New website!

www.billyfung.com Everything located in this blog will hopefully be imported over, and with more stuff!

Discourse in colour

Colours make up most of our lives, and most of us can take it as a granted thing in life. Whenever I think of blind people, I immediately wonder what they think of colours. Most blind people are not able to understand what colours are, and most never will. Such a simple concept that makes up a whole lot of our lives. We connect colours to emoticons, changing our mood depending on what colours we see. Our skin colours defining who we are to others, a symbol of status, a visual history. Whenever we see people of different colours, we are able to relate to their history, their hardships and their origins. Pigments in our skin, cooking in the sun.

Which brings me to my main point, why do people enjoy tanning so much? The ultraviolet rays from the sun, penetrating into our skin, radiating the cells. Oh the thought of our skin cells melting under the heat of the sun sure sounds lovely, but I also get the added effect of looking like a different shade of colour? Count me out. What is so appealing about turning into a baked crispy brown, or if you're lucky, an even lovelier tone of orange? Yet people go through all the trouble to increase their chances of skin cancer, to achieve what? Maybe if you really wanted to be darker, it would be just as entertaining to work under the heat of the sun in the cotton fields, or the open pit mines. I may be a hypocrite since I'm pretty browned myself, but it's cause I've been out at camp in the sun, and working in the sun for the past 5 years. Nowadays I've returned to being a vampire and avoiding the sun as much as I can, like the computer nerd I am. I don't feel any reason to go out and sit in the sun, waiting for cancer to get me. Sure sunscreen blocks out some UV radiation, but there is still the chance that the angry kicking cancer will catch you. I'd rather not take the risk.

Do you miss it?

It's been 2 years since highschool, and I haven't looked back. There are those who dwell on the past, and want to relive those moments, but I'm just not into that type of business. Don't take me for a narcissist or a cynic, I had a great time in highschool, but I've moved on. There are people who haven't changed, and that is the main reason I don't ever want to see them. Might sound mean or something, but it has been 2 years, time to grow up. This isn't a post directed to anybody, it's more of just a rant, since I have nothing else to write about these days. Sure it'd be cool to have a reunion in 5 or 10 years, to see where everybody has moved on to, but I'm sorry, everybody is just so highschool. Are you able to look back, and say you've changed in the 2 years since highschool? Or are you still the same person, same highschool mentality?

India?

It's come to another point in my life when I have to make a big decision that may affect my education. I have a chance to apply to an exchange from Jan to Apr 2011, studying abroad at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. IIT-Delhi is probably one of the top engineering schools in Eurasia, with an acceptance rate of something ridiculous like 1%. Going on an exchange I think would a great experience for me, learning from a different perspective. But the thing is that right now with the Carl Wiemann science initiative going on at UBC, the quality of science courses is going up, and I really like the new teaching style being put forth. Studying at IIT, my room and meals would all be provided for, so all I pay for is the plane ticket there, and whatever spending money. That makes the exchange really cheap, and is a great reason for me to go. The main thing I'm worried about is all the smart people there, and how I might be really challenged to keep up with the learning. I am sure the experience will be great, but I don't think if its worth missing out on some courses. The courseload there will definitely be different, since at UBC my regular courseload will probably be like 6 or 7 courses, while at IIT, I'd settle for 5. Another issue that arises is that my 2nd coop term slated for 8 months from Apr-Dec might be compromised because I think it will be hard to find a job while in India. The courses there could be too intense for me, and it's possible I might just end up failing something, and that thought terrifies me.

Summer 2010

4 Physics, 1 Math. Hello summer!

Dine out Vancouver 2010 - Market

So the 2nd and last trip of Dine out 2010 for me was to Market by Jean Georges, in the Shangri-La downtown. I reserved tables pretty late, so the best time that I could get was at 5pm on a tuesday, although it seemed like a good time to have a drink then start dinner. Market is located on the 3rd floor of Vancouver's tallest skyscraper, the Shangri-La hotel, and you can easily access it from various locations.

This year was the first year for Market to offer the dineout menu, since it is usually known as a higher end restaurant, and not willing to conform to offering a cheap discount meal. The lighting in the restaurant wasn't as dim as in Chambar, which appealed to me as a photographer, since I don't like using flash in a restaurant. I started off with a sazerac, since I read that Market was more known for its amazing drinks.

