To Boris

Practice yesterday went well. Originally planned to practice today, then mom decided that she wants to play Mahjong. Mother's day means I get trumped.

Virtual Love Letter

I have always believed that writing a reference letter is similar to writing a love letter. You praise and brag about how wonderful this person is, and overlook all their flaws. Your language changes from daily speech, to a more flowery prose.

The more substantial proof is in the writing process. You start off by picturing their face; regardless of how they look, you start attributing their positive traits onto their physical feature. The eternally optimistic person will have their smile etched, and the corners of their eyes wrinkled, the sports enthusiast will have a trim physique, minimizing the body fat content, the perpetual green thumb will have that adorable streak of dirt across their forehead, and a slightly messy hair. Then the visualization comes to life. The modest kid shows a quiet inflection in his speech. The emotionally expressive person would be offering a hug. The homely would smell of fresh baking.

A good and truthful reference always gets better at the end. The process of writing builds this person up, which just further motivates you to write a reference that is worth such an amazing person. The ultimate test really is to finish writing the letter and meet up with this person, and not be disappointed. Sometimes we just build someone up so high that even the most perfect of men would fail to meet our standards.

The man I wrote my love letter to met my expectation and then some. =)

Quick update

Obviously I'm busy with school and neglect this thing, but here're a few things happening recently.

- I rolled my ankle playing volleyball again - there is HUGE bruising right now one side is about 3"x1", the other side's 5" x 2". After the swelling went down I can walk pretty decently, as long as I'm on flat ground.

- Just desserts' this Thursday. I get to walk up, get a plaque, then eat a whole bunch of dessert, it'll be sweet. Literally.

- I get to plan an operation =D I love those, I am starting that up with my committee next year (knock on wood)

- I'll be in a lab in UBC this summer. yay nserc. (yet to decide if the second part's sarcastic or not)

lala

So Boris doesn't bore.

School Politics BAD

So I've been wanting 2 uncontested people to lose in the elections happening right now for very different reasons.

One of them I like and have great respect for, but just isn't working as hard as he needs to. He is running against a "joke candidate" and he would get the position regardless. I want him to lose so he can finally realize he needs to step up a bit in terms of doing outreach work - he would be amazing in the position, but it's easy for him to not get the position.

The other I just want to lose. Not that she wouldn't be better than the current person holding the position, but she doesn't do follow up, and even hassled multiple times, nothing gets done.

Justin fails at preparing stuff

Options:

Analytical
Organic x2
Physical
Inorganic

Getting yourself out there:
Coop
Volunteer
Get a job
NSERC

Questions?

So Sure of Himself

Depending on who you ask, I am either a cocky bastard or someone who's scared shitless. I tend to believe that I'm an insecure version of the latter, so I pretended to be the former. For these last days of the Olympics before school starts, I figure it'd be a good time to start reflecting upon things I done, those that I haven't, and everything in between. (Everything before this basically means that Boris is too needy (probably because he's a true musician) ).

The first of the series will be things that I've never doubted. Of course, none of these lists will be exhaustive, but hopefully they will be a good mix in all of these.

In kindergarten, an eighth of my middle finger got cut off in a door. Lots of hoopla happened, at the school and at the emergency room. Fast forward a week later, during my first of many checkups, the doctor told me that it's unlikely that I will ever get full usage out of my middle finger. Everyone started worrying for me, but to the doctor I said
""
And as the picture proves, I was right.

In grade 7, when we were all "graduating" from elementary, there was this thing called the citizenship awards. It was only a few years young, and there were no real criteria for it. I remember about 4 days before, and I already *know* I won it. At this point, I had no idea that my friends (and others) all voted for me. Why? I was merely acquaintances with them at that point.
" "

The thing with these awards is that the more you get, the more you expect them. Had you told me that I wasn't likely to get my Spanish awards, I'd laugh in your face. It's funny when people got confused when they didn't win it. In my last 3 Spanish courses, I probably averaged a grade of 97. During my grade 12 year, I had a total of 14 marks off in the year, out of close to a thousand, and that didn't even include my bonus marks.

With that kinda grade back then, it seemed self evident why I didn't bother applying to "backup" schools. UBC was the lowest ranked school to which I applied. None of that "maybe you should apply for a college like Langara or Kwantlen" or "SFU" bullshit. And at the end, I didn't even completely apply to all the other schools.

Of course, more blatantly, was the stunt I pulled for my speech for treasurer candidacy.
" "
No, that seriously was it, I turned sideways.

A lot of these seem extremely silly now. Especially the last one, where I could've at least made a speech. UBC could've kicked my ass and not accept me, and I'd be left universityless (well, not really).

Lets see where this post would lead to next.