I’m bored at work, so…

Let’s talk about Jack Layton. 

His death was definitely sad and untimely - there’s no arguing that. But the same can be said for anybody else that has ever succumbed to cancer. I don’t know why everyone in Canada appears to revere him like some sort of god now…

I’m honestly a bit surprised at the heat this (http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/08/22/christie-blatchford-laytons-death-turns-into-a-thoroughly-public-spectacle/) article received. I thought that she had a point, even if the timing of her article was a bit callous. Reading the comments on the article further reinforces her point. People seem to take any criticism of him personally, even though most of them never knew him. He was a politician through and through - to think that his last letter to Canadians wasn’t political in any way is naive. The angry and insulting comments below the article indicate just how easily fooled people are…

Wow. What a crazy couple of weeks it’s been.

The past two weekends have been all about dragon boat. Last weekend was Toronto and this weekend was Canadian Nationals in Welland (Milton and Pickering were last month). This past weekend brings an end to the season (minus Montreal, which is kind of a more casual regatta), so here are my thoughts, I guess…

1. I love my team.
Seriously. We - both boats included - have shared so much together. I can only hope that it’ll be the same next year (assuming I paddle again - school + travelling to Toronto every weekend will be a huge pain), minus the odd bitch. No specifics. :P

2. I’ve never gotten so many medals in one summer before. 
I’m not even kidding! 1 at Milton, 1 at Pickering, 2 at Toronto, and 2 at Nationals, with 3 bronzes, 1 silver, and 2 golds. I’m going to start needing somewhere to put them all :P

3. I hate bugs.
With a passion. We camped near Niagara Falls (which is near Welland) this past weekend, and… ugh. It was awesome. Minus the damn bugs. The fireflies/other-kind-of-bug-that-lights-up were sweet though!

4. There are some very jacked dragon boaters.
Yum :) But there were also some old guys that were like… saggy skin + jacked. Kinda less appealing.

5. I need stronger sunscreen.
I have tri-toned arms now - the result of first wearing the under armour jersey then later rolling the short sleeve up. Sigh.

Anyways. All in all, it was a good season. I’m really looking to Montreal - I talk to / am friends with most of the people going :) 

I never would’ve thought that I’d post a Rihanna song, but here I am posting California King Bed.

I actually like this song. Shocker!

I had no idea there were beds bigger than King-sized ones until I listened to the song and looked it up… is that sad?

Shoes! I saw this pair of shoes on a website and for some reason really liked them. I ended up ordering them on a whim :x. Unfortunately, I could only order a size 6 - I think I’m usually a size 6.5, but that’s all they had and I’ve worn size 6 shoes before. We’ll see if they fit. If not… good thing I can return them :D 

For the last month and a half, my typical weekday looked like this:
6:30 - 7:30 Wake up, shower, get ready, eat if i’m lucky, runwalk (wearing heels!) to carpool
7:30 - 8:30 Sit in a car until I get to work
8:30 - 5:30 Sit at my desk doing work. Or nothing at all. Get up only to get food/drinks or to go to the washroom. Buy a lunch every day.
5:30 - 6:30 Sit in a car until I get home 
6:30 - 11:00 Sit either eating or using my laptop

D:! That’s sitting from 7:30 AM to 11:00 PM. That’s a damn long time.

So this week I decided:
1. To pack a lunch when possible for the rest of my coop term
2. To attempt to keep track of what I eat
and…
3. To do the 60-day Insanity workout :)

I started all this on Monday. So far, I’ve found out that my eating fluctuates from kinda low to high (<— only when I eat out), so I guess I’ll try to keep it more consistent. Hopefully I’ll also lose some weight and tone up a bit through Insanity. It honestly isn’t that insane for me, probably cause I’m not the least athletic person in the world or anything. But it does give me a way to exercise at home every day. We’ll see how it goes! 

