I don’t understand those posts/videos/gifs about people who are older than 20 being strange or too old for tumblr because
1) tumblr prides itself on being a site for people who create, and the idea that no one older than 20 creates is the foundation of a world I don’t care to live in
2) some of the most influencial people of the 21st century that are older than 20 use tumblr to unwind, and to connect with and mentor others - be it kids or adults that now have a direct line to interact with them
3) I’ve seen more philosophical/deep/well thought out debates/educational posts on tumblr that people actually read and act upon than on any other site
So I don’t understand where these posts, etc. about if you’re older than 20 you’re too old for tumblr are coming from, but imo they’re completely unfounded.
Twitter Followers
Sometimes I wonder how people, that I don’t know, stumble across my twitter account and decide to follow me.
I left my account open thinking I’d interact with people who either I met on tumblr, to stay in touch with friends (my first reason for getting twitter was I have friends who answer their tweets before their texts), interacting with youtubers, and interacting with people that find similar things cool.
But somehow my personal shits&giggles twitter account is being followed by people pushing their linkedin profiles, their small businesses, and christian/bible quoting twitter accounts. (Fyi I’m not even christian, not saying christians aren’t welcomed to follow me - but how did the bible quoting ones find me and decide “oh! We’ll follow the chick tweeting about youtube, korean/japanese food and tea”?) I just don’t know what I did to attract the followers that I’ve gotten. I wanted to attract followers. But since I’ve attracted a different group than I was expecting, maybe I’m representing myself on twitter differently than how I thought I was…
Update: I’m now being followed by a chess association. I’ve never tweeted about chess.
Uncooperative Brain
I sat down all focused to work, and I got a headache. You’ve got to be kidding me brain! If you expect to get sleep tonight you better calm down and help me get my work done or we’re gonna be struggling all night.
People need to give my space. How do I make people give me my space?
So today during my digital systems lab my partner got too close.
Let me explain the layout of our workspace to you. We have a computer and a circuit on the table along with our lab manual, and then there are two chairs for us to use. I try to turn the monitor so that we can both see it easily.
My partner is in two of my classes and we get along fairly well. I know the class material for this class better than him because I’ve learned some of it before and because I’m quick at learning/deciphering code. So I usually explain what’s going on in the lab to him.
Today though at one point when our code was compiling, he came and sat beside me and was so close that our thighs, upper arms and shoulders were touching. There’s no need for him to be THAT close to me, I do turn the computer screen, so I did feel very uncomfortable until he moved. But at the same time I was also disappointed that I couldn’t think of anything to say that would get him to give me space immediately that didn’t sound too offensive. I did shift a bit but looking back I could’ve just been like “oh do you need me to turn the screen more?” And then hopefully he would get the hint as I turned the screen.
Basically this post is to allow my followers to think of things you can quickly say to get someone to back off if they get too close. It was an uncomfortable position even if it wasn’t offensive, so I don’t want you guys to deal with that.
The Perception of what’s “normal” and what’s “extra”
Tuesday I had a lab and we were doing it as one giant group cause we only one apparatus set up to use (the apparatus is pretty big - it took up a wall of the lab).
I volunteered to be one of the people reading the numerical reading of the manometer, and I was getting really annoyed at the guy reading the values with me. He wouldn’t stop rushing - we don’t have to rush, the lab’s not gonna take the full 3 hours and we only need 20 readings, so it’ll take 40mins, an hour max to get. But he wouldn’t stop rushing, and he was reading the values wrong! He kept rounding to the neareast 5 or 10 instead of reading the actual value. It was incredibly annoying.
After the lab I went around to each group and asked if they had gotten all the values they needed. And I was shocked at how this surprised them. Because they think that me making sure they have all the information they need to do their work is doing something above and beyond. But then they think that going to someone and asking to see their calculations, and basically asking someone to do their work for them, is perfectly normal. Which is ridiculous! I don’t understand why students no longer take pride in their work and no longer know how to draw the line between what’s normal and what’s above and beyond.
What I Learned From My First Interview
Let me start by admitting that I did not think this went well. I am still surprised that I have received a conditional offer.
First of all I was late to the interview (I ended up at Front St. West not East and I end up about 10mins late) and then when I tried to call him it turned out that I had written his number down wrong. This was pretty bad considering that some people don’t even get an interview if they’re late, and one of the three main character traits they were looking for is attention to detail.