And I can attest to that; the sazerac was perfectly made and i really enjoyed the drink. Since I was there with my family, my mom and sisters all had sodas. The sodas are all made in house, which may explain why it costs $5 a cup, but the sodas were exceptional as well.

There are reviews out there talking about the terrible service at the restaurant, but I found the service to be spectacular, and the waitress I had was very attentive. Since the dineout menu didn't have that many options, not enough that all 4 of us could try something different, I decided to order something off the a la carte menu instead of the dineout menu. For appys, the shrimp salad and pea soup came out quite fast, and looked well prepared.

My little sister really enjoyed the soup, and she said that it was really good. My mother and other sister had the salad, which had a few pieces of large shrimp in it. The salad was well dressed and it's taste wasn't overpowering.

Since I ordered off the a la carte menu, I decided to go with the sear scallops, mainly after all those seasons of watching "Hells Kitchen" with Gordon Ramsay yelling at the chefs for preparing the scallops poorly.

The scallops were prepared perfectly, and the taste of cauliflower as well as the seared scallops with the mixed sauce was really amazing. The price was $12 for those 4 scallops, so I can see where they are making money. There was also bread that came before the appys, but it was just normal buns with butter, nothing special. Throughout the night, our glasses of water kept being refilled, so no complaints about the service. The decor of the restaurant was quite nice, i opted to sit outside in the terrance but my mom wanted to sit inside. The little booths were quite comfortable and there was coat check offered. The entrees ordered were hanger steak, red snapper, and halibut.

The hanger steak was prepared medium rare, because "the chef prepares it that way." That sounded a little bit fishy to me, making it seem as if the steak was prepared beforehand and then reheated and served. It didn't really taste that way, from the piece that I took from my little sister. I've had better steaks, but it was by no means inferior. My entree of halibut was served ontop of spinach, nothing fancy.

The lemon sauce that was prepared was what made the dish though. The halibut ontop of the spinach mixed with the sauce created a dish that went well very smoothly, creating a fusion of lemon and then the unique taste of spinach, along with the halibut.

The red snapper was slightly smaller than the halibut, but it was equally well garnished. I didn't try the red snapper, but my mom liked the dish, but i did a taste of the sauce used, and once again it was made to perfection. The sauce was so good that my mom asked for extra bread just so she could wipe up the rest of the sauce.


The dessert was a simple chocolate lava cake with ice cream, with a piece of caramel over top. Simple dessert, but made perfectly, and the ice cream had a unique taste to it, even though it was just vanilla. The chocolate inside the cake was melted, and was a good consistency to mix with the ice cream.

Overall the dinner was a good experience for my little sisters to get a taste of fine dining. I only went because it was Dine Out, but after eating the a la carte menu, there isn't much of a difference in price. But the shining point of this restaurant was the drinks. The drinks menu is quite extensive, and the bartender knows what he is mixing. The service was what I expected from dining in such a restaurant, and I have no complaints about it. The food was made simple, yet the simplicity of the dishes made it that much better. The simple ingredients mixed together to create a fusion of unique flavours. And just the environment in the dining room was pretty great, although it would be better if the dress code was respected by all. I will definitely be back for more drinks, and maybe even another meal one day.

"Harrison Bergeron"

"THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." - Harrison Bergeron

Dine Out Vancouver 2010 - Chambar

So my first dine out of the 2010 year was at Chambar on a thursday night, which I thought wouldn't be so busy since it is a weekday after all. I made reservations anyways, and good thing i did. My reservation was for 8:45, and when I went it was still pretty packed. The restaurant itself is literally hidden, which seems to be pretty common for a number of fine dining restaurants in Vancouver. The Restaurant has no flashy signs, no boards directing you to the restaurant. When I arrived there, I wouldn't have even know it was a restaurant if it wasn't for the number of people going into it. The restaurant is located near BC place, and literally right beside Stadium skytrain station. The first part of the restaurant is a lounge/bar type of area where it was pretty much packed with people drinking and having a great time. I was brought further into the restaurant, where it turns into more of a dining room, with a pretty nice view of GM place. The atmosphere of the place was great, and all the tables were full. For starters I had the Carpaccio de thon grillee - Charred yellowfin tuna carpaccio, celery, daikon & citrus brunoix, pomegranate molasses, red shiso. My friend Jorge, had the Les Champignons de Kerala-Black trumpet, cardamom & truffle soup, roasted king oyster & curried goat cheese. I really liked eating the tuna, it tasted very fresh and smooth, and the mixture of the shiso and celery made it quite exquisite. I'd say of the best things about Chambar as that the service was great. Our waiter, Patrick attended to us right away, and even though we were sitting in a corner, it didn't feel like we were being ignored. Another highlight of the DOV menu was the wine selection they had for dine out. I had a glass of Torres ‘Viña Esmeralda’ ‘08 Moscatel, which is a white wine from Spain, since I ordered seafood as my entree. The wine was absolutely spectacular, and at that price I justified getting another glass of it. Jorge isn't much of a wine drinker, but he got a glass of red wine, and I think it was a local merlot, but I'm not too sure. For the entree, I ordered the mussels that people always talk about at Chambar, Moules-frites-Mussels cooked with white wine, butter, braised celery, leeks & coarse black pepper. It came in a fairly large pot, and eating all those mussels was definitely filling. It also came with some fries and belgian dip (chipotle and mayo?) Jorge ordered Tagine de Boeouf- Moroccan braised shortrib, chickpeas, zucchini, apricots, almonds & parsley, and the presentation of both dishes was very pleasant. All the food looked so delicious that I almost forgot to take pictures of them, cause I just wanted to start eating. The moscatel I was drinking went very well with the mussels, and the mussels were simply perfection. For dessert we both had the chocolate pecan cake, but i totally forgot to take pictures of the dessert, and when i remembered, it was all gone.

Chambar was simply an amazing experience, and DOV 2010 gave me the opportunity to try out such a great restaurant. I will definitely be back for more great food and drinks, and I would recommend this restaurant for somebody who wants some casual fine dining.

Mac fanboy?

I am now currently running 3 different operating systems on my macbook pro, and they are work quite wonderfully. I have Apple's Snow Leopard running, with a linux distro, BackTrack 4 running on a virtual machine within OS X. Then I have Windows 7 bootcamped, running on a separate partition. Bootcamping Win7 did not take 5 hours, or anywhere even near that. So far the only issues I have with it is the multitouch doesn't work, but I haven't fiddled around with Snow Leopard drivers yet. Here are the main steps involved in setting up Bootcamp for a Windows 7 install

1. Close all applications, then go to Utilities->Bootcamp Assistant and follow the instructions to set up a windows partition, you can partition as much as you want. Make sure you have the windows dvd in there, or correctly mounted
2. Begin the windows installation, choosing the bootcamp partition you just made. Make sure you select the partition, then click advanced settings and format it first.
3. Finish installation and install Windows updates, and use Snow Leopard dvd to install other drivers

Prankster

I really want to do an engineering prank before I graduate. Something legendary that would be remembered for all the ages to come...

Eat, drink and be merry

I think its time for another life experience, now that my long (relative to it's normal length) hair is gone, I need something different. The long hair was an interesting experience, but short hair in itself is just so much easier to maintain. So now I am going to cut back on any processed sugars, and grains. The diet that i want to try out is called the Paleo diet, and in a nutshell, it is eating what as the "hunter-gatherers" did in the Palaeolithic age. Unfortunately living at home makes it super hard to not eat whatever is placed in front of you, which is usually something like rice everyday. Sucks even more that it's impossible to stick to my diet while eating out.

Here it is

I was going to write a blog post, but then stupid iTunes decided to be retarded. I honestly hate Apple at times.

And you caught me off guard

And into the final month of coop we go! I cannot believe that the work term is almost over, and school is going to begin again. The entire experience at Canfor Pulp and Paper has been great, working in the Research and Development department, albeit doing stuff that has no particular focus with my major. Beginning in May, I have school for 12 months before my next coop work term in the summer of 2011. 12 months of attending classes everyday, doing homework, staying late at school doing projects. The only thing I'll have to look forward to is probably in August when I will get a month of summer vacation before going back to school. My robotics class will be the highlight of my summer classes, and I will make sure to take lots of pictures and videos documenting the evolution of my robot.

