I forget how, but i recently came across this blog called "Post Secret"
This blogspotter simply publishes secrets that readers send in to them on the back of a postcard. Simple, and effective.
It's interesting the kinds of confessions you can get from people as soon as they know its anonymous. Soon as people realize that no one will know it's them, they're glad to pour out their deepest darkest secrets. But the average person would be embarrassed to stand up at a karaoke bar. It's pretty remarkable how many people have sent in, and how much effort they've put into their post cards. It almost seems a bit ironic, seeing as no one will even know it's them.
I need to clarify, it sounds like i think negatively of this blog. On the contrary, i very highly respect what this author has created. And how the readers respond to it, embrace it, and keep it going. It's really cool.
Check it out.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
smallpeople.
People are really small.
I had lecture this morning in Con Hall today, meaning that my class had about 1,400 people in it... give or take.
Unfortunately for me, like always, the lecture wasn't heading in a particularly interesting direction (we were learning how to cooperate as a team, or something along those lines. I'd almost rather do real work than have to learn about team work.). Furthermore, it was progressing pretty slowly. I looked at the projector screen maybe once every two minutes, and i still didn't miss any of the content.
This all lead to me being quite bored. So i amused myself.
I've always had a fascination with people's little physical habits. When i'm at wrestling practice teaching a move, at church serving on altar, or counselling a summer kid's camp, i always catch myself staring at the crowd of people and just taking in the crowd as a whole.
I don't really know how to explain it, but when you look at something, you're really only percieving that one thing, and everything else that you see, even though you see it, it's all just background. Because you're focused on that one thing.
In Con Hall today, i was sitting in one of the upper levels, and so with all the hundreds of people below me, i stared, unfocused, and there was a perpetual sea of movement.
At any given time while i was amusing myself with this, at least twenty people of the hundreds would be moving. Whether it was them raising their head, craning their neck, playing with their hair or nodding off to sleep, there was never a second of break in the constant movement.
And i kind of had a personal poetic moment. If I were to be staring at one person during this time, most of the time, they're actually not moving. But because i was looking at this huge crowd, of hundreds of people, there was always activity.
It was like hundreds of ripples on a small pond. Very cool.
There are so many people out there. And i still don't think i can even accurately percieve just how many people there are, and how small i am in the world. In my class of one hundred people, i feel small and unnoticed by the prof as i discreetly nibble away at my sandwich. In my larger class of 1,400 people, i can sleep in a contorted position and drool puddles and no one would say a word. All of these 1,400 people belong to the engineering department of U of T, and there are still another 600 or more engineers in the faculty, meaning there's over 2,000 of us. That's just the engineering faculty. In first year at U of T, accross all the disciplines, i bet there's at least 5,000 students. Multiply that out by four years, and you have 20,000. Consider that there are many more students in the university for post-grad degrees and you have even more. And then there's maybe 10 other major universities in ontario, plus colleges. And then accross Canada, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the World. The numbers are already beyond me, and i'm only talking about university students here.
As of september 23rd the world's population has hit 6.786 billion people. In my head, that number doesn't translate into an actual perception of how many people that is. I just know it's a hell of a lot.
All of a sudden, i don't feel like such a hot shot any more. I don't feel like i'm the center of the world like i admittedly do sometimes. But i'm not trying to be depressing.
It humbles me, but i like it.
Summary/Realisation: I'm really freakin' small.
I had lecture this morning in Con Hall today, meaning that my class had about 1,400 people in it... give or take.
Unfortunately for me, like always, the lecture wasn't heading in a particularly interesting direction (we were learning how to cooperate as a team, or something along those lines. I'd almost rather do real work than have to learn about team work.). Furthermore, it was progressing pretty slowly. I looked at the projector screen maybe once every two minutes, and i still didn't miss any of the content.
This all lead to me being quite bored. So i amused myself.
I've always had a fascination with people's little physical habits. When i'm at wrestling practice teaching a move, at church serving on altar, or counselling a summer kid's camp, i always catch myself staring at the crowd of people and just taking in the crowd as a whole.
