New photos up.
Went up to Mont Royal on the weekend, and have a couple of photos, which I have just uploaded. Daylight savings has ended, and it snowed overnight about a week ago. Not much to say, still have work and midterms to do, and I'm getting into gear now. Finals in a month, so it's back to work.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Nonsense
I've not had much time to collect my thoughts before putting them down here, but I post out of habit. Maybe I shouldn't. But then again, it's not as if I have nothing that I want to say. I just can't think of a way to contextualise what I want to say, or how to put it down in words, or whether or not I even want to put them down here right now. I will do it. Eventually.
This will have to do for now though.
Things aren't always as bad as they are made out to be, and they rarely are as good as they are hyped up to be either. We need to bear in mind the perpectives of the people giving us their views, and to try to objectively evaluate what they are saying. Sometimes, the best way to do this is to try something for yourself, but when you decide to do that, you should not burden yourself with the expectation that things will turn out for you they way they turned out for other people. They just might, but they could just as easily turn out different. We just have to keep that in mind.
The beauty about all this is that it doesn't even have to make sense to anyone.
This will have to do for now though.
Things aren't always as bad as they are made out to be, and they rarely are as good as they are hyped up to be either. We need to bear in mind the perpectives of the people giving us their views, and to try to objectively evaluate what they are saying. Sometimes, the best way to do this is to try something for yourself, but when you decide to do that, you should not burden yourself with the expectation that things will turn out for you they way they turned out for other people. They just might, but they could just as easily turn out different. We just have to keep that in mind.
The beauty about all this is that it doesn't even have to make sense to anyone.
Friday, October 14, 2005
A friendly little chat
We often like to complain about how we are always so busy with work, about how there are numerous deadlines to meet and exams to take. We worry about seeing the school year through, and then we proceed to worry about where we are going to go next for the holidays. We remark about how competitive life is, and about how we still have to find well-paying jobs, and start participating in the mindless monotony that is working life. And yet, so very often, we fail to recognise how fortunate we are that we can afford to worry about these kinds of things.
I had a little chat with one of the housekeepers today. He asked if I was Vietnamese, and I told him I was Singaporean. We spoke, at first in English, and then a couple of sentences in Mandarin, before I told him that I could speak Cantonese too.
He's been in Canada for almost 20 years now, and he's from Vietnam. He fled Vietnam as a politcal refugee, went to Malaysia and stayed in a refugee camp for 10 months before arriving in Canada. He managed to get a job after arriving, but the company he worked for closed down after 7 years, and so he worked in the food services at McGill. After 13 years, McGill food services decided to let him go as they could find cheaper alternatives. So now he's working as a housekeeper in my residence. He's got a family to support and to care for, so to make ends meet, he works Mondays to Fridays in the dorm, and on his weekends off, he works another job.
Despite all that he's had to face, his outlook on life is so cheerful and optimistic. He says life is only tough if you tell yourself that it is. It's so very true, and the message is really resonant when it comes from someone who has had so much thrown at him already.
So the next time I think that school and work is getting to me, that my life is difficult and complicated, I'll be thinking of him, and how if it isn't tough for him, it sure as hell shouldn't be for me.
I had a little chat with one of the housekeepers today. He asked if I was Vietnamese, and I told him I was Singaporean. We spoke, at first in English, and then a couple of sentences in Mandarin, before I told him that I could speak Cantonese too.
He's been in Canada for almost 20 years now, and he's from Vietnam. He fled Vietnam as a politcal refugee, went to Malaysia and stayed in a refugee camp for 10 months before arriving in Canada. He managed to get a job after arriving, but the company he worked for closed down after 7 years, and so he worked in the food services at McGill. After 13 years, McGill food services decided to let him go as they could find cheaper alternatives. So now he's working as a housekeeper in my residence. He's got a family to support and to care for, so to make ends meet, he works Mondays to Fridays in the dorm, and on his weekends off, he works another job.
Despite all that he's had to face, his outlook on life is so cheerful and optimistic. He says life is only tough if you tell yourself that it is. It's so very true, and the message is really resonant when it comes from someone who has had so much thrown at him already.
So the next time I think that school and work is getting to me, that my life is difficult and complicated, I'll be thinking of him, and how if it isn't tough for him, it sure as hell shouldn't be for me.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
21
I am now legal in the US.
So much has happened since the last time I blogged I have no idea where to start. I've just emerged from the Thanksgiving weekend after a killer week in school. Had an essay due on Tuesday, assignments due on Wednesday and Friday, and a midterm on Thursday. So I spent the week rushing through my work to find time to prepare for my midterm.
