I’ve always enjoyed blogging because it is a time where I can reflect upon myself and keep others updated on activities. Blogging seems to be more important now than in the past because everyone is so busy with their own life and most of my friends still live in Victoria. So I’d like to take time to write a thanks to everyone who takes time out of their day to read my blog, especially my friends back in Victoria.
I plan to make it over to Victoria some time this summer on a Wed-Thurs. Hopefully, Tue-Thurs if they can give me a day off of work.
Every day I make decisions. Some of which may be important at the time, or some may not. I can attempt to predict the path that my life will take, but that’s all I can do, predict.
A few years ago, I saw a job posting at my workplace for a weekend first-aid attendant. At the time I was already working on the weekends, so I figured I might as well apply since I really enjoy learning and my shift couldn’t get any worse. I eventually got the posting and took the intensive 40-hour week long course, which I passed. During my time as a first-aid attendant at work, I learned a lot about people. For example, there are some people elaborate the cut on the finger and there are people who want to continue working after they become concussed. But most importantly, I learned that I wanted to help people. First-aid only lets you help people that are in dire situations, such as extreme trauma.
So with the desire in place to help people and keep myself forever employed in the health field, I looked up all the health related jobs that I could find. I found that I wanted to become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), which pretty much consists of the grunt work for the actual nurses. The program was only one year long, but the wait list was two years long. Around that time, I was having dinner with my dad, brother, and his fiancée, who is a Medical Office Assistant (MOA). She told me about her experience working for an endocrinologist.
Since I had a few years to wait to get into the LPN program, I decided to give this MOA gig a shot, since the program was only one year and there was no wait list. A few months later, I was in a class with 29 other girls. I know how girls feel like being in a computer class with 29 guys now. I will remember this particular experience for the rest of my life, “okay girls…. and Jerry”. At the end of the course, I decided that the MOA path was not for me. But I am glad that I took the course, because I am much more educated on diseases and medical terminologies -I really annoy the girl when we watch Grey’s Anatomy.
During my time in the course, I happened to take out a Nutrition textbook which I loved so much that I bought, $130. I took a semester off so that I could not only enjoy my first summer not working like a dog, but to actually read this textbook and improve myself through diet and exercise.
One of the goals that I have is to get a 6-pack. Shallow? Maybe, but I’ve never had one, so I am now going to try. I searched for a workout on YouTube and found this one:
After doing this seemingly easy routine, I will never laugh at the people on these reality weight loss shows again. I turned this 8 minute ab workout into a 20 minute grinder. 30 seconds of rest after two exercises? Laugh. I think not. I thought I was pumped and ready to go after 20 minutes on the elliptical, but I was mistaken. This workout demoralized me about the reality of my strength of my abs, but enthused me at the same time.
Anyway, back to the main point of decisions. I make plenty of decisions every day, as do we all. But I am glad that the steps that I took ages ago have transformed me more into the person I want to be, literally and figuratively. And If I were to predict my future ages ago, my FFXI character would be the leetest of them all. Thank god that prediction didn’t become reality.
My parents don’t tell me to “do my best”, but I often hear phrases like that on sitcoms. If I understand the phrase correctly, the phrase translates to try as hard as you can within reason. The phrase doesn’t mean you have to be better than your competition, but to just push yourself. I believe that since you are competing against a comparable subject, yourself, that you can possibly push yourself further. But to ask anyone to be the best, sounds unreasonable, because the other parties may have significant benefits over yourself; the playing field is not equal. So that’s why I believe the phrase implies, within reason.
The reason that I bring up a silly topic like this is because people that I know disregard what is best for them and try one up everyone around them just for the sake of being the best. For example, one of my friends wants a new computer next year to replace his aging one. The problem is that the computer he wants has to be the best. I told him that a basic computer would meet and exceed all of his needs, saving him thousands of dollars. His response was rather typical being that it had to look amazing and be better than everyone else’s computer. Ugh, people like him frustrate me. I wonder if his tunnel vision is based off of some sort of an elitism complex or whether he just can’t differentiate needs from wants.
I also experienced a similar situation the other day. I bought popping popcorn, not knowing that there is a difference between the non-microwavable type and the microwavable kind. Michelle made it painfully clear that there was a difference -multiple times. She said that I needed a popcorn maker to turn these kernels that I purchased into the popcorn that I know. So I loaded up the Google and began my search. I found a model that would meet my needs at a reasonable price, but there were negative reviews. So I continued looking for a better model. I eventually found an awesome popcorn maker for $80. I could easily afford the price, but I did not need the genuine popcorn taste nor did I need another hulking appliance in the kitchen. On top of that, the crazy woman next to me was not too pleased with that fact that I was going to spend $80 for another appliance just to make up for a mistake of purchasing the non-microwavable kernels.