Row row row your boat

Late night photoshop

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away"

Cause I get a kick out of you

Unless most girls, I only own about 3 pairs of shoes. I'm just not a person who is a big fan of shoes and all about buying shoes. Like I currently wear a pair of adidas that I've had for around 3 years or so I think. That's quite a bit of money saved over the years, which is always a plus to owning shoes. The downside is that my feet almost always get wet whenever it rains, which is like almost everyday. Nobody likes wet feet, but I've just never justified having to get new shoes, until mine are all completely broken. Just like how I haven't gotten a haircut in like 8 months. That's like $100 saved, and the only thing i had to sacrifice was my dashingly handsome looks. But today I've ran into a pair of shoes that combine both functionality and good looks. The New Balance MTC580 Goretex kicks.



A pair of shoes with Goretex that will protect the shoes from the elements, as well as looking dam good. My mind is pretty set on buying these shoes as soon as they become available, even though it says July 2010.

There must be something in the air.

Would people ever do anything if there was no immediate benefit?

Do something.

Step out. Be different.

Gastown

Olympics cont'd

Going out everyday, walking around downtown amidst the throng of patriotic Canadians, the city was alive. Never had I felt more proud to be Canadian. The different houses, each showing what their province had. The world coming to Vancouver to take in our cultural, and to celebrate along with us.

Breaking out into song on the streets, in the trains, whenever, wherever. The emotional was just emanating from every single person in the city, be it Canadian or not. Walking along Granville or Robson, cheering along with the crowds in drunken fervour. There are no words that I can use to describe watching any Olympic event with crowds of people downtown.

Waiting in lines to get into events, chatting with people from all over the world. Americans come up to visit, and spending lots of money to experience this once in a lifetime event. Families of athletes here to cheer on their loved ones. The entire 2 weeks has just put me on a cloud, and everything is still so surreal. The free concerts at livecity events, singing along with great canadian music, to the long walks downtown in the rain, everything has just been perfect. Without the free concerts i doubt i would ever have been introduced to some great Canadian music that I now love.

The best house that I visited had to be Atlantic Canada house, where there was free food tasting. The house had food prepared by culinary students from the Atlantic provinces, and it started off with appetizers of mussels and seafood chowder. Then came small portions of lobsters, crab, shrimp, and other seafood delicacies prepared wonderfully. The beer wasn't too pricey compared to other places that I had visited, and the atmosphere was wonderful. I don't think it was possible to be angry or mad during the olympics.

The only draw back to the entire olympics was probably the ridiculous price of beer. But everybody was willing to pay upwards to $10 for a cup of beer. Standing and watching the gold medal game, i spent $30 on 4 cups of beer, which i could've easily got 12 cans of beer for. But people are willing to pay, since hockey just isn't the same without beer.

I only wished that I brought my camera out more, but its not worth the risk to get drunk and carry around $1000 in gear.

Finito.

I can't believe its over. These olympics have been the best 2 weeks of my life. I have nothing else to say because I'm still amazed by how people can protest something so great. I'll post a lot more on the past 2 weeks when i wind down and get back to reality.

The day that never ended

So I realize that I haven't blogged in awhile. I am the epitome of failure in terms of new years resolutions. I don't even want to blog right now cause i'm so tired still. I've been sick, but its olympics, so i've been popping pills to hopefully cure me. Yesterday was a 22 hour day starting with Arnold Schwarzenegger and ending with partying downtown. I woke up at 5am just to go see Arnold the Torchinator run the Olympic torch, and it was exhilarating. The sheer about of people there with you, screaming and yelling. The fresh, crisp, morning air. The vibe of Olympics in the air. You might think that 5am is pretty darn early, and I think I'll have to agree with you. But it was totally worth it.



