The Latest and Greatest (For the Time Being)

Technology is constantly changing, and that is one of the things I love about it. I can't wait to see what's coming around the corner, what new application will be made, what new gadget will be put into production. I have recently talked about how technology is controlling people's lives, well I say dive in and swim because we live in a tech world. I also mentioned how my Gateway laptop is a spine twister weighing in at 9.3lbs and with its' 17inch screen. Even at that it's still way more portable than my old desktop with it's tower and separate screen. So I have been on the lookout for a smaller more portable computer just to take with me to my classes, nothing too powerful, but it has to have a good keyboard.
After some research and a very good marketing campaign by Sony, I have found the answer to my portable computer problems: the Sony P-series computers. It's not the perfect computer, it does have some flaws, however, it's damn sexy and very portable. It does not have very good hard drive space, but it can be upgraded to a solid state hard drive, coupled with Google's online storage, and I have the perfect solution. What I love about the P Series is that the whole device is built around the keyboard to maximize ease of use and comfort while typing. http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/sony-p-series-lifestyle/4505-3121_7-33485561.html?tag=rnav
A smart phone is also a item I have been searching for, the iPhone does not really appeal to me, since I live in Canada, and their network is garbage up here. The Blackberry has been under my eye for quite some time, until the Palm Pre showed up. http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10137746-100.html. It's on a reliable network, and it has everything I could want in a phone, including copying and pasting(damn you iPhone). I'm addicted to technology, and it's the most wonderful feeling in the world, having the world at your fingertips, being constantly connected is the way of the future.

Paradigm Shift

Technology, it's what drives today's society, industry, research, and it even controls our lives. The large majority of people cannot be without their cell phone, and the number of internet users will only grow and grow. I am not impervious to the allure of it, and recently I have found myself with some of the latest technology to hit the shelves. It is very easy to be overwhelmed with the amount of options available to consumers when they try to decide on what device is right for them. However I think it is wonderful to have such a wide array of options, because that allows people to get the perfect device for them.
When I was growing up, my family did not have that many gadgets around the house, I even remember using a rotary phone with that rotating dial, we had that up until I was about five or six. My parent's house still has dial-up internet, although the fact that the house is out in the country might be a factor in that. When I was a teenager, I got my first computer, it was an average computer I still have it although I don't use it that often. It is a traditional style computer with the large tower and separate screen. However I think the end of large desktop computers is almost at its' end, at least for me it is. I have recently bought a laptop that is built to be a desktop replacement, it's a Gateway P-7811FX it has everything I need and more. It's much more portable than my old desktop, however it is still a large beast compared to other laptops tipping the scale at 9.3 lbs and with a 17 inch screen. I did a lot of research before I purchased it, with information supplied from sites like CNET
I love technology, and I believe that human evolution will no longer be subject to the whims of Mother Nature, it is almost time that we take control of our own genetic make-up and augment ourselves with technology. I argue that we are already augmenting ourselves and our abilities with it, but at what cost?

Fears

What follows is a list of the ten most common fears in North America:
1. Speaking in public

2. Snakes

3. Confined spaces

4. Heights

5. Spiders

6. Tunnels & bridges

7. Crowds

8. Public transportation (especially planes)

9. Storms

10. Water (as in swimming and drowning, not drinking)

I myself am not afraid of any of the listed fears. Which is good because every one of the above items are relatively common in today's society especially crowds and public transportation. I jokingly tell people that my main fear are bears with uzis which makes them the ultimate predator. However on a serious note, my fear is that I wont achieve my goals in life. I want to be able to benefit society in a positive way. I have to do well in my classes in order to actually become a doctor and then I'll be able to help people in a more direct way.

The Two Most Important Qualities Every Person Should Have

When I was at the university, I asked some random people: What two qualities should every person posses? although the answers were varied, one did stick out: Loyalty. In all honesty it was mostly women who gave that answer more often than men. I don't think loyalty is as important as women like to think it is, although I'm pretty sure they are thinking about the most wanted qualities in a mate, where I'm talking about the general population of the planet. I mean North Korean troops have loyalty, so did Nazi troops. So for the general population, loyalty is not as good a trait as most people would like to think.
I think the two most important qualities any person should have are: Compassion, and Ambition. Compassion is the ability to feel for others, to actually want to relieve the pain of others. Ambition makes a person want to achieve greater goals, greater heights of achievement. Although ambition is a trait most often coupled with a person's lust for power, it is also a vital part of day-to-day decision making. A homeless person can be compassionate, however that homeless person would not have the ability or opportunity to demonstrate that compassion for the benefit of society. Ambition can be used for evil, but when coupled with compassion, than it can be used to greatly benefit society.

Presidential Inauguration

The Presidential Inauguration has never held very much interest for me since I am Canadian. However I feel that Barack Obama, is a very exceptional man. I find it curious that even I am excited about this President, and I hope he is able to repair the damage that President Bush has done to the reputation of the United States. At the same time, I musn't get my hopes rise too high, because Barack Obama is still human, and he will make mistakes and all the problems North America has, won't just go away overnight. Unfortunately I think that most people have the idea that everything will just magically get better, but it won't. Hard work is needed and it will probably take two years before some real progress is seen at the public level. 2009 will still be a disappointing year, all that aside, history was made today, and one question you should be able to answer is: Where were you when on Inauguration Day when Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States?
I was at home, watching the entire inauguration and loveing every second of it.