I had no intention of having the best popcorn maker out of all my friends, but I wanted a product that would consistently produce. And even though I did not purchase the product I always use the same reasoning when purchasing products:
What are my needs?
How often would I use it?
Is there a reasonable cheaper alternative?
What does the lady thing? (since my money is hers and vice versa)
I have a purchasing system in place to minimize wasteful spending. About wasteful spending, I wonder why would anyone ever purchase a new car? The vehicle depreciates substantially over the first two years. Why not just buy the older version of the same model for %20-%25 cheaper? The risk of purchasing a used vehicle from a dealership is minimal at best. I bought my car from a place that restores cars that have been in accidents. I got the incident report from ICBC and I got it checked out by a mechanic to minimize any surprises. There is a negative stigma associated with purchasing vehicles like this, but for a savings of $4000 and being told by my trusted mechanic that everything was good to go, why wouldn’t I buy?
I really wonder. If you need things shiny and new and value your money, you might want to check into that complex that is costing you your hard earned money. I wish I could relay the message through to my unreasonable friend and save him thousands of dollars. Sigh…
Vitamin String Quartet -- Yellow // League of Extraordinary Dancers is the group performing
Really big dance/cold play/melodic fan. Merge all three and you got my love.
Here’s a torrent for 40 of their albums: here
SNSD & 2PM -- Cabi Song // I’ve listened to this song over 50 times >_<
G.E.M. Tang - All About You
There is an English version of this song by Kaci Brown which sounds horrible... Here
Asian Kung-Fu Generation -- Solanin // My favorite band in any language
Asian Kung-Fu Generation -- shinseiki+no+Love+Song
Mmm, I’m so full now. My sous chef, Michelle, and I, chef boyardee, made a delicious dish today: Turkish Lamb Stew. A short shopping trip for the ingredients and some chopping and we had ourselves a dinner. As much as I would like to take credit for this yum-yum in my tummy, most of the credit goes to our coach: Personal Trainer: Cooking.
I used to flip pancakes at the International House of Pancakes, but I couldn’t transfer my skills there to kitchen at home. I could throw together crepes with one hand or assemble the greasiest omelette’s, but could only make noodles at home. I know the skill is there but I believe there is a lack of desire. If I just wanted to have one crepe, I would have to spend at least 30 minutes on preparation alone to make the one crepe. Whereas noodles have minimal preparation and cooking time.
Personal Trainer: Cooking let’s you view hundreds of recipes from all over the world. The game pretty much tells you everything you need to know from shopping list, utensils needed, and even extra things you can do or save time with, like whether or not you want to spend 3 hours making broth or just buy the broth to save time. Each recipe is broken up into many detail steps. Since your hands are generally occupied while you’re cooking you can say next to get the following step, last to go to the previous step, or repeat to have the instructions for the same step read again.
I last played this game a few months ago, but during that time I did find a recipe that I wanted to make. I didn’t want set time aside to make the dish at the time, but today I felt motivated and wanted to do something other than max the stats of my Final Fantasy X characters. So voilà ;D Stew a’dew!
I’ve just finished up watching all 74 episodes of Monster. I took a 4 year hiatus around episode 50 due to my addiction to gaming and making money (overtime!) but I eventually finished the series up. I am so glad that I continued on. Upon watching the first episode, I realized how much suspense with a touch of morality I was missing. Initially I had trouble remembering the world of 40+ characters, but they slowly seeped back into my memories as Tenma continued his search for Johan.
This anime differs from others because the story doesn’t put a strong emphasis on love-triangles or becoming stronger – 99% of anime. Here is a plot summary from AnimeNfo.com:
Dr. Tenma is a Japanese brain surgeon working in Germany. He has it all: incredible medical skills, a great job, and a beautiful fiancée who also happens to be the daughter of the hospital’s director.
One day he is ordered to forgo operating on a critically injured man in favor of a more illustrious patient. Disillusioned by the hospital’s politics, he decides from then on that he will do what he thinks is right, regardless of politics.
Some time later, a young boy and his twin sister are brought in. The boy has a bullet in his head and requires an operation that Dr. Tenma knows only he is capable of performing successfully. Just as Dr. Tenma is about to begin the procedure, the mayor is rushed into the hospital and the director instructs Dr. Tenma to leave the boy to operate on the critically ill mayor. Dr. Tenma decides that he will do what is right and go ahead with the boy’s operation.
The young boy’s operation ends in success but the surgeons operating on the politician fail. As a result, Dr. Tenma is passed over for a promotion and his fiancée calls off their engagement.
Soon after this incident, strange murders begin to occur, all of which benefit Dr. Tenma greatly. As a result, he becomes the prime suspect although the police have no evidence against him. It seems that the boy whose life he saved is heavily involved in it somehow and that there is much more to him than meets the eye.
