I've been wondering for a while time now, hoping to realize what I want to be/what I want to do with the rest of my life/ what career path I want to go into/what style of living I would want.
I have some ideas of what I strive for but it's still very foggy when I go into depth.
I read on a book that if you'll be able to find out what you want through time, sometimes that comes very quickly for people, individuals such as Steve Jobs who found Apple in his parents' garage when he was only 19. But others search sometimes for half of their lifetime for something that they are passionate about.
I haven't found my passion yet, but then again I'm only 15 right?
First of all, I would like to apologize for my long absence for the last few months. School has been extremely busy and painful, but nonetheless, it was no excuse for not occasionally updating the blog. I will make it a priority of mine to post up at least one blog once a week.
So on topic now,
Canada is a country of the wealthy, we're abundant in many aspects:
- 3rd country with the most fresh water
- 9.6 people/square kilometre
- minimum wage ranges of $9-$10.25
But...
When it comes to high school education when compared to the U.S, ours seem to lack many qualities. One of them would be universal high school testing. For example, in United States, SAT is an entrance exam that is owned by College Board, a non-profit organization. This test allows all students, despite the teaching methods, grading schemes of their teachers to be tested on an equal level.
Canada on the other hand, has long talked about a similar grading system, but has never actually imposed it. Here, it depends on the grades that the students receive at the end of grade 12. This can be extremely difficult as well as biased because of the different standards of education throughout Canada. Personally, I have known people who switch from great high schools to not-so-great ones during their twelfth year just to ensure they are able to maintain a good average that gets them a spot in their desired university.
Another problem would be the two kinds of high schools, term and semester. Term high schools carry out all eight subjects at the same time throughout the whole year.A schedule goes with the school year, split into 'days', which in turn then alternates during the week, the workload is often much heavier. Semester schools repeat the same classes everyday from September to January, and from January and June.During the end of each period, there are exams and summatives.
The semester system may have flaws when considering long term effectiveness. But in the context of grades for university and college entry, it may be the easier way out. Is it fair that two methods should be used in the country?
I've heard many times either from my parents, friends and teachers that time management is crucial. It is the most valuable item that you have, yet there are a drastic difference between how people spend it.
Of course I'm not a good time manager myself, I procrastinate and use twice or three times as much time as I need, often busying myself with unnecessary things.
One teacher told me that see the important things that you do in your life as the larger stones and pebbles in your day and the smaller things that aren't so essential as the sand that will fill the space in between the large stones.
Sure, that sounds very convincing and logical, but as most of the things are in life, it is easier said than done.
On October 13th, 2011, a two-year old girl in the Foshan area in China was hit and ran over by not just one, but two vehicles. As if this wasn't bad enough for her fragile little body that, in the next ten minutes, 18 pedestrians will pass by, but none, none of them will be willing to lend a hand, or even call the police to report the accident.
It showed the people, all varying in age, gender, working class. What especially shook me to reality was when a mother with her child, seemingly around the same age as little Wang Yue, walks by without giving second glances. How a child's mother be put in that situation and not call for help? Surely, maybe some of her father's hardware store neighbours would help, but no one, until a 58 year old scavenger woman decided to move her lifeless body to the side and go look for aid.
This incident led chills down my spine for a very very long time.
But the ugly truth behind the Chinese society today is that there are far too many people in China. Over two billion and growing, there is that lack of sense community. The country has grown too right wing, only caring about their own benefits and losses.
Another explanation to this accident would be similar situations from before, where a elder has fallen down, a warm-hearted pedestrians decides to step in and help, but ends up being framed by the senior of pushing them down. In a place like China, where competition for jobs is fierce, and a place with a large middle class workers, they cannot bet their incomes on the conscience of the family.
The girl is in now hospital, but when and whether she will ever awake is a mystery that her family wishes to be soon solved.
Nuit Blanche in Francais means all-nighter, aka code for party! It is annual arts festival held in downtown Toronto that starts at sunset and runs till the next morning's sunrise, so approximately from 6:30PM to 6:30AM. Artists from all over bring their authentic artwork for display, the quirkier the better!
I went with a few friends to check it out:
Photography by: Kevin Li
At first glance, this art piece doesn't really scream "I'M AN ART PIECE." But this creation is to reflect on the G-20 ( The group of twenty Fiance Ministers and Central Bank Governors) protest that happened in June, 2010. It brought massive damage to the downtown area, many took this as an opportunity to steal and gain.