Then after that was just wandering around downtown, absorbing the Olympic feel. I still can't believe that the Olympic games are actually happening here. Watching the torch get passed from a dragonboat made me feel like a true Vancouverite. The opening ceremony was probably the best one out of the last 4 years of winter olympics, we really did a great job with it. With usage of light was phenomenal, and expressed Canada to the world. Downtown Vancouver was simply incredible, so many people, so... Canadian. Everybody was out there yelling and screaming, fully living out the Canadian life.

"The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion and politics, but it is not the path to knowledge, and there is no place for it in the endeavour of science" ~ Carl Sagan

Pulp Mills

So currently i'm up in Prince George doing work taking samples at the pulp mills here and i must say its quite the experience. Walking through the mills is like being in an episode of "How it's made" on discovery channel, but i must say that the work isn't the most pleasant. The temperature at the pulping machines is like standing inside a sauna, and you have to be wearing full protective gear, meaning long sleeves with hard hat, safety glasses. It's an awesome experience, and i haven't even started working really. I just regret not bringing my DSLR cause i can just see all these awesome HDR photos that i can have. Canfor is pretty awesome, paying for everything, including food and the trip. I haven't paid for a single thing yet, and i've got lots of food and i love it. The only thing i'm not really looking forward to is having to eat fast food, since we're gonna be too busy working to have time to get real food.

Romeo And Juliet

UBC, go watch it. Now.

"You will lose money chasing women, but you will never lose women while chasing money"

Why

..the fuck is parliament suspended again?

Pants on the ground, Pants on the ground

Let's just stare

Poetry

I wish I understood Russian, so i could read Pushkin. I've been reading english translations, and although they are still beautiful, i bet they just don't compare to the actual poetry in russian. The russian literature class i took last term was really insightful and really opened up another world of literature outside of the common shakespeare and what not. Sure shakespeare was amazing, but there exists other poetry in the world. Currently I am reading a translation of Eugene Onegin, Pushkin's novel written in verse, so it basically reads as a giant poem with stanzas. Russian poetry is just different than other types of poetry because the emotions evoked by the russians are different. Just like in russian literature such as Crime and Punishment or Anna Karenina, both novels differ than the typical Jane Austen. Russian writers endure more pain and suffering, and it shows in their works. Although none of the writers were very prolific, the few Russian pieces produced are wonderful.

Since I don't want to reveal much about the novels or poems, I'd suggest you go and at least try them out. Just google up some pushkin poems, and try to listen to it in russian first, since hearing the words flow together sounds a lot different when its translated, but the poetry is still beautiful nonetheless.

Wet Lab

So I had my first accident at work. Sorta spilled a shitload of water all over the place, including on myself. It wasn't really that big of a deal or anything, but holy shit was there a lot of water. And now my phone doesn't really work anymore either, since it also got wet in my pocket. Currently it's sitting in rice, and I hope it works tomorrow morning.

Mo money

Darn hobbies are so expensive. I think in this past year, I have spent the most money on my hobbies, during this "recession" and all. My latest hobby has been photography, and I've been playing around with HDR photography most recently. One of the pictures in my previous post is a HDR image, poorly done mind you, but it's really fun to play with. With my coop job and all, I'm really tempted to spend a huge chunk of it on buying equipment in order to take better photos. Maybe i'm not good enough yet to require a new lens, but it would be really fun. From time to time I will post some of the better looking pictures up here, to add to the photoblog effect. Should've went for the 1 picture a day thing, would've been cool to see the result.So far here is a list of things that I want/need to buy for my DSLR set up:

1. 16gb class 6 (or maybe class 10) SDHC card
2. tripod
3. new lens, 70-200mm most likely

Those are the 3 things that I need/want, in that order. All of it together will probably cost me like a paycheque, which is like 2 weeks worth of work. So far the past 2 weeks of work involved 1 week of training, then 1 week of actually working while still learning more things. Time goes by really really quickly, so I have no complaints. I think i will delve into learning Visual Basic in order to write macros for Microsoft excel, which one of my supervisors asked me to do. I'm also pretty glad to be working under a professional engineer, meaning my coop term will count towards time for my P.Eng as well. I think it would be of interest for me to read up on some of the processes I am doing, and tests being done just to get a better grasp of what is really going on. Most of the things I do are just repetition, like a recipe.