First k-pop post? :P 

So I listen to Korean music. Sue me :P. A much shorter version of this song appeared on Beast’s previous mini-album. I totally loved it and wished for a longer one. And then it appeared.

It’s called Lights Go On Again. I like it. 

It’s been awhile. Pretty much almost a month. Been pretty damn busy with work and dragonboat (had two regattas - got two bronzes!). Anyways, the last month up until this past weekend: nothing special minus the regattas at Milton and Pickering. I have some weird tanlines now :(. Work is boringish as usual. 

This past weekend, though… Sigh. Warning: the following paragraphs are depressing.

A good friend of mine from high school passed away Saturday morning after being in a coma for about a week. Before that, he had a jaw surgery to fix his overbite - a pretty common surgery - on… Thursday (I think). It was considered a success and he was released that day. But… that night it developed an infection and the subsequent swelling blocked his windpipe. Back at the hospital, by the time they had it under control he had already suffered brain damage. They put him in an induced coma to heal faster, but it turned into a real one, and he was pronounced brain-dead this past Saturday morning. He was 19 years old. Rest in peace, Matt. [March 2, 1992 - June 11, 2011]

I have a quite a few regrets. He was my first friend at my high school and I was pretty close to him during grades 10 and 11, but we’ve drifted over the past year and a half or two. Looking back, I wish I put more effort into keeping in touch. I wish I had tried harder to maintain our friendship. Mostly, though, I wish I hadn’t waited to visit him in the hospital - the Friday before he died I was planning on visiting him on Saturday (the day he passed away).

It’s so frustrating. I (along with all his other friends, family and acquaintances) have thousands of questions that will never be answered. How could this happen? Why did this happen? Why him? He was perfectly healthy two weeks ago was only 19. He was my age and had his entire life ahead of him. Why is life so unfair?

I don’t feel like his death has fully hit me yet. It all seems so surreal. I think one of the reasons my mind hasn’t fully accepted it yet is because I never saw him in the state he was in when he passed away. In my mind, he’s still as friendly, energetic, and full of life as he was when I last saw him. To be honest, I’m a bit scared of going to his funeral next Tuesday. I feel like all the emotions that aren’t coming out right now are just going to explode. I guess we’ll see.

Ergh. Not sure why I’m posting this on tumblr. I guess I just felt like writing it all down somewhere. 

Listened to Lupe Fiasco’s third album, Lasers (2011). Read about all the bullshit his record company put him through for this album to come out. It’s fucked up. There was a fan protest and everything too.

Anyways, Letting Go is a sick ass song. Seriously. The beginning is uber catchy for some reason. It’s just an awesome song overall.

So I like Ellie Goulding. She’s pretty awesome. And I just listened to Bright Lights, the re-release of Lights (2010). 

Anyways. Here is Lights (Bassnectar Remix). It’s not even on the album LOL. But it’s her song, remixed by Bassnectar (no shit). It’s fucking sex. The 320 kbps one was too big D: (10.7!!) but it sounds awesome. It’s seriously kick ass.

Sigh. Work is kinda depressing :(

I swear, everybody who’s remotely close to my age in my division in Korean, except for the other guy from Waterloo. And they all speak Korean to each other, even though I KNOW they speak English. Lol, I remember the first day one of the older guys started speaking Korean to me until I told him I wasn’t Korean. Haven’t spoke to him since.

But yeah. This bout of slight depression was brought on by today’s lunch. Two of them got up and decided to go to lunch, and then the assembled like everyone else around me (coop guy wasn’t here today). It was like I didn’t exist :/

There are the individual guys that I’ve talked to that are nice, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m like a complete outsider. 

I hope it’s not gonna be like this for the next four months. That would suck. I think it’s a combination of me not expecting so many Koreans and me being too used to Koreans like DY. 

Something that gives me hope: I know other coops from UTSC exist at Samsung and I think I’m gonna get to talk to them more on Monday (orientation for new hires) :D.