To start off, I'd like to apologize for the lack of blog posts over the last week. I've been extremely busy with homework, 7 AM basketball practices and sleep. This past week has been disastrous especially because I came down with a cold, a stuffy nose and sore throat.
Anyway, a few days ago, I read that many teenage girls in India are forced into prostitution. India isn't the only country that encourages this practice: Thailand, Cambodia, and many other Asian/Middle Eastern countries are all involved in the trade. But the girls are not abducted and then forced in by some mysterious trafficker, they're forced in by their own family. Their mother, father, brother and sisters. This has long been the tradition passed down by their ancestors, they see it as a way to increase the family income, as a way for the family to live better off the prostitution of the girls.
A red light traffic area in India
The girls enter during their teenage years, and work until they're in their late 30s. In a country like India, where work for women is far more harder to find than in North America, a daily income of 1000-1500 rupees ($12-$15) dollars by serving 10 - 12 customers a day seem like a irresistible deal. I mean it's understandable, there are so many unbelievable things that people would be for money. Especially in a country where money doesn't come easily.
Many prostitutes in the trade find it hard to quit, mostly because of they're so used to the daily massive income. Therefore, the only possible solution would be for the girls to never enter the trade in the first place. Education, education, education. It is the key. The girls need to learn there ARE other options than just prostitution.
Note: The girl is not Priya
A mother, who's in the trade right now named Meena, had called her experience hard work. She sometimes defends the industry but blames her family for the burden that she now carries. She has to support her family, as well as her sister and brother's family.
Meena herself has a daughter named Priya, but she does not wish that her daughter follows in her footsteps, but rather receive a better education and follow her dream, which is to become an actress. Girls need to achieve equality. The movement began in North America in the late 1900s, hope will continue a long time down the road in the future.
A seventeen year old teenage boy has been wondered into the city saying that he has lived in the forest for five years now.
He speaks English and a little big of German but has no memory of anything whatsoever except for that his name was Ray.
His dad and him has retreated into the woods since his mother died and had lived there ever since. But the duo had never made their own shelter but lived in huts and tents they found. The boy started walking in August and walked for two weeks
Police are now looking and searching for information within Europe to find his identity and background information.
But tons of questions rush to my mind. Why did he and his dad retreat into the woods after the boy's mother died? Was it that much of a devastating blow to the father and son? After being born in the wild how are they able to adapt to the wild life? What did they hunt and eat? In times of emergency, how did they get help? They've forgotten themselves so much that they lost their everything except for their first name? Everything just seems too strange, but it's far too early to jump to any conclusion, only time will tell...
Does that look familiar to you? It's been a decade since the terrorist attack happened on 2001/09/11.
8:46AM - The North World Trade Centre Tower was struck
9:03AM - The South World Trade Centre Tower was struck
9:37AM - The airplane landed in Pentagon, Washington
10:03AM - The airplane crashed into Shankville, Pennsylvania
Many around United States and worldwide paid tribute to the victims that had their lives taken away in the three attacks in New York (lower Manhattan), Washington and also Pennsylvania. The tragedy claimed the lives of 2,977 people in total, that includes workers and visitors of the twin towers, the victims of the Pennsylvania and Washington incident and the first response rescue workers.
Present Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, previous president George W. Bush all paid a visit to the recovering site of the World Trade Centre today. George W. Bush read a paragraph extracted from a letter that President Abraham Lincoln had sent to a mother that had lost five sons in the Civil War, citing his deepest apologies and highlighting that they gave their blood for a country that thrives because of them.
Obama Bin Laden, the master mind behind the attack was killed in Pakistan in May, it does give comfort to know that he is dead, but that doesn't even fill up a quarter of the emptiness and loneliness that the victim's family and friends have lived for the last ten years of their lives.
But obviously we should remember there are no faults that are committed without a trigger. United States must have somehow dismayed the Al Qaeda by giving "help" to their countries that they did not want. Perhaps in the future, before we give further help, we should negotiate with those countries to prevent anything similar from ever happening again.
A decade marks great changes, good ones, bad ones, and hopefully better ones. Prayers are sent out for the pricks of the heartaches that thousands of families feel on a day to day bases to end.
