In not-so-live-breaking news, I made it into my two desired majors: Cell Biology & Genetics and English. Really, I could do just one and probably do fine…but I’m going to do both, because I can. Carpe diem and all, I’m going to be darned if I don’t get to prove my proficiency in a wide and disparate plethora of academic disciplines!

The rain on Monday and Tuesday really put me into a blah mood; I collapsed on the bus into a semi-comatose state much to the dismay of people who sat next to me. I tend to do that a lot now; sleep debt repayments on the bus. What a reversion to my winter pattern!

Les Misérables on July 17th with C and A! How exciting. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on Youtube lately and I’m sure it will be great. I keep telling myself what Dory told herself in Finding Nemo, just keep swimming.

Somehow I’ll make it through BIOL 335 and AMS Minischool.

Addendum: Contemplating writing short story/short film to spice up my rather ordinary life. Will assuredly write about extraordinary events happening to an ordinary protagonist. Suggestions?

L phoned me and asked if I would like to go to Oakridge. Intrigued, I acceded to her proposal and off we went, picking up A along the way. I later found out that a celebration for the opening of the Cambie Street – 41st Avenue Canada Line skytrain station was being held. Our tour guide, T, was on duty at the time.

It was a raucous affair, featuring a mainstage and several informational booths. At the time I went, some youth dance groups were performing.

After being amused for a while, we decided to descend the stairs into the Cambie Street – 41st Avenue station. I was impressed by the cleanliness and brightness of the underground station; it was really quite nice! Unfortunately, it reminded me of the “No Mercy” campaign in Left 4 Dead, specifically in the subway level. Can anyone who has played Left 4 Dead blame me?

After spending a few more minutes appreciating our tax dollars at work, we left the station and returned to the festivities above ground. T took a moment out of work to watch the main stage, black tresses trailing behind her.

Re-entering Oakridge, we took a quick walkabout before T had to return to her post. On our way, a dark stranger whispered something mysterious in T’s ear…

Just kidding! It was just A, talking to T. We ended up walking through Oakridge without much incident so we left. Thanks to L, A and T for making an otherwise quiet day into one filled with fun times.

From a very early age, I had already begun to imagine that I would have to pick something to do in life, that my life required some sort of teleology, some sort of purposeful existence. That I existed was not enough (though I rather joyously explored my existence by nursing my infant brother who only came into existence after me), I knew that I needed to be something, to do something.

My first inclination was to become an artist; when I was five, I boldly declared (paintbrush, dripping red tempera paint onto the linoleum floor, in hand) that I would be an artist. I paused to ascertain the effect of my imposition on the world of art. Assuredly, with what I now know was a chuckle, my teacher patted me on the head and swiftly repaired to cleaning the “art” I had left upon her spotless floor. “Justin!” she must have imagined in her French accent, “you have soiled my floor!” When I brought home my artistic endeavours, my parents were good-natured enough that they did not laugh at me in front of me at what was certainly a formative moment, but rather, they silently chose not to display my art on the refrigerator.

Given up hastily on art (for this! Art, I turn my back – there is a world elsewhere!), I busied myself upon the verdant field with the world’s most popular pastime, soccer. With my stubby legs, I hobbled about the field, kicking and bumping into others, uncoordinated and haphazard. Of course, probability was in my favour; out of the umpteen games recesses I spent chasing after that elusive ball, I scored a few points. My efforts weren’t lost on my friends; while attending the birthday of my friend Leslie, I was ushered into a makeshift gypsy tent, cloaked in some perfume smelling like rosepetals and cinnamon. His sister, having recently purchased a book on Tarot and a deck of Tarot cards, fancied herself a fortune teller, a diviner of the future, and told fortunes to all of us. I was destined, she relayed to me in a voice thick with affected solemnity, to become a soccer player. My ethnicity notwithstanding, I was excited and repaired to the field to play more soccer. Eventually, I grew tired of being handicapped with (what I assumed were abnormally) short legs and gave up on the sport altogether. That and because I was repeatedly scolded for returning home with grass stains on most of my clothes.