During the interview, I didn’t make him laugh and that worried me. I was always told make the person interviewing you laugh, that secures you a spot in their mind. What I did do was prove to him that I had the instincts he was looking for. I was able to do that by reading up about the company beforehand (I know that most people reading this will think oh you hear that all the time, but you don’t know how many people I know go into interviews without looking up the company, and how many people I know landed jobs just by spending an extra ten minutes compared to the other candidates reading up on the company - it makes a HUGE difference).
The things I felt were most important to take away were
- No matter how slim a chance you think you have, don’t lose confidence in your abilities and convince your interviewer of them. Many people know they’re good, but they get nervous - I know I was nervous, I felt sweat dripping down my face, it was NOT comforting - being nervous is allowed. Letting your nervousness manifest into insecurities about your abilities during your interview is not allowed.
- Don’t be afraid to clarify what you meant. If during your interview, the interviewer says something that suggests they misunderstood what you said don’t be afraid to politely clarify what you meant. It’s important that you get a job where you are a good fit or else you will experience additional stress and pressure. Even if this is just a job to help you pay for school, you don’t want to have to deal with a job that will add to the stress of dealing with your courses and labs.
- Be upfront. For this position I knew off the back there were two days in Sept I wouldn’t be able to make, and I knew that even though I intend to stay on for a year I would need to double check my schedule in January. I told my interviewer this, and yes I was slightly worried it would work against me, but in the end he seemed to appreciate that. There are actual people that are interviewing you, be honest, and give them reasons to believe you and want to help you manage everything on your plate.
I will update my views on interviews after my next one. But for now this is what I’ve experienced - and I am completely aware and thankful that I lucked out and ended up with a good first experience.
But I want it…
I really want to dye my hair a deep plum purple. Unfortunately I can’t find any brand of hair dye that has good reviews for their purple, especially since I’m looking at brands that are good for dyeing dark hair (my hair is black). If anyone knows a good brand please msg me.
Send more letters!
I love stationery. Fountain pens, parchment paper, printed paper, stamps, cute paper clips…the whole shebang!
So I went and bought some envelopes to write to my friend who’s currently in the UK. I’m happy with what I got even it’s a little plain compared to other stuff in the store (I was on a budget sadly). Below is a photo of my purchases. This time around it was only colourful envelopes.
Why I Steal My Brother’s Aftershave
Today is my brother’s prom, and he couldn’t find his aftershave while getting ready. Where was it? In my room. Why? Well you see, I don’t always remember to shave my legs in time for an event, so sometimes I’ll shave them like the hour before I’m suppose to leave. Now in order to make sure that the pores close and my legs won’t get infected once I expose them to the outside world, I rub on a layer of men’s aftershave before I put on mosturizer.
It’s bad I know. You should really shave your legs the day before an event and all that jazz, but you know if you’re running late just protect your legs with aftershave…But really you should try your best to shave your legs the day before to protect them.
Did it escalate?
I had a very uncomfortable experience Thursday during class. I think that mutual dislike for one of the students in my class, escalated to teacher condoned bullying today.
The guy’s name is “X” and he’s clearly very sheltered, desperate to prove himself, and a major kiss ass. Allow me to elaborate, the kid asked someone to explain what overtime was, whenever something goes wrong in class he uses the textbook definitions like idle time, waste, etc. to describe the situation in an attempt to get brownie points, and finally this guy only goes to take a smoke when the prof goes to take a smoke. I could go on but I feel those incidents adequately sum it up.
Until today, his sheltered responses in class were met with quiet flabbergasted are-you-kidding-me looks shared among class members. Which made me feel bad for him but it wasn’t overly serious in terms of being offending. And it’s not as if these looks were shared without reason, his responses really are illogical, sheltered or suck up comments. Today however, I was early for class since I had to do a presentation, and some other people were there too when the prof arrived. The prof takes attendance, and fyi when “X” walks in late he usually tells the prof not to mark him absent. So the prof turns to the few of us that are there early after pulling out his file and says “oh look! X is gonna run in and tell me ‘Sir I’m here don’t mark me absent’”. This ended up potentially being the catalyst for bullying behaviours. Out of the people that were early and privy to these comments were “A” and “B” who are the two guys that dislike “X” the most, and the first to spin around with WTF looks every time “X” opens his mouth. So when “X” finally arrives - which was 40 mins late - he without fail tells the prof “Oh sir, I’m sorry I’m so late but I’m not absent” and this comment the prof turns to “A” and “B” and says “what did I tell you?” and then “X” continues with “I’ll tell you a really funny story about why I’m late later”. At this point the whole class realizes that the prof is as fed up and annoyed with X’s behaviour as we are. So for the rest of the class X’s comments and responses weren’t met with quiet shared looks, but audible laughing and chuckling (and in some cases comments).