Many Canadian students have been going back to school this week, particularly students that live in Ontario have been slowly trickling back after their long extended holidays.
Back to school week was supposed to be one of those intense fashion weeks. Everyone usually wears their best clothes to show off who they are. But the weather has been too cold to dress up, so I've been bundling up to keep warm. I just can't risk the chance of catching a cold, as I take extremely long to recover from them.
Lookbook.nu is one of my favorite websites to visit if I want to get interesting and creative ideas for my outfit, so I'm going to pick out some outfits that I think fit into the first week of the school. These are outfits that I would have loved to wear. (They're more on the summer to fall transitioning because it's getting quite cold here in Canada.)
The outfits that I would have chosen:
Tuesday: First day of school. Don't want to be trying too hard, pick something comfortable that you can walk in to find your way to your new classes, meet some old friends and have a few hugs here and there. Baggy sweaters are in for the winter and fall, (even though this is more of a long sleeved shirt you could also substitute this for a baggy sweater) But you can curl your hair or straighten it if you have curly hair to make it seem fancier.
Wednesday: The slightly warmer day of the week. Simple, simple, simple. Sometimes simple things are the best. This is the casual sheek look, paired with a tank top, some sweats and converse.
Thursday: High waist shorts are really popular for the summer, so make the transition by wearing tights under to add warmth, black leggings under shorts also makes your legs appear thinner. A baggy old looking 80s sweater adds a pop of color.
Friday: Feeling feminine? No problem, a pretty up-do, along with a pretty little dress from summer, a thin belt to make your figure look more womanly, black leggings, a cardigan over and a pair of boots finishes your first week off!
Hope you guys have all had a great and warm first week!
I remember the days when cloning was just a dream, something that I'd watch from a Doraemon episode, somewhere down the road in the future. But that was made possible in July 5th, 1996, the day that the first ever cloned mammal Dolly was born in Scotland.
Now that we've mastered cloning, some are aiming for a new kind of technology. Using stem cells to revive animals near extinction. One of the probably candidates is the Northern White Rhinoceros. Only seven of this species are alive now. This never fails to amaze me to what we have done to our planet, this is the fate that many animals will endured or have already endured, like the popular known passenger pigeons.
The stem cells will be used as a last resource, but I hope we will rarely need to use that kind of technology again. The whole aspect of using stem cells and cloning gives me the chills and feels entirely unnatural. I hope that we will never have to stare at the stuffed corpse of the animal in some museum but we will be able to touch the living animal's hide or fur and remember what a beautiful creature that it is to share this Earth with us.
Does anyone ever have those days where it's raining and humid outside and you just want to sit in your air conditioned homes and scroll down to the newest news feed from Facebook?
Those days where I feel like my hands are just glued tight to the keyboard or the mouse.
Those days where I replay songs over and over again until I could sing it fluently even though I don't speak the language.
Those days that I just lie in bed and let my mind run wild, often surprised about my head comes a stop to.
Those days that I just have a light migraine that isn't enough to bother me, but lowers me to a mood level where I don't feel like doing anything productive.
Those days that I could just stare outside my window forever.
Those days that I want to talk to someone but can't find the right person.
Wongfu Productions is a ever-so-fast growing production company composed of Philip Wong, Wesley Chan and Ted Fu, who met in 2004 and kept in touch while completing their university education at University of California, San Diego.
The trio has wonderful ideas and perspectives about many aspects of life. The one that I wanted to share today is a short film directed and written by Wesley Chan, called Shell.
The story explores the concept between reality and imagination. Somehow near the end, the two strands intertwines to form the ultimate imaginality, a word that I made up just to describe this situation. I guess it's also kind of like deja vu.
I love their photography, story lines, concept and most of all their humour. Enjoy!
Last week was a great week for Libya. It was a weekend full of partying, joy, sparked up hope and most importantly a day that declared a chance of reform. Gaddafi's 41 years and 363 days as the autocracy (meaning a person given unlimited power over a nation) has finally come to an end.
Someone needs a bit of coffee...
The rebel fighters fought fierecely through the country's capital, Tripoli, on Friday night. Almost all of the pro Gaddafi fighters had somehow exasperated out of thin air, perhaps seeking shelters for themselves after seeing what has happened. Muammar Gaddafi on the other hand had gone into hiding along with his family. To put a end to Gaddafi once and for all, a wealthy Libyan businessman has offered a million euros for Gaddafi, dead or alive, that's around one million four hundred thirteen thousand and twenty three hundred (1,413,023,000)! It's definitely not a small number in any case at all.