By now, I was a happy elementary school student, excited to explore the world. I realised early on that I had had a penchant for writing, a predisposition for word play (how joyous that day when I was taught the word “alliteration,” I fondly recall – the teacher had asked us for examples and I came up with “pink ‘’potamus,” something I imagined was rather clever). I allowed myself to mimic my favourite authors in my writing; these were the days before children were liable for copyright infringement. An incapable illustrator and a poor penman, I could at least spell with a 99% accuracy rate and write in grammatically correct sentences. A writer, I thought, why not? I enjoy writing. And there is such a plethora of books out there, I could assuredly spend my life publishing my own books. After I received some praise from my teachers for my creative writing, I was offered a mentorship with Steven Galloway in creative writing. While he has assuredly forgotten about the little Asian boy who he was tasked with educating, I have never quite forgotten him. “How much do authors make?” “Oh I’d say writers make less than janitors.” He smiled sheepishly, probably chuckling at his candidness. I blanched at the thought. My dreams of being a world-class writer had been hopelessly smashed. I searched elsewhere.

Journalism! Yes, I would be a jet-setting journalist, I thought to myself as a pre-teen. What could be better? I am paid to traverse the world’s exotic locales, documenting human interest stories, writing about famous people and meeting VIPs. I would be so sophisticated and savvy. My dad protested. Again, my ethnicity notwithstanding (for I had not yet seen FairChild television and its all-Asian cast; I had only seen Connie Chung on primetime television alongside non-Asian reporters), I imagined myself one day as a famous journalist, one who could expose the truth and show humanity unto itself. I eventually learned that journalists hardly ever get to be so glamorous and few ever get big breaks. I hastened towards another career prospect.

Having at this point reached adolescence, I firmly set my mind upon becoming a lawyer; having verbally scrimmaged with my parents on many an occasion and (in my mind) won. Yes, I knew that this time, I had picked the right career path. And what could be more noble than law? I fancied myself something of an amazing rhetorician, beating down criminals in court and winning the high approval of my peers. I realised that this would not work soon after my parents began sending me to my room for being argumentative. Arguing, I learned, never earned anyone anything good. Leave the lawyers to their conflicts, I thought, I’ll learn to keep my mouth shut and perhaps I’ll stop being grounded.

I realised, by now, that ethnicity was indeed a factor, that I could attempt to leverage my Asianness and Canadianness for a career in foreign diplomacy. Having been previously enrolled in French immersion and Chinese school, I imagined myself stepping out of my limousine into warm sunlight, personal assistant trailing me. I would walk down red carpets into dignitaries’ homes and enjoy tea, coffee and biscuits as we chatted about ways in which our countries could join in mutual solidarity. We would part on amiable terms and I would go home, perhaps to prepare to watch the opera or to present at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. But the numbers got  in the way. How many countries in the world require a Canadian-born, English-speaking, Asian foreign diplomat? Certainly, I would never be deployed to Europe, Africa or South America and my knowledge of Asian languages was scanty at best and unintelligible at worst. My French, after all, was far superior to my Cantonese. I gave upon this dream too.

At this point, I was taking senior sciences at high school, a year behind my friends who were in the enriched sciences/maths stream. Aha, I proclaimed, I would become a doctor (the sentence that every Asian parent and grandparent wants to hear). I enjoy science, I particularly love biology and I want to do something noble for the world. Yes, these were the days when wanting was enough and the vocabulary consisting of “grade point average,” “MCAT” and “interviews” hadn’t yet been developed. Doctor Yang, I thought, has a nice ring to it. And how glamorous! “Out of the way! Doctor Yang needs to get to the operating room stat,” the nurses would cry as I raced to save a dying man’s life. By the time first year ended, this dream was firmly shut out of my mind.

So here I stand. Upon the precipice between the pile of discarded childhood dreams and the great unknown. Now, I really should have a gameplan; I must have had some foresight as an infant, already planning for the future. For once in my life, I’m not quite sure what I want to do for the rest of it (a daunting thought) and I doubt I’m going to figure it out in the next few months.

I am a huge devotee to social media and all sorts of experimental Web 2.0 stuff. Long before Twitter became mainstream, I had read about it on Lifehacker ages ago and signed up but thought it was pretty silly, considering I’d be tethered to my laptop. But that’s just one story of how I was ingratiated into Web 2.0, here are all of my stories:

Xanga (http://www.xanga.com)
Status: Defunct
This one, like everyone else, I joined in high school. I wasn’t really joining it because of any keen interest in it, but because I wanted to conform. Nevertheless, I always aimed to have a really cool, personalized layout with which SM assisted. I was only marginally knowledgeable about Photoshop back then, and derived much of my work off other templates and graphics. I eventually abandoned it when everyone else did the same.