For all that I say about how we need to know what is important, we also have to recognise that if your priorities aren't the same as everyone else's, you have to be prepared to pay a price for that difference in opinion and perception. And if you deem that too much to pay, you then have to succumb to the system that you function in.
What really irked me about the past week was that I've been busy keeping up with my work and classes so that this would NOT happen, and yet it did, and I could do nothing about it. Having to rush through everything just so that you have enough time to get even more studying done just ain't fun. I don't like to push the fast forward button when I'm learning, and I believe that at this level, the motivation for learning should come from yourself, not the fact that you have deadlines to meet, midterms to take and grades to obtain.
The weekend brought just a little respite, as I still had to clear up more work that I put on hold because of the midterm and assignments, and I begin the week with even more deadlines to meet. It's so easy to get caught up rushing to meet 1 deadline after another, so I keep telling myself to remember why I'm here. At least I can't deny that my classes are interesting.
Some of my friends and I had a little get-together for dinner and a cake to celebrate my turning 21. It was small, simple and cozy affair, on Friday, a day after the actual date as I was in an exam hall on the evening of my birthday. It was nice though, and a word of thanks goes out to all you guys who did this little thing for me - it's greatly appreciated. Not forgetting those who got me on MSN or on my blog, or who sent me e-mails.
Anyway, so much for my week, I was just flipping through my organizer which I've had for almost 5 years now, and I came across a little something that I copied out oh-so long ago, and it was nice to read it all over again, if only because the mood was in such great contrast to the week I just had.
What I would give to be able to see the world with child-like wonder all over again.
So much has happened since the last time I blogged I have no idea where to start. I've just emerged from the Thanksgiving weekend after a killer week in school. Had an essay due on Tuesday, assignments due on Wednesday and Friday, and a midterm on Thursday. So I spent the week rushing through my work to find time to prepare for my midterm.
For all that I say about how we need to know what is important, we also have to recognise that if your priorities aren't the same as everyone else's, you have to be prepared to pay a price for that difference in opinion and perception. And if you deem that too much to pay, you then have to succumb to the system that you function in.
What really irked me about the past week was that I've been busy keeping up with my work and classes so that this would NOT happen, and yet it did, and I could do nothing about it. Having to rush through everything just so that you have enough time to get even more studying done just ain't fun. I don't like to push the fast forward button when I'm learning, and I believe that at this level, the motivation for learning should come from yourself, not the fact that you have deadlines to meet, midterms to take and grades to obtain.
The weekend brought just a little respite, as I still had to clear up more work that I put on hold because of the midterm and assignments, and I begin the week with even more deadlines to meet. It's so easy to get caught up rushing to meet 1 deadline after another, so I keep telling myself to remember why I'm here. At least I can't deny that my classes are interesting.
Some of my friends and I had a little get-together for dinner and a cake to celebrate my turning 21. It was small, simple and cozy affair, on Friday, a day after the actual date as I was in an exam hall on the evening of my birthday. It was nice though, and a word of thanks goes out to all you guys who did this little thing for me - it's greatly appreciated. Not forgetting those who got me on MSN or on my blog, or who sent me e-mails.
Anyway, so much for my week, I was just flipping through my organizer which I've had for almost 5 years now, and I came across a little something that I copied out oh-so long ago, and it was nice to read it all over again, if only because the mood was in such great contrast to the week I just had.
O, Tell Me the Truth About Love
Some say that love's a little boy,
And some say it's a bird,
Some say it makes the world go round,
And some say that's absurd,
And when I asked the man next-door,
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife got very cross indeed,
And said it wouldn't do
Does it look like a pair of pyjamas,
Or the ham in a temperance hotel?
Does it's odour remind one of llamas,
Or has it a comforting smell?
It is prickly to touch as a hedge is,
Or soft as an eiderdown fluff?
It it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?
O tell me the truth about love
Our history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes,
It's quite a common topic on
The transatlantic boats;
I've found the subject mentioned
In accounts of suicides,
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of rail-way guides
Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian,
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a first-rate imitation
On a saw or a Steinway Grand?
Is its singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like classical stuff?
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love
I looked inside the summer-house;
It wasn't ever there:
I tried the Thames at Maidenhead,
And Brighton's bracing air
I don't know what the blackbird sang,
Or what the tulip said;
But it wasn't in the chicken-run,
Or underneath the bed
Can it pull extraordinary faces?
It is usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races,
Or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of it's own about money?
Does it think Patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love
When it comes will it come without warning
Just as I'm picking my nose?
Will it knock on my door in the morning,
Or tread in the bus on my toes?
Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love
W.H Auden
What I would give to be able to see the world with child-like wonder all over again.
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