Pure gold mermaid sofa taken from Aisha Gaddafi's home
The family possesses bad reputation. All of Gaddafi's sons and daughters have been living luxurious lives while the country suffered from poverty. Their beautiful compounds filled with gigantic swimming pools, expensive wineries and modern, breathtaking mansions. As compared to the lifestyles of most Lybians, you could truly only divide them into two categories, heaven and hell.
One of Gaddafi's daughter-in-law abused her Ethiopian nanny just because she had refused to beat her children when they were restless. As a result, Aline Skaf (former model) poured boiling water over the nanny's head as a punishment, then isolated her in a room so no one was able to reach or help her. Out of sympathy, a guard offered to help but later on Skaf found out and threatened to do the same if he dared again.
What a horrifying family, I'm happy for the nation that such a dictator has finally fallen.
So I checked out The Ex this week, it's a once-a-year event held in the Canadian National Exhibit centre. It runs from August 19th to the 5th of September. Here are some events that I encounter while roaming around:
The entrance area. It looks like a carnival doesn't it? ( The qualities of these photos are not the best because they were taken on my phone camera. )
The thrill rides are extremely over priced, six something - a bit more and less of Canadian dollars for 30 seconds of your life. If you really want to go somewhere where various roller coasters dominate the landscape, go to Canada's Wonderland!
Excuse my bad photo taking skills, the background was suppose to say "Hairspray" but instead it says "Airspray". I'm quite talented at creating random transformations of perfectly normal things, aren't I? It was a Ice Skating Show featuring Canada's own 2010 Bronze medalist Joannie Rochette.
More of my wonderful photography
The grand opening of the show, everybody grooved along with the popular party song of We Will Rock You - Queen.
A peakof the star's arrival on the ice!
Trippy ? I think so. Does anyone know what these are called? I think they're meant to be kept on the balcony.
Sand sculptures!
A stone sculpture. They are created by finding the balancing point of each rock. Anyone else see that face on the top of the rock? I thought it kind of looked like an alien, therefore I added a space effect.
Fantastic smelling flowers, the store said "All natural", but the flowers themselves smelled a bit processed.
A fancy dressed English man in our 21 century. I guess the vintage look is really coming back hard and fast.
Beautiful colored lamps, I would love to have one in my room.
Super dog show, what is so great about it is that 40% of the dogs in the show are adopted from the Humane Society and animal shelters.
But during the visit I found that there were so literally tons of companies of all sizes, big and small, advertising their products. The irony in this is that we were paying to go there. In a sense, are we paying for advertisements?
All in all, it was a great experience, I hope those of you who can go will go visit before the annual event pulls its curtains on the 5th of September
Is the world coming to an end? We'll soon to find out as the designated day approaches, but I have deep doubts about it. Just like many other apocalypses and predictions that predicted the world to come to an end, it never did yet.
Two days ago I experienced my first earthquake of 5.8 while I was sitting cross legged on my desk typing away when I suddenly felt my desk sway while the plastic blinds in front of me flew back and forth uncontrollably. At first, I thought it was just myself being on the computer for too long and started having illusions. But the Earthquake statuses on Facebook confirmed that I wasn't just day dreaming about it. That quake shook me to reality, I should be living my life and even if I do die in 2012, die with no regrets.
Could 2012 be real? The Mayan calendar showed so, but maybe the Mayans could just have been too tired and exhausted to continue their now world famous calendar.
Well, whether it's true or not, we'll just have to see. Live in the moment and not in the past or the future.
Jack Layton passed away on early Monday morning at age 61. He was surrounded by his loved ones, including his Hong Kong born wife, Olivia, and his two children from the previous marriage. Layton is one of the most known politicians in Canada, who had led the now opposition party of Canada, New Democratic Party to it's station which had long been possessed by the Liberals.
The old NDP leader retired only last month to treat and recover from the prostate cancer that was diagnosed in February 2010. But waslater misdiagnosed and confirmed as non-prostate cancer.
The flag on top of Parliament Hill in the Country's capital, Ottawa, was lowered half mast . Prime Minister Stephen Harper also paid tribute to the politician.