Stories with dark morales are told throughout the series to further the development of a few characters. My favorite story is this one:
The man with the big eyes and the man with the big mouth
The devil said, “It’s a deal. Let’s make a deal.”
Man with the big eyes: “No, I definitely won’t agree to this.”
Man with the big mouth: “Fine. Let’s make a deal.”
In a flash, the garden belonging to the man with the big mouth transformed to one filled with beautiful flowers.
On the other hand, the man with the big eyes became very poor and he had to bear with the gnawing hunger pangs.
The man with the big mouth was very happy every day. As the flowers in his garden bore fruit, he could eat to his heart’s content. However, the man with the big mouth failed to realize something.
In a short time, the garden’s flowers began to wilt. It was too late when the man with the big mouth realized it.
In the garden where flowers couldn’t be seen again, the man with the big mouth burst to tears and murmured this as he felt hunger pangs,
“It would have been good if I never made a deal with the devil.”
As for the man with the big eyes, he was on the verge of dying due to hunger. As he wept, he said,
“I should have made the deal with the devil.”
“It’s a deal. Let’s make a deal.” So said the devil.
The series is a bit dark, so keep that in mind if you’re looking for a cheery one. Torrent. Enjoy.
For the first time, I actually met a nice officer. I was driving home from work a few nights ago when I was being followed by a patrol car. I become anxious when I am being followed because someone in Quebec has the exact first, middle and last name as me. The main difference between us is our age and I don’t have an outstanding warrant for my arrest for aggravated assault.
The police lights eventually come on signaling to me to pull over. I get out my license and registration and wait. I’ve tried getting out of the car one time in Alberta… that almost got me killed. Anyway, after the officer looked at my documents, he asked me if I knew if my insurance had expired. I replied no -of course. He wavered for a bit and asked me why I didn’t know, “ICBC sends you a letter telling you to renew before your insurance expires.” I told him I hadn’t updated my address to my new place, so the letter must have been sent to my old address. He told me that driving without insurance is a $600 fine, but was nice enough to only give me a fine for not updating my address, $109. Even though I was close to my home, I wasn’t legally allowed to drive the car home, so he called a tow truck for me, which was an additional $115.
The good thing about this whole situation is that I am now insured and saved money to boot.
$84 ($109 -$25 for paying early)
+$115 (Tow)
——
$199 Total Fee
-$211 (Insurance)
——
-$12 (savings)
Now that I have all this extra time with school on hold until the fall, I can do pursue my 50 other goals. One of those goals is to become healthier. I took out a nutrition textbook at Douglas College’s library during my stay there for medical terminology and was amazed about what I didn’t know about nutrition. Who knew calories were calculated from a simple mathematical formula of carbohydrates, sugars, and proteins? I didn’t.
In addition to nutrition, I’m also learning more aspects of dieting. I’ve found out that there are many resources available in this category. Finding out how many calories in whatever I eat is quite easy. I can use this site Calorie Counter for general foods or use just Google for other inquiries. Did you know a cup of almonds is nearly 600 calories? That’s about the same amount as a Big Mac.
So much learning has spawned from my initial interest in personal well-being. I’ve moved from anatomy > psych > gene > pharmacology > nutrition > diet > exercise. The information is endless. I just need more motivation to keep up, haha.
Anyway, I eventually had to return the textbook. I didn’t want to keep taking it out, so I decided to buy my first textbook for personal interest -$130 :( Hopefully, I will have this bad boy read and have created a general meal plan before I resume classes in the fall.
The Canucks lose to the same team and in the same amount of games one year later to the Chicago Blackhawks.
The first period was awesome with so many close chances. Followed up by 2 quick goals on the Chicago side in the second. But then Chicago takes a penalty giving Vancouver a chance to redeem themselves with a power-play. So much hope at this point. If they could get one goal, the game would be close again. But Demitra coughs up the puck leading to a breakaway which ends up behind Lou. 3-0. Sigh…
A sad and disappointing end to the journey to the cup for the Canucks. I was hoping that the first year that became involved in hockey that I would be able to watch Canada win a gold medal in hockey and watch the Canucks win their first Stanley Cup. But no dice on the Canucks side.
I still believe that the Canucks have a chance at the cup within the next 5 years. My favorite player on the Canucks, Mayson Raymond, is getting better every game. Grabner’s doing quite good as well. Who knows about Hodgson replacing Wellwood. But hopefully we get a bunch of defense soon. Because the guns are locked up for a while: Kesler, Burrows, and the Sedin’s.
In the absence of a home team to cheer for, I will be cheering for the Chicago Blackhawks to win the cup. A young team for a new fan to the game. Let’s Go Chicago!
