Gradball this past weekend was just great! The foods was delicious, the music was lovely, and of course the friends were the best! It also came just in time before a thesis-cramming week. Whenever I get married, Skule stage band (of this year) shall be invited to perform… and yes, they shall have open bar for the band.

In other news, Iron Ring is by far the most