I don't really know how to explain it, but when you look at something, you're really only percieving that one thing, and everything else that you see, even though you see it, it's all just background. Because you're focused on that one thing.
In Con Hall today, i was sitting in one of the upper levels, and so with all the hundreds of people below me, i stared, unfocused, and there was a perpetual sea of movement.
At any given time while i was amusing myself with this, at least twenty people of the hundreds would be moving. Whether it was them raising their head, craning their neck, playing with their hair or nodding off to sleep, there was never a second of break in the constant movement.
And i kind of had a personal poetic moment. If I were to be staring at one person during this time, most of the time, they're actually not moving. But because i was looking at this huge crowd, of hundreds of people, there was always activity.
It was like hundreds of ripples on a small pond. Very cool.
There are so many people out there. And i still don't think i can even accurately percieve just how many people there are, and how small i am in the world. In my class of one hundred people, i feel small and unnoticed by the prof as i discreetly nibble away at my sandwich. In my larger class of 1,400 people, i can sleep in a contorted position and drool puddles and no one would say a word. All of these 1,400 people belong to the engineering department of U of T, and there are still another 600 or more engineers in the faculty, meaning there's over 2,000 of us. That's just the engineering faculty. In first year at U of T, accross all the disciplines, i bet there's at least 5,000 students. Multiply that out by four years, and you have 20,000. Consider that there are many more students in the university for post-grad degrees and you have even more. And then there's maybe 10 other major universities in ontario, plus colleges. And then accross Canada, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the World. The numbers are already beyond me, and i'm only talking about university students here.
As of september 23rd the world's population has hit 6.786 billion people. In my head, that number doesn't translate into an actual perception of how many people that is. I just know it's a hell of a lot.
All of a sudden, i don't feel like such a hot shot any more. I don't feel like i'm the center of the world like i admittedly do sometimes. But i'm not trying to be depressing.
It humbles me, but i like it.
Summary/Realisation: I'm really freakin' small.
Monday, September 21, 2009
chem.
CHEM IS THE DEVIL'S SUBJECT.
Chem is my least favourite subject.
Every time a go to a lecture, there's about one or two slides that i can actually say i'm interested in, but in the sea of hundreds of slides, that's not a very impressive number.
Not to mention that i'm convinced the prof is TRYING to put me/the rest of the class to sleep. I mean really now... do you HAVE to read out the equation that you just put up on the projector? Every single variable and subscript? We can read thank you very much, your redundancy is not in the least bit constructive.
I wonder if i've grown to detest chem as a result of the experiences in chem i've had over the past two years because of a certain two teachers *ahem*. It's possible. Or maybe, as i continue to pursue the subject (not as a result of my own enthusiasm, i assure you) I just continuously discover the vast amount of information that i could never find interesting.
Buut, i'm getting through it... painfully slowly.
Oh no, i just realized that i'm already ranting about this course when i've only had four lectures/one tutorial.
I'm a university student now, be ready to hear me complain more and more :D
Chem is my least favourite subject.
Every time a go to a lecture, there's about one or two slides that i can actually say i'm interested in, but in the sea of hundreds of slides, that's not a very impressive number.
Not to mention that i'm convinced the prof is TRYING to put me/the rest of the class to sleep. I mean really now... do you HAVE to read out the equation that you just put up on the projector? Every single variable and subscript? We can read thank you very much, your redundancy is not in the least bit constructive.
I wonder if i've grown to detest chem as a result of the experiences in chem i've had over the past two years because of a certain two teachers *ahem*. It's possible. Or maybe, as i continue to pursue the subject (not as a result of my own enthusiasm, i assure you) I just continuously discover the vast amount of information that i could never find interesting.
Buut, i'm getting through it... painfully slowly.
Oh no, i just realized that i'm already ranting about this course when i've only had four lectures/one tutorial.
I'm a university student now, be ready to hear me complain more and more :D
Thursday, September 17, 2009
awholenewworld.