Friendster (http://www.friendster.com)
Status: Defunct
This was something akin to a one night stand; Kevin joined it and invited me so I joined it too. I eventually figured that social media (or at least Friendster) was on its way out so I quit pretty quickly.

Flickr (http://www.flickr.com)
Status: Dormant
After I bought my cool new Canon SD200 way back when, I wanted to store my pictures online. However, I didn’t have anywhere to put them; Shaw member accounts only gave us 10MB which was really prohibitive. I found Flickr on my own and uploaded them there, long before Yahoo! bought it and enforced the Yahoo! accounts upon it. I remember back then, they had lifetime pro accounts…now I wish I had bought one!

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com)
Status: Active; high-activity
I joined Facebook the summer I returned from Shad Valley to keep in touch with my Dalhousie Shads. C, introduced it to me, at work one day; and I was quite puzzled – how was I to use it? What was the point? Little did I know, everyone would end up joining Facebook and it would become ubiquitous. I spent many a dull afternoon during that summer on Facebook.

Youtube (http://www.youtube.com)
Status: Active; moderate-activity
This one doesn’t need an explanation; who isn’t on Youtube?!

Last.fm (http://www.last.fm)
Status: Active; low-activity
Last.fm came because I wanted to record my musical tastes (I cringe at my love of Disney music) and find some cool new tunes to listen to. It was really easy to set up and I probably got the idea from Lifehacker, but I ended up finding new artists and songs which I thought was so cool. Now, they’ve put in a subscription fee sort of thing so I don’t use them to find new music, but I still like to record what I listen to!

Twitter (http://www.twitter.com)
Status: Active; high-activity
After hearing Gina Trapani gush about the usefulness of Twitter, I wanted to get in on the action too! Sadly, I found out that I could only edit it with the use of a computer (web) or by cellphone and, being on a pay-as-you-go plan, I couldn’t really afford the latter option. So I signed up, let my Twitter account grow stagnant, then picked it up again when I had my laptop for school. I’ve never looked back since.

Linkedin (http://www.linkedin.com)
Status: Active; low-activity
While I was on my summer internship in the HR department, I learned about LinkedIn and was rather skeptical of its use. Seemed like a glorified bragging website where CEOs and CFOs could stare each other down by listing achievements and action items; direct reports and deliverables. But I signed up anyway, thinking “why not?” Since then, I still update my LinkedIn page (which appears near the top in a Google search for my name) but I don’t really expect to get a job out of it. Has it really gotten a job for anyone? Let me know.

Shelfari (http://www.shelfari.com) and LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com)
Status: Defunct
Just like Last.fm, I wanted to keep track of the books I read (and hopefully get recommendations). However, Shelfari ended up being pointless because of its spam and LibraryThing became a subscription service. Boo! I want a good book cataloguing-social media website. Is that so much to ask? I don’t recommend either of these sites.

Edit: Since Tim from LibraryThing was kind enough to offer his input, I’m revising my evaluation of LibraryThing. It was always a subscription service (I must have found out after registering and felt ripped off – that happens when you don’t read the fine print, kids). And, of course, it’s far superior to Shelfari which I added to my blocked senders list after I kept receiving spam emails from them. So if you want to get your money’s worth, LibraryThing’s your best bet – sophisticated, friendly and non-spamming. (Though if you are, as most starving students are, hard up for cash for such luxuries, you could always save up to join.)

RememberTheMilk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com)
Status: Dormant
Lifehacker simply adores RTM (and its conformation into the GTD mantra) but I find it strange and awkward. Probably because I don’t have a smartphone (yet) but hopefully I’ll end up using it prolifically with my soon-to-be-purchased Blackberry? Perhaps RTM will reawaken like Twitter!

CiteULike (http://www.citeulike.org) and Dopplr (http://www.dopplr.com)
Status: Active; low-activity
So only recently joined these two but they’re pre-emptive sort of things. CiteULike is useful for me (and will continue to be useful) as I continue to read academic articles and do research; it’s cool to read the CiteGeist (listings of popularly cited articles) to keep my finger on the pulse as research continues to be done. Dopplr is for the future, when I will be travelling the world, hopefully meeting new people and making new friends. I haven’t figured out the ins and outs of Dopplr yet, but I’ll assuredly try to use it to its full potential!

