a collection. but two things, my GIC confirmation and my report card from 1st nyear university have just disappeared. i'm pretty sure i put them in a 'special place' so that i wouldn't lose it, but you know how it is, whenver you put something somewhere so that you won't forget where it is, you always end up losing it because you forget where this place is. so frustrating... however, after sifting through all my old letters, i came across some really funny stuff. including notes that steph and i use to write to each other in class, letters that people sent me while i was working at easter seals camp and many funny birthday and christmas cards. ahh the memories.
marks go up on ROSI on wednesday i think.... hope i did okay.
update on work: it's getting better, i have an idea on what i'll be doing and i actually have some tasks to work on for next week.
GO MAVS and GO DUCKS! With Webber out, the Mavs should be able to take out the Kings. If they can't, then the Mavs have some serious retooling to do in the off season. Finley has to step it up, he's been playing like crap. Van Excel however, has been picking up the slack. As for the Ducks against the Wild... something is just wrong with this world when two teams called the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim is playing against the Minnesota Wild for the western conference title! a conference that has the red wings, avalanche, blues, stars and canucks.... geez.
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May 05, 2003
first day of work today and rarely have i ever felt so lost and confused. i was roughly told what my project would be for the summer and then i was sent off to read journal articles and read up on calibrating data from laser ablation mass spectrometry (LAMS). i honestly had no idea where to start and what to do. so there i was, exhausted from sleeping so little, trying to work my way through several extremely boring articles. on the bright side, i know a lot more about LAMS, on the not so bright side, i still do not have much of a clue what i'm going to do be doing from 9am-5pm everyday for 16 weeks. i think i'm going to see prof evans tomorrow to find out more about what exactly i should know. good things about my job: it's very wide open and a lot of self driven work. there's no one there pushing you and ordering you around. bad things about my job: see what's good about my job. it's a double edged sword really, even though i like being able to do what i want, it's hard to motivate yourself. hopefully tomorrow will go better.
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May 04, 2003
so that wraps up a pretty eventful 4 days off after exams. i did pretty much everything i wanted too: get plenty of exercise, relax, play some video games, eat lots, sleep lots, see movies and last but not least, drink a lot.
let's see, i saw spirited away, x2 and this movie with audrey hepburn that was really good this weekend. all were good in totally different ways. if you haven't seen spirited away (the miyazaki flick that disney bought and translated for north america), go see it. it's like this weird movie that is so cool in many ways. there are also lots of very good and interesting political messages within the movie as well. x2 is also very very good for totally different reasons than spirited away. it's just COOL. it helps if you're a fan of xmen, but even if you're not, it's still a very good movie. finally that movie with audrey hepburn, i really want to know what it's called. it's the one where she plays a blind lady and pretty much the entire movie takes place in her apartment. if you know what it's called, tell me....
the season finale of alias was on today and it was sooo good. the ending however was very unexpected and was too dramatic and too much of a turn in my opinion.
well, the fun is over and i have to start work tomorrow. i hope it's interesting.
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May 01, 2003
oh yes! i'm done. i can't believe i'm finished 2 years of university! it feels..... FANTASTIC. i think my exams went pretty well, nothing too extremely tough, and nothing too easy either. i get a grand total of 2 days a weekend off before i'm BACK at school to start my first day of work. apparently, my first project for my job will be to calibrate a mass spec... hmmm..... exciting eh?
i have a whole summer to look forward to, even though it's gonna be jam packed with stuff. hockey during the spring (first game on sunday, come out to oriole arena to watch us!), my job at UofT and studying for MCATs. Maybe i'll get a chance to catch up on some video games too. hahaha. okay so i'm a geek. shutup. the best thing though is that i'll be busy. i've yet to have a summer since i was old enough to work that wasn't completely crazy busy, and that's the way i like it.
my sister stole my nice digital camera to take pictures of her surgeries. did you know that plastic surgeons take many detailed before and after shots of their surgery? i guess it makes sense. she (my sister yvonne) says that she'll steal it for a couple months, then buy a really nice one for herself. apparently surgeons take their picture taking very seriously and nothing but the best camera will do. go figure. i'm going to make her buy me another one if she's gonna take mine. i haven't put up a picture for a while, so here's one of my, my 3 sisters, 2 of my cousins (freddy and gary) and my grandma, on her 80th bday (that would be my grandma's 80th bday). for those of you who aren't sure, my sisters are yvonne, irene and ethel from left to right.
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