It’s a really thin line, but I think that it did escalate into group bullying that was catalyzed by the prof making fun of X’s behaviours along with the class. And I’m somewhat torn, I mean I feel bad for this sheltered kid who can’t even begin to understand what he’s doing wrong, but at the same time it’s like DUDE you’re asking to be made fun of!* I mean what’s the right way to deal with this situation?
* (and I know hard-core humanitarians say that no one asks to be made fun of, but until we live in an utopian world there are things that people can do to ask to made fun of - not saying it’s right. But it’s the way it is)
Do you think that this qualifies as bullying or am I just reading too much into it? And how am I supposed to do anything to prevent it from escalating further?
Must Study
This summer I’m taking 3 courses to continue my business minor. With the weather being so nice and with all the movies coming out and things that I want to do that I never have time to do during the deadly school year - I simply don’t feel like studying.
But I wandered around downtown yesterday and I found these two notebooks screaming my name on sale and of course I picked them up. And then I thought, isn’t it funny? This odd nuance of ours, that buying new notebooks and new pens could convince us that studying is what we want to be doing right now? I mean I know I’m not the only person who buys new notebooks and pens when they need to convince themselves to study, I know alot of people who adore stationery. But isn’t it odd?
Either way I’m just happy that I found these when I did, and now I have to go finish making notes on chapters 1 to 3 of my management textbook.
盲人摸象
Today a friend of mine gave me a story that really resonated with me. Lately I’ve been feeling that one of the things lacking in my RL relationships is adequate communication, and I felt that this story touched upon that. I leave it to you to take away from this story what you wish.
I’ll post the story in its original language which is Mandarin Chinese, and then I’ll ask you to please be gentle when critiquing my translation of it bearing in mind that I am not a native speaker.
天上的太阳照得人暖洋洋的。 六个瞎子乞丐正坐在路边晒太阳。这时，有一个人拉着一头大象从路上经过， 很多过路的人看见了都发出“啧啧”的赞叹声。 六个瞎子听到他们的反映也非常好奇。
于是他们走上前去对想得主任说： “尊敬的先生，我们从来没有见过大象，你能让我们摸摸它么？” 大象的主任很和善， 就答应了他们。 他们六人高兴地走上去摸大象。
抓住象尾巴的人想： “原来它像一根绳子。” 摸到象鼻子的人说： “大象和snake长得一个样嘛！” 抱住象腿的人说： “咦，怎么象个大柱子！” 摸到了象牙的人说： “它好像一支矛呀！” 抓住象耳朵的人又说： “像一把大扇子！” 最后一个人摸到了象肚子， “噢！ 好高呀！像一面墙。”
象主任拉着象走了。六个瞎子又回到墙角晒太阳。他们都象告诉伙伴自己脑子里大象的样子。 可是不一会儿，他们就发现他们每个人摸到的大象都不一样。从此，他们六人就不停地争吵，没完没了。
The following is my english translation of the story.
One day the sun was shining warmly. Six blind beggars were sitting in the sun by the roadside. At the same time, there was a man passing through the streets leading an elephant tied to a rope, many people saw him and made “awww” sounds. The six beggars heard the reactions around them and were very curious.
Then the six of them approached the elephant owner and said: “Respectful Sir, we’ve never seen an elephant, would you let us pet it?” The owner was a very nice man, so he gave them permission. The six of them happily went to pet the elephant.
The one holding the elephant’s tail thought: “In truth, an elephant resembles a rope.” The one holding the elephant’s trunk thought: “An elephant is similar to a snake!” The one holding the elephant’s leg thought: “oh, how similar an elephant is to a pole!” The one holding the elephant’s tusk thought: “It resembles a spear!” The one holding the elephant’s ear thought: “It resembles a giant fan!” Lastly, the one holding the elephant’s tummy thought: “Oh! So tall! It resembles a wall.”