Jack Layton had big hopes for this country, as he called it one of the most hopeful countries in the world. We will remember how he dedicated the last moments of his life running the election in May to lead his party to a place it hasn't been before. His death brings a nation's grief. We will always remember him as an activist in our community, and someone that made great contributions in making our country a better place.
A while ago, my friend Catherine showed me a little lovely book by a Taiwanese author, named Jimmy Liao.
Inside unfolded a tragic but beautiful love story. Here's my translation of it:
*Note: read the story first so you have a general idea of the story
The grey sky always befell during the autumn, in a city of dread, a girl and a boy lived together in an apartment with a wall in between as a divider. Whenever they went out, he always turned left, and she always turn right habitually. Therefore, they had never met or been acknowledged the presence of each other on this Earth. Winter slowly descended upon the city as days passed. On those days, the boy would sit in the snow covered park to play his violin and feed the wondering pigeons. The girl would roam around on the streets, and occasionally talk to strayed cats for comfort. After a long day, she always turned right to go home, and he always turned left. So, they never met.
One day, they met at a park, like old friends, they talked and talked and talked. Until it started to pour. She gave him her phone number and left. Him, turning left and her, turning right.
That stormy night, they were too excited to fall asleep, the image of them together in the park replied again and again their heads.
The next day, the girl stayed home on her couch, huddling around the phone waiting for the phone call. The boy, sat against his couch against the wall that divided them two and dialed again and again, trying to make out the numbers that was smudged by the rain.
Another year passed, while playing violin in the subway, the music brought out his thoughts, Is she still here, here in this city? Or is she long gone by now? But they met the same strayed cat, the same lost puppy and wake up everyday to the weak shining sun and heard the same quacking crow.
After enduring the miserable time here, he decided to leave this gloomy city to find another place filled with sunshine. She did too, but at the apartment door, he always turned left and she was turned right, leaving behind a city of darkness and memories of each other.
This story reminded me that we should cherish everyone/thing that we possess because you'll never know if when we're going to lose it, like the girl and boy in the story. Chance fooled them, created sparks in their hearts and then put it out with ice cold water that destroyed all signs of hope. This is what I feel about living, catch it by the tail to prevent it from slipping away, it could be an opportunity, a person's feelings or even an apology that you know you have to make. The decisions that we make also largely impacts our lives. If only one of them decided to change their directions,they would've been living happily in that gloomy city. I hope I will be much luckier than the boy and girl, or at least I will try my best not to be.
There are times where other than a dog, pen and paper are your best friend. Sure, the technology is advanced, you could do practically anything on your laptop or computer, but what I do to truly express my feelings on is a piece of paper and a good pen.
I encounter many moments where after a long day, I just want to slip into my covers and write. Write about things that come to my mind, things that I secretly care about, things that I wish had changed. I just let my mind roam with no specific targets to meet. It might not even come out in complete sentences. Scribbles, sketches, whatever it takes, and then hide them into a place where no one will ever look for.
Mosquitoes. Little sneaky, blood sucking creatures that descend when summer arrives. I'm sure everyone has been bitten by these pests before, but how serious is the problem?
Malaria is a major disease responsible for 225 millions of cases worldwide, though most of these victims are in Africa. In decades, man kind has been fighting to defeat this parasite.
First, a little explanation of how malaria is transmitted. It all begins when a female mosquito bites into a human's skin. While sucking out the blood it transfers its young, called sporozoites, which then live in the liver until it's ready to produce asexually (producing only in one sex, in this case, females). It then advances to the next stage of merozoites, and travels out of the liver and invades healthy cells, and overtake them for further reproduction of dividing. When it has matured, it will continue the cycle and bite its next victim.
This problem is the most serious and common in Africa, that's why organizations have worked hard to prevent this from occurring. Nets sprayed with insecticide has cut off the infection rate by half, since being distributed a few years ago.
Unfortunately, during this period, mosquitoes have also developed immunity to the pesticide Deltametrin , the percentage has risen from the previous 8% to an astonishing 48%.
Also, after a period of protection from the parasite, when exposed again, the human immune system weakens, and the parasite comes back harder than ever.
What lies ahead about the malaria control in Africa? Hopefully, better prevention methods. But only time will tell.