The exciting thing to end the post is that during the first 2 weeks of February, I will be visiting Prince George to visit one of our companies paper mills up there. I hope its as exciting as I think it will be, since its gonna be a completely new experience for me. Plus i get my own room in the hotel, which is pretty dope.

Work updates

I've decided that daily updates are too tiring and boring, so instead i'll be doing weekly updates at the end of the week. I sorta missed out on last weekend cause i was up in whistler, getting some pow pow. So during the 1st two weeks of february, i will be going to prince george to visit one of the mills that our company owns. Pretty awesome since i'm getting paid to go there and learn stuff.

I hate it when i had a lot to blog about, but then i put it off and now i can't remember anything. So that's all for now.

Day 4. Custom

Work has gotten to the point where I almost feel comfortable doing whatever i've been taught so far. It's great. I feel confident working in the lab doing freeness tests, and making handsheets from various pulps. Can't believe that it is almost 1 week already, the working environment is great and i really enjoy it. Sure i think i would enjoy working in a materials lab doing mat lab and machining instead, or designing parts in solidworks. But the lab work i'm doing right now is eye opening, since it shows what chemical engineers can really do, instead of just doing stuff mainly with chemistry.

This blog post is really short cause i'm tired since i just got home from the bar after watching some canucks ownage. I've been to the bar more this month that I have since i've been legal, its quite strange.

Day 3. My eyes are tired.

You know it's not going to be a good way when you wake up and your eyes feel like they are bloodshot. Last time this happened was when i did math for like 10 hours straight, before my multivariable and vector final. Today when i woke up, my eyes felt very tired still, like they didn't want to be opened. I woke up early, so I arrived at work early, 30 minutes early to be exact. The paprican building is kinda spooky in the dark, especially since there aren't a lot of people there ever. Today work was less tiring, and I didn't really feel like talking that much, since my eyes were tired so i was more in an anti-social mode. The day consisted of testing the paper that we made the previous day, which took all morning, and a lil bit into the afternoon. Then it was just some data entry, which I am pro at, since it's just pressing numbers on the numberpad. Prepped pulp samples for more paper making tomorrow, which hopefully my eyes won't be as tired.

All in all, the day wasn't bad, I didn't ever feel like "OMG can work end already?!" And time passed fairly quickly, and before you know it, 4 months will be over.

Day 2. Paper

So here is a recap of day 2 at work. Arrive at 7:50, cause bus driver knew how to stop at the correct place. Put on lab coat, and rebelled against safety glasses. I honestly hate having to wear safety glasses ontop of my glasses, the one thing i don't like about labs. The day consisted of paper paper to test freeness or some shit, didn't really get what we were doing other than pouring lots of water and pulp around. Then making circles out of it, and drying them. That took about the entire morning, and the afternoon was making handsheets, which were paper circles that are used to test for different properties using cool machines. The entire day was spent on my feet, washing, pouring, cleaning. Repeat. I can't say it was a terrible thing to do, but it was pretty boring and sorta tiring, standing alllll day and pouring liquids around. But i've got nothing to complain about, since my co-workers are all pretty awesome. Working with al girls is a nice change from the all male environment in engineering. Standing all day made me quite tired, since I did yoga-pilates yesterday, keeping up with my new years resolution.

With work, I find that I don't really have the time to blog as much as i wanted to, mainly because I haven't had time to think about many things. Work is great though, I think i've made like $300 in 2 days? Wooot!

Day 1. Girls?!

So today was the first day of my coop work term at Canfor Pulp and Paper Limited. Their research lab is housed in the Paprican, near Triumf and the other research centres at UBC. It's a really nice building in itself, very quiet with not that many people. I think my boss, Patricia McBeath, told me that there are 9 full time employees in the company, and that's all. The day started off sorta lame, cause the bus driver decided that he would just skip all the stops along marine dr, meaning he didn't stop at wesbrook for me to get off. So I had to walk in the rain from hampton place all the way down to 3800 Wesbrook mall. The entire morning started off with filling out company forms such as waivers, non-disclousure agreements, tax forms, and it went on. It was during this time that I also met two of my other co-workers, Anika and Stephanie. Both are chemical engineers, and in their 3rd year, which made me the only male, and in 2nd year. Workplace safety videos and hazards videos were watched, learning about how not to be stupid and stick your hand into a machine that is still operating. The entire building itself doesn't have that many people, so it's unusually quiet and there isn't that many people around. In the afternoon, the real training began and I spent the afternoon learning how to use the different machines to test paper. Basically its sitting in a room with 8 or so machines that test the different properties of the paper. The tests are all pretty interesting, but i guess they are tiring, and it's just doing the same thing over and over again. Calibrate machine, insert test sample, press button, record, repeat. But it was a great day at work, and having all my co-workers be female is a sure change from all the males in engineering.