The elephant owner pulled the elephant along. The six blind beggars returned to their sunny spot by the wall. They all wanted to share the image of the elephant that they imagined. But it a short time, they discovered that the images they had were not the same. From then on, they argued non stop.
I just want a skirt I can sit down in
Now that spring has arrived (I love the irony where as I type that planning to write about skirts, there’s a thunderstorm going on outside) I want to play around with my wardrobe a little bit. This means looking at maybe adding a couple skirts to my line-up.
And as I sit here scrolling through online catalogues debating which stores to check out in the coming days, I notice that most of these skirts are miniskirts. I don’t have a major problem with miniskirts, I do own one or two. However those are really party skirts that I’ve worn to events that were semi-formal attire, they’re not day to day skirts. For day to day I’d prefer my skirts to be knee length-ish atleast so that I don’t have to worry about anything when I go to sit down or when I’m running up and down stairs to get from place to place (campus has a lot of stairs and the elevators aren’t always worth the wait). I’m always on the run, so I do need a wardrobe that’s more slip on and go, I don’t have time to be constantly fixing and re-adjusting what I’m wearing.
So if anyone has any idea of a store that I could check out that has skirts of a slightly more conservative length that would be better suited for day to day shenanigans, please send me a msg. Thank you.
Professionalism
I would like to take a moment to appreciate professionalism and going out there and doing what you gotta do.
Last night I was part of a team that hosted a successful End-of-Year University Ball. Putting the event together was a bit of mission that had highs and lows but all in all was amazing!
However, the event did have unique challenges for each member of the team. One of the girls in particular was in a car accident right before the event. She was unharmed, as was her boyfriend driving the car, but he still had to stay behind to deal with the police and filling all the paper work as the car was pretty banged up. She took a cab and made it to the event.
She showed up. Looked great! And she did not want to be there, which in my opinion was completely reasonable. But she was there. She was rattled from the accident, she was worried about her boyfriend who she suspected had hurt his arm but didn’t tell her because he didn’t want her to worry, and she still came. She told the members of the committee what had happened, and a couple of her friends who were at her table. But she did not sit there and wallow in her self-pity, she was on floor mingling with people, dancing and drinking (it was an open bar event) and performing her duties as one of the hosts of the event with a smile on her face. She had moments where she went out and took a breath of fresh air - but they were brief moments!
This ladies and gentlemen was an example of professionalism. Doing what you have to do, the way it needs to be done, to the best of your ability, despite whatever hardships you may be experiencing. I was worried about her throughout the evening, I would’ve understood if she had called and said she wasn’t coming, and I had to respect the fact that honoured her responsibility, showed up and was fully present to complete her duties.
So I’ve Discovered GACKT…
For those of you who don’t know GACKT, he is a Japanese phenomenon (he’s a JRocker, but given his active fan base I feel phenomenon is the more fitting word to describe him). Besides being a dedicated JRocker, he is also an actor, activist, entertainer…he chooses to define himself as an “expressionist” which I think is quite apt.
Now I don’t like everything that he’s done. No, I don’t care for visual kei, no I don’t want to see that drama where he licks the girl’s face, yes I liked Moon Child, yes I am considering making Vanilla my ring tone…
Though I do love watching him on variety shows! Most of them are subbed in french not english, and I think that so far, being able to watch GACKT on variety shows is what makes me happiest about being able to speak and read french =P He’s so unbelievably adorable!
But what I can truly appreciate are his principles and his views on life. (And yes, he has some pretty awesome songs that I currently have on repeat.) From variety show snippets on youtube, it’s clear that his reputation for being the cool guy and being loved by everyone is understated to say the least. However, it’s also evident that he didn’t get as good as he is by sitting down and waiting for anything to come to him. Yes, he has talent - that’s undeniable - but he’s also quite disciplined and has dedicated himself to developing and pushing the boundaries of his talent. And that is amazing to see! And it makes you feel like you’re not pushing yourself enough to develop whichever talents you may have and that you need to work harder. He motivates people in a very positive way, you don’t feel judged if you haven’t been pushing your hardest thus far, but you feel like I have more to offer and I should be striving to offer it in the best manner possible.
