"Ata
yigdal na koach Ado-nai"
31/05/2006 00:04
++ Today Carlin and I went to watch X-men 3, it was pretty good, I really enjoyed it. Today I also got a job at the UofT Bookstore but we'll see how that goes, I will only take the job if it will fit with my lab work this summer. Which is going pretty well, today I spend my afternoon there on a different lab than the one I'm used to. It was a lab at MSB that they turned into a bedroom to study people during sleep. Its really neat, and I'm learning a lot there about respiratory physiology. Dr. Duffin and Tu are really good and I am really greatful for all that I'm learning there. Tomorrow I will actually be sleeping there, we'll be taking an EEG, EOG and measuring all sorts of breathing quantities. This is all part of Tu's project but when I am done learning how to operate the lab I will be allowed to do some subjects all by myself, which should be really good... Changing the subject a little for just before I go, has anyone tried to type on google the question: "the answer to life, the universe, and everything?".
"Round
trip to Balmora, just around the fur"
26/05/2006 00:59
++ Fala ae todo mundo. I've been having a pretty good "summer", I haven't done much I guess but I've been learning a lot of stuff on my own time. I guess it all started with mod making for CIV4... then I've also picked up a bit more complex mod for morrowind, which involved 3D modification of the game. I was able to make a house on the game, and inside that house I could keep all the stuff I wanted to store, I had a bed to sleep and I had Carlin there, I made her so that I could do some trading. Its all part of the game so most of you probably don't know what the game is all about. Anyway, I don't have a job yet but I've got a few interviews lined up, I am volunteering at a really cool lab with Dr. Duffin from the Physiology of Respiration Department at UofT. He's a really awesome guy and I'm learning a lot from him. We've been doing some experiments that I already discussed below, but next week I will be working with his student, Tu, which is studying effects of hypoxia events during sleep, this is all to simulate Apnea on a normal person. Basically he wants to compare how highly hypoxic intervals during sleep affect Carbon dioxide sensitivity upon awakening. With this data he can compare how different healthy people behave to this condition. What else, oh I've also been working on the UPSA website and that allowed me to learn quite a bit more about DHTML and some Javascript. A few very neat trick that I've been wanting to learn for a while. I also installed 3D studio max on my computer and I've been struggling to try and learn how to do some cool stuff on it. Its tricky though, I did my first animation on it yesterday, it was simple and soundless of course but fun nonetheless. How could I forget, yesterday was the season finale of LOST, I cannot say much more than: WOW... I don't think anyone expected the episode to be like that. I'm sure many didn't like it too much cause it was really out of nowhere. It was cool though that they explained how the plane crashed. It was one of my favorite episode ever, much better than the finale for season 1. Well now I guess I have to wait for the next season.
"Car
Car Binks"
20/05/2006 21:30
++ I've been having quite a bit of fun lately. I started volunteering at a physiology lab and I am really enjoying it. I was lucky to get a good prof to work with. He even invited me to join one of his classes for graduate students, teaching us how to use a lab software called "Lab View", which is basically like programming but a little different. I also have an interview for a job on Monday, we'll see how that goes too. Lately I have also been playing two new games, one is Lego Star Wars, which I play with Carlin. It's really really fun and I love kicking her ass with my light saber, just joking she's actually better than me. I also play "Elder Scrolls : Morrowind", which is an RPG. I've always been a bit against RPG because I have this idea that they are games for losers and that they are really really slow. Morrowind is really fun though, I guess it was good to give an RPG a chance. Today I also started to work on a new website, I'm making the website for the Physiology Student Union. I started from scratch so it will probably take me a while to make it look good like this one :) ...Below is a nice picture I took when Carlin and I went to a garden just a block away from my apartment.