Hunch (http://www.hunch.com)
Status: Active; low-activity
I saw this in G’s Twitter one day and was curious. I’ve signed up using an invitation and am rather amused but perplexed by Hunch. I haven’t used it for any decisions yet, but I’ll try to see if it’s relevant to me at all. Only time will tell.

What social media/Web 2.0 tools do you use?

The highlights of the day included finding out that Sgt. Dan Wendland is *shock and awe…again* no longer servicing UBC?! I’m so confused. This is the doing of the Radical Beer Faction…j’accuse!

After Phoebe Yu commented on missing Wordcamp 2009 Vancouver, I did a bit of research and now I’m so excited about upcoming blogging conferences! While there are plenty,  nationally and internationally, they’re pretty inaccessible due to the nature of school and work. That’s why I’ve resolved to attend Northern Voice 2010 and Wordcamp 2010 Vancouver! Maybe I’m overcompensating for not attending any 2010 Olympics events?

Kevin Wu received cool MooCards for being a foodbuzz publisher but I’ve been contemplating blogger calling cards for a while now myself! I think it’s a great idea. Here’s a quick mockup I designed, how does it look? (And don’t comment on the quick mockup job! Just the design, please!)

I saw a ridiculous commercial just now, see it after the jump.

I must be so unfashionable. I don’t understand…what is the concept of this commercial?! I saw the backstage commentary and I call BS on this one.

I woke up early today for transition training from S. We breezily covered all the important topics (bookings, planning, finances, etc.) and I left a bit early to head off to buy a present. I’m really surprised that S is actually leaving, I think I took for granted that she’d always be around with her good attitude and encouraging manner. I hope I can be half the coordinator she was to me!

After work, I phoned P to meet her to go shopping so we met at the mall. Transit is sometimes unbearable. While I was sitting, a lady with a stroller came on and no one vacated the courtesy seats for her to put the stroller until the bus driver threatened not to move until she had a safe space. Then another woman came on with another stroller and the courtesy seats were left unvacated again. This time, the driver didn’t do anything. Then at the next stop, some old stubborn man came on and stood right between the two women with strollers at the front of the bus. The nerve! People literally had to turn sidelong to get by him and he refused to move. I was aghast at how he made the elderly and the young alike circumnavigate his body. Maybe he human contact? He was simply disruptive and annoying at any rate. It’s not as if there isn’t a back exit on the bus. Why can’t people be more logical.

Anyhow, I met P at the mall and the first order of business was coffee. We then shopped for a while and I bought Third Girl, yet another Agatha Christie for me to read. The new covers are quite charming – I really like the style they’re going for. They’re not exactly haute literature, but they’re quite gripping. V dropped by briefly while we were at Chapters and P bought a gift. V very graciously drove me home! Moreover, I bumped into J mere hours before her flight. I hope she has a safe and enjoyable journey. She promised she’ll be blogging so I’ll be reading it.

L left today which was rather sad but I hope she’s safe and comfortable! N has arrived in Florida from what I can discern. K just came online from Costa Rica. How wonderful that everyone gets to travel this year! I’ll be working and schooling for the next few summers but I want to have my own adventure as well.

I recently got hooked on Harper’s Island and I think it’s so cool! I wonder who did it? I don’t even know who to suspect…maybe it’s the groom’s alter ego just like in My Bloody Valentine 3D?

It all got me thinking though (I mean Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Harper’s Island), I’d make an excellent suspect in a murder mystery. I’m calm, methodical and certainly capable. I don’t know how well I’d be able to hide it, but I’d surely come up with a great way to commit the crime. Alternatively, I could be the plucky young boy who helps the detective – I noticed blood on one of the tiles in my bathroom this morning, for example. As it turns out, it wasn’t anything serious (oh, doesn’t that make me similar to Catherine Morland? Don’t believe everything you read!) so all my worry was for naught.

I’m almost done downloading all the episodes of Card Captor Sakura and the two movies. Hurray for summer! Last summer I caught up on Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes and Ugly Betty. This year I’ll be reminiscing about grade 5/6 by watching one of my favourite anime series. Jolly good!