Canadian news is boring

It's much more fun to look at US economics, since it actually has stuff happening. Like the fact that the net job creation in the past decade in the US has been 0. 0% net job growth. That is quite scary, since the economy hasn't been that bad until the last 3 years or so. That means all the jobs created in the first half of the last decade were all lost, and then no more were created in the last 5 years. The recession did exist, and it may be over now, but the americans are going to have to suffer for quite awhile. The financial crisis with sub-primes is over, or so some say, but look at the debt amassed by the US. Are they still considered to be a superpower? The housing bubble completely destroyed the economy, leaving many americans without jobs and money. The major banks had a fallout and required a bailout. All this money needed, and none to be found.

Enough about economics, lets move on to the next big news topic in the US right now, health reform. Americans look at Canadians and our health insurance, and they become very jealous. Yet there are still out-spoken critics on getting universal healthcare in the US. Sarah Palin, for one, despises health care, and thinks Canada should get rid of it, so businesses can make money off saving lives. Harvard conducted a study with Cambridge Health alliance and the results were that 45,000 deaths occur every year, due to lack of health insurance. To put this into perspective, there are more deaths from lack of health coverage than there are deaths from kidney disease. There are 775 deaths due to terrorist attacks every year, which is still nothing compared to the 45,000. I could be cynical and say this is an adequate form of population control. Canadians have health care, so the statistic for us is 0. 0 deaths every year due to health care. Just looking at these stats alone should be enough reason to accept the health care reform. But is anything being done yet? Yes and no. Progress is being made, but there are still many lobbyist who do no want health care. Main reason is cause when healthcare is universal, where is the money to be made?

MRSA revisited.

So if you've been following my blog for awhile now, you might've read my MRSA post awhile back, if not you can go read it here.

The only progress against fighting the superbug seems to be in Norway, where their method of action is to fight by not prescribing antibiotics for everything. This is the main reason why I never take any antibiotics unless i'm deathly ill. Heck, I don't even take normal over the counter drugs unless i really need to. Tylenol? Nope, I don't get headaches. I just let my body do it's job and fight whatever I have, which is what Norway is doing. The superbug is continuously killing people in hospitals, due to the fact that it is now resistant to virtually all drugs known to mankind. There isn't much press on it lately, with H1N1 and the "pandemic" scare, and most of the time such things aren't showed to the media since it's not really that big of a deal right? The North American attitude to any disease or virus is to blast it to hell with antibiotics, sorta like their approach to getting the things they want. Obviously this method doesn't work, as more and more drug resistant bugs are appearing.

What Norwegians have done is simple: Stop taking so many drugs. With infections killing so many people every year, how hard can it be for doctors to stop prescribing useless meds? If you have a cough, there's no need for penicillin. Norway is a shining example that there is a way to combat superbugs, and it is damn effective. So next time you're sick, think about if you really do need to take those drugs, or if you can just wait and let your body do what it's made to do.

New Years Resolution

So I guess since it's a new year, I should make some sort of resolutions that I will think very hard about and try very hard for
about a month of so to remember these resolutions, then look back one year from now and realize none were accomplished.

1. Stay healthy and fit. Yoga every week during my coop work-term. (triathlon?)
2. Save money, and make smart investments.
3. Create a website.
4. Learn a new skill, and maybe a language.
5. Travel to somewhere new.
6. Learn how to drive standard.
7. Blog more.

Happy New Year!

So theres only 2 more years until the end of the world!!!!1!! jkjk haha

So for all your procrastinators, if you don't have a new years resolution yet, have no worry! The internets is here to save you! New Years Resolution generator!