"F***
yeah, I'm done"
11/05/2006 17:16
++ Damn right, I'm done second year, finished my last exam yesterday. Proudly I think I did relatively well. I had physics and I needed a 60 to get what I wanted, but I think I got a lot more than that, which in that class is good for me. Now today was an interesting day. First I had an interview at a medical clinic that researches HIV, so I might bet getting a job there this summer, which would be great. It sounds like a really fun job and it pays pretty well. I usually screw up on interviews but this one wen't somewhat smoothly. The after that at 3PM I had another "interview", sort of. I was a subject volunteer for a respiratory physiology experiment, at the same time I got to see Dr. Duffin's lab and next week I will be helping them out to conduct the experiment again on female subjects. I think I will be getting a project to do this summer in that lab which would be amazing since I really enjoy respiratory physiology. Basically, the subject runs and walks at different speeds in a treadmill. The subject is hooked to machines that measure, pace, speed, heart rate, Pco2, Po2, respiration rate and a few other things. Now they do the tests in different scenarios, normal to faster walk, then they do a trial with an inclination. Then the main point of the experiment is to measure all those things through a sinusoidal variation in speed as well as inclination. After I was done my session, he mentioned what the results are looking like, which is still all very premature. Overall it was great.
"Finally
an exam I can be proud of"
09/05/2006 17:14
++ I just wrote my Spanish exam today, and I finally feel good about an exam. Hopefully this will carry out to tomorrow, and maybe I'll do well then too.
"What
really grind my gears."
09/05/2006 01:01
++ It angers me that we are in the 21st century, we have technology to do everything for us. You can go to the store and buy a telephone that you can talk anywhere you are, to any place in the world. You can take pictures and videos, and send them to people. Wait, you don't actually have to go to the store, because you can always buy it online. We can download movies that are several Gbs in a matter of minutes with a good bandwidth. But when you apply to university you have to apply online, pay a few hundred bucks and they send it through MAIL. Yes, they send paper back and forth through mail, and it takes weeks, and you can never really know if they got it or not because there are no error messages poping up on your mail box every now and then. Its ridiculus, it would be so much faster and organized to do it through the internet, but they choose to send us a crappy piece of paper that you have to attach to the letter in order to make the right department get the documents faster. Now if you need to send a transcript that is 100Km away from you, where you have to rely on them sending papers for you, you can't add the stupid slip. Now you have to depend on the postal service and the goodwill and organization of the people receiving this mail. That's what grinds my gears, get on with the program people. Pero ahora yo tengo que volver a mis estudios. Mi examene de español es mañana.
"Vicarious
emotions"
08/05/2006 13:19
++ I feel like its summer already, yet I have two more tests to go. I just want to be done already. Carlin is home having fun, going to bed at 3AM waking up at 11, what else can anyone ask for? Yang is going to the mall, and chilling, watching movies. I'm here trying to study, while I can only think of having fun. Well, I guess I just have to deal with it. I have 2 interviews this week, one in a medical clinic and the other on is on a respiratory physiology lab. I am hoping that both go well, I don't know if I get I will take them both, I guess it will all depend on how much free time I will have. Motivation, I think I have. Another good news, new tool CD came out last week, and it's pretty good, in a way it kind of sounds a lot like lateralus but it is still pretty good. I thought it was weird since every tool CD has its own individual mood, but I can see no difference between this one and laterelus. Oh, I also watched all the lost episodes and I'm caught up with the show now... all I can say about episode 20, WOW.
"Hippie
day? "
06/05/2006 18:36
++ As I was going to the library today I came across a huge crowd crossing wellesley. I realized that they were protesting for the legalization of marijuana. Then as I was walking by Queen's park, there was this fair like event where thousands of hippies were smoking pot and doing whatever else they do. People walking around with huge bongs and cops just watching it as if it was all normal. It was definitely the biggest pot smoking crowd I've ever seen. Well, after that I went to the library and studied till a little while ago, when I came back and now I am probably going to go to the grocery store, buy some ingredients to make tacos tonight... Yummy.
"Truth
is the method of defense and passion cries out from our fiery blaze of
words "
04/05/2006 01:17
++ Today, I spent the day in the library. I got up at 10 or so, ate and went to the library. I stayed there until about 6:30 or so then I came home and ate again. That's why I don't really have much to say, cause my life consists of studying, eating and sleeping, at least for the next week. I did however watch 2 episodes of LOST, I'm so close to having watched all the episodes, but I still can't wait till it comes out on DVD so I can watch it in the summer. Did I mentioned that I might have gotten a volunteer position in a lab? yeah I might be working for a lab that studies respiratory physiology, but I don't know for sure yet so we'll see.