I had that song stuck in my head today, and for the life of me i could NOT get it to go away.
And then out of nowhere, it stopped playing as just a tune in my head... and i actually heard the lyrics as words instead of some musical jumble.
A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us "no"
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming.
The first thing that struck me was that the lyrics are incredibly cliche and cheesy... Yet i haven't grown tired of this song which has stuck with me since i was 4.
Secondly, and a little more significantly, i noticed that those five lines are pretty applicable to where i'm at right now.
Just two weeks ago, i was sleeping soundly in my comfortable bed, with those familiar four walls and my organized chaos of objects littering the floor. I was sleeping in every day, and doing nothing but enjoying the last couple of days that i would have to just do that... nothing.
Now, i'm living in a room one quarter the size of my old one, in a never-sleeping city that reeks constantly of mystery-odour, and surrounded by an army of unfamiliar faces.
Although i'm sure it sounds like it, i'm not complaining. I'm actually having a really great time in my "whole new world". Yet sometimes, it's nice to have something around that's familiar. So, last weekend when i went home for a visit, and i was all chipper to get back to my own familiar room, i was flabbergasted when i saw that kevin had moved all of my crap out, and claimed his territory. My room is now his.
Oh, and i'm not mad Kev, you more than deserve that room, since it is bigger than yours, and i'm not living there anymore. But, now i'm kind of stuck in a bit of a limbo. My new home doesn't quite feel like home yet, and when i go home, it doesn't feel like home either because my room no longer feels like my room. So i have this constant unnamable emotion that is best described as me just feeling lost.
I'm sure that i'll be get used to this place soon enough, and then this closet that i'm typing this blog out of, is going to be like my new niche in the world. But for now, i'm still feeling that tiny bit of uneasiness.
All of that aside, university life is amazing. It feels awesome to be on my own agenda. With no one hounding on my every move. I get to take classes in real pretty buildings, and there's a ton of clubs/teams/services all available to me. Not to mention the people are (for the most part) extremely nice.
Oh how i love aladdin.
And then out of nowhere, it stopped playing as just a tune in my head... and i actually heard the lyrics as words instead of some musical jumble.
A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us "no"
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming.
The first thing that struck me was that the lyrics are incredibly cliche and cheesy... Yet i haven't grown tired of this song which has stuck with me since i was 4.
Secondly, and a little more significantly, i noticed that those five lines are pretty applicable to where i'm at right now.
Just two weeks ago, i was sleeping soundly in my comfortable bed, with those familiar four walls and my organized chaos of objects littering the floor. I was sleeping in every day, and doing nothing but enjoying the last couple of days that i would have to just do that... nothing.
Now, i'm living in a room one quarter the size of my old one, in a never-sleeping city that reeks constantly of mystery-odour, and surrounded by an army of unfamiliar faces.
Although i'm sure it sounds like it, i'm not complaining. I'm actually having a really great time in my "whole new world". Yet sometimes, it's nice to have something around that's familiar. So, last weekend when i went home for a visit, and i was all chipper to get back to my own familiar room, i was flabbergasted when i saw that kevin had moved all of my crap out, and claimed his territory. My room is now his.
Oh, and i'm not mad Kev, you more than deserve that room, since it is bigger than yours, and i'm not living there anymore. But, now i'm kind of stuck in a bit of a limbo. My new home doesn't quite feel like home yet, and when i go home, it doesn't feel like home either because my room no longer feels like my room. So i have this constant unnamable emotion that is best described as me just feeling lost.
I'm sure that i'll be get used to this place soon enough, and then this closet that i'm typing this blog out of, is going to be like my new niche in the world. But for now, i'm still feeling that tiny bit of uneasiness.
All of that aside, university life is amazing. It feels awesome to be on my own agenda. With no one hounding on my every move. I get to take classes in real pretty buildings, and there's a ton of clubs/teams/services all available to me. Not to mention the people are (for the most part) extremely nice.
Oh how i love aladdin.
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