TWO AM rambles

At 2am in the morning,

• still suffering from my terrible sleeping schedule (sleeping at 2-4a.m. and waking up at 12-2pm)
• brooding over upcoming exams (I don’t end until May 6th, damn U of T)
• trying to be productive by cleaning up my desk
• being proud of my brother’s Grease performance tonight at VPCI as Vince Fontaine!
• craving for a fish fillet sandwich from Wendy’s but they don’t have it anymore !
• counting down the number of days until May 6th
• watching my dog sleep and snore, it can get amusing
• wanting to do more nifty & crafty projects
• becoming less and less coherent
• sleep is kicking in, but not after some “Eclipse” reading (and no I am not a hardcore fan)

BOSE

Just received my Bose Around-Ear Headphones in the mail today. It’s refurbished but I got them with an awesome sale. So far, it sounds, looks, feels just as good as a brand spanking new one. Although there as been complaints about its construction, it seems it’ll be okay if take extra good care of it. Sound is awesome. Good bass and literally feels like you’re beside the singer. Sexy. Finally, quality listening for my ears.

Bose box

Bose around-ear headphones. Sexy !!

Bose around-ear headphones and all it's glory.

Smooth like a baby’s cheeks

For the past two days my knees have been experiencing those really crappy days where I can’t walk without a noticeable limp. Sitting on the subway yesterday to head to school, I began to brood over my knees and prospect of reinjuring it.  A couple of stations later, a lady sat beside with something huge on her back. At first I though she was carrying some funky looking bag from the corner of my eye. Well, whatever I thought it was happened to be the mother carrying her baby on her back. Catching a few glimpses of the baby, I observed his mother looked white (no racial discrimination intended), but the little baby seemed to mixed with a hint of asian. Regardless, the baby had nice black hair and pink rosy cheeks from the cold. I decided to mind my own buisness until I felt something tugging on my arm. The baby boy stared at me with this adorable “curious” look of his. I smiled back. He giggled and hid his face in his mother’s chest. I gave him my finger to hold and he kept playing “shy” with me. I think my heart almost melted. His mother laughed and commented he just loves attention. Never really had an experience where I was ever overwhelmed by a baby’s cuteness. Definitelywarmed up my heart and almost forgot that I was brooding a few minutes ago. Did my little goodbye to the baby and walked out thinking, “I admit defeat to that baby’s cuteness”.

A date

A calm chilly night.

A few skating in the small outdoor arena and trees with Christmas lighting situated slightly away.

Bodies pressed against each others to stay warm while doing a little waltz.

Two stars glimmering in the blank painted sky.

A long overdue post

Finally certified to drive by myself but just in time for the new driving regulations to be imposed. Lovely. Next on my driving list, do some persuasion so I can conquer the highways.

Other than making people feel scared while I’m behind the wheel (I’m not a bad driver, seriously), these past three months have been sheer pain, agony, stress, and trying to plough through everything. Although, I must admit I have impressed myself with my new studying habits. (You don’t want to know what I was like last year.) My commuting distance and time is pretty good compared to 1.5 hours for the others. Still trying to find a fine balance between studying for all five subjects. I have to say, organic chemistry and I are still not in good terms, as opposed to physics which I was fearing so much about in September. A part of me wishes that I lived in residence but with the massive amounts of distractions, I wouldn’t be able to shun it all away.

As the holidays start making there way here, I have decided I will be cooking up a storm with a book I borrowed from a friend, Joy of Cooking. Time to get all my basics down and be a real home chef, or something like that. I think my mom already knows of this hidden agenda and bought me so much cookingware. She has jokingly stated the kitchen is now my new lab, as long as I don’t blow up anything, or burn any pots. So many recipies and so little time ! Indeed, the joy of cooking…

A is for Atom, B is for Binary Code, C is for Cellular Membrane

I was browsing through wists the other day and clicked a link that led me to a sudden realization how nerdy people come to be. Behold! Nerds having nerdy babies. FTW! It puts my 6 year old version of me to shame for only knowing things like animal names and the colours of the rainbow. I think I might need to get a hold of these some day for my future children. Go the link below and get a glimpse of these brilliant nerdy baby flash cards.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14416771

Attention all dog lovers!

If you absolutely love dogs then I highly recommend for all of you to read this book Marley and Me by John Grogan. It tells the story of a young Labrador retriever, Marley,  who is brought into a family at a young age up until it’s last days with them. It really is a heartwarming and touching story of a dog making such an unforgettable impact on Grogan’s family. The last few chapters of the book, I admit, really brought tears into my eyes and I just had to have my own dog, Lassie, lie beside me as I’m reading. I learned of this book after looking at the favourite reads on a pamphlet that was being distributed by the Toronto Public Library. Since then, I’ve been recommending it to all my dog lover friends, and I’m even trying to get my mom hooked on to this. If you want to learn more about the book visit the website: http://www.marleyandme.com/

Believe it or not It gets better! I was actually browsing movies online and I found out they’re making Marley and Me into a movie with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston. It’s being released in December 2008 but that doesn’t stop me from being excited. Be sure to read the book and then hit the theatres once it’s out!

Angry Little Girls

I absolutely adore “Angry Little Girls” by Lela Lee. They are cute, witty and undeniably funny. Here are the comics that are making my day. Click the links below to see the comics. Enjoy!

Why are you still with me?

You no date asian boy.

I\’m happy to see you.

No secrets

The seventh must fall !

Anyone that has taken at least one music harmony class, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’m finally making progress in piano theory as I’m taking Grade 4 (Intermediate) Harmony and History this summer. Yes, everyone drones on about having to go to school everyday and the fact that we spend about 4 hours doing homework (for those who actually do it), but I rather like it. I’ve made big improvements in basic harmony progressions, which makes me wonder why I didn’t pay more attention to it back in Grade 3. How I dreaded those dominants sevenths and now there’s the leading note seventh chord and secondary dominants. All the effort spent on doing homework at Robarts have really made me get a better grasp of these basic resolutions. I find Grade 4 history more concentrated on analzying the actual pieces rather than learning the biography of the composers. Definitely much more exciting since I get to really listen to different aspects of the piece. When I stepped foot into those classrooms, the thing that immediately that caught my attention was how the teachers had a starking similarity to other teachers I know.

Sperm-Powered Nanobots

“The next wave in health care may include a brigade of medical nanobots, devices tiny enough to ride the flow of blood through the body’s arteries to a problem area. The bots might arrive at a clot, for example, nd then, using an internal power system, obliterate the clot with a precisely targeted drug or therapy. The same molecular power pacs that fuel sperm in their journey through the uterus and to a fallopian tube might be copied and used to keep the nanomachines running once they reach their targets.

Led by reproductive biologist Alex Travis, the engineering effort focuses on a chain of enzymes that metabolize glucose molecules into the biological fuel ATP, which enables sperm locomotion. Ordinarily the ATP provides sperm with enough energy to bend and flex their tails as they swim to the unfertilized egg. Travis’ plan is to copy the design of the sperm’s engine by slightly modifying a 10-enzyme glycolysis chain embedded in the sperm’s tail and then to install it in nanobots.

Using mouse sperm, Travis has thus far modified the first two enzymes on the chain so that they can bind to nickel ions attached to the surface of a tiny gold chip, which serves as a stand-in for a future nanobot. Now he needs to tweak the remaining enzymes so they can be attached too. If the spermlike moto works, it could someday use the body’s own energy source -glucose- to do such things as run super-tiny medical devices designed to release anti-cancer drugs or trigger the breakup of potentially deadly clots. “

By Patrick Huyghe