On Campus

Yesterday was Sunday, and I decided to go to school. on the expressly to take pictures. I could never find pictures of my university online or anywhere else so I decided to take some a post them here. Since it was Sunday, there was not a lot of people around to get in the way, a professor even gave me roof access on one of the taller buildings on campus. I never really gave much thought to the trees or the general scenery of the campus, until I purchased my camera. Now I see photographic possibilities in almost everything I see, it's like I am seeing the beauty in the world for the very first time. I never really thought I'd be the photographer type, but than again I never thought I'd be the type who writes in a blog. I can't draw or paint, and my guitar skills still need a bit of polish before I even think about posting videos of myself playing. So I suppose photography is something people drift to naturally, since anybody can do it. All I need to do now is learn how to use Photoshop effectively in order to give my pictures that little bit of other-worldly feel. I took over 150 pictures, but I posted some of my favorites with a couple of the larger ones thrown in.

The Holiday that Never Ends

The holiday season has always been the holiday that starts two months early and ends long after December. For some people, the holiday season never ends and they keep their decorations up all year long. No other holiday has that kind of hold, Valentine's Day lasts only one day, so does Thanksgiving and Halloween. I don't mind the colourful lights and the decorations in the malls, but they'll start to grind on my nerves if they stay up until February.

A Walk in the Sun

While out on my walk, I never really noticed how much nature is in the city if you know where to look for it. I have only been here in the city for a short amount of time, and it is only now, since I have a good camera, that I am truly appreciating it.

Embrace the Sun

Waking up this morning I quickly realized that I was groggy from the relative lack of sleep from the night before. Still it was morning and I knew I had to rise with the Sun or else my internal clock would become unbalanced. Pouring myself a bowl of cereal and watching some Saturday morning cartoons, I noticed that the dark brooding thoughts I had yesterday evening were completely gone. The amount of sunlight seemed to have a psychological effect on me and I was much more cheerful than I was in the evening. Once I finished my bowl of cereal I decided that it was time for another long walk in the sun.

My Own Time Machine

When I was younger, I thought that I wanted to be an astronomer, because my fondest memories of when I was growing up was when I went outside late at night and looked up at the stars in the sky. Whenever I looked up at the night sky, my entire field of view was consumed by the billions of stars. Growing up in the country meant that the air was always clean and the view was not obscured by pollution so I was able to see everything. Me and my siblings would try to count how many shooting stars and satellites we could see. I don't think I'll ever be able to move too far away from the country. In places like New York or London, the pollution prevents a lot of people from enjoying the kind of view of the stars that I grew up looking at.
Since the light of distant stars takes longer to reach Earth, than the further away you look, the further back in time you go. The light from some of those stars in the sky, took billions of years to reach us here, and some of those stars don't even exist anymore, yet they shine on until the last of their light reaches us. It's like having your own time machine.

Deep thoughts in the deep snow

Today I decided to not go to my classes, I only had two for today and I already read ahead in my books so I already knew what the professor was going to say. So I decided to sleep in and relax for the day. I then decided to drive to the countryside for a walk later in the day. As I was out there in that field alone with the winds and snow, I forgot about all my normal day-to-day worries. I concentrated on the soft crunching of the snow under my boots, and sight of the Sun setting on the horizon and I let my mind wander freely. I don't know why, but as I stood there looking at the Sun set, I thought about what I would do if my parents and siblings were to die suddenly. I have always been close to my family, and now I find myself living in a city that is far away from all of them and I miss them constantly. If they were to die, than I'd be depressed, angry and I think I'd be lost without them.
I then thought of what other people must go through when they lose a loved one. The closest thing I could imagine is a feeling of complete loss that hits you in the bottom of your stomach and gnaws away at all the things that makes a person smile. I thought to myself: Which sibling would I be able to live without? I could not make that decision, each one of them is special to me. Finally I thought that everybody's time on Earth is limited and everybody WILL die, I will die, we ALL will absolutely die.
Just like the today's setting Sun, we all will meet our end, and it will always be ugly it will always be painful, whether by some accident, disease or the slow decay of time. Yet the more I thought of death, the less I feared it. It is one of the most natural things in the world and the only thing that matters is HOW we will be remembered. Will I be remembered? Or will I be forgotten? I then started to walk back to my car, and continue my life.

First post, first blog.

The last time I kept a journal of any kind was back in grade school, because back then it was a mandatory part of the school day. The teacher would take the last ten minutes of the class day, and have us students write in our journals, usually the teacher gave us a vague guideline, such as "what do you have planned for the summer?" or "what career do you see yourself going into?" That sort of stuff. Eventually I thought of the idea of keeping a journal as equal to how a girl keeps a diary, so I saw the idea of writing down your feelings and ideas down on paper as feminine, so I stopped doing it. I lived my life up until this moment where I find myself writing my thoughts and feelings down, not on paper, but as data to be stored online. Somehow the idea of writing down your feelings is not so strange or "feminine" as I thought in my teenage years.
So here I am, it's late in the morning approximately 2:10 am on a Friday, and I have class at 8:30 am. Why am I writing in this blog so late(or early) in the morning? It's because I feel that the amount of thoughts and ideas running around in my head, is causing me to become less focused in my day-to-day activities. I have to unload some of this baggage somewhere, and I thought a blog would be a good place to store it. I spent no more than 15 min customizing my blog, and it's still crude and empty as I'm writing this, but that will change. I have plans to post some of my pictures, because digital photography is fascinating and I want to be able to store them beside my thoughts and ideas here on this blog. My goal is to write at least once a day and I have a feeling that this post will be among my longest, because in this one, I have to explain to myself WHY I am here making this blog, and WHAT I plan on doing with it.
I'm not sure if anybody will ever read this, I'm not even sure if I myself will read it again and that is alright, the blog would have served it's purpose and that's all I need.

Current Emotional state: Anxious - I need sleep, and the blog isn't customized yet
Current Physical state: Healthy - a little cold and hungry
Current Thought: "I have to study more"
Current goal for the day: Get some Sleep, go to classes, play my guitar
Current goal for the week: update the blog daily, keep up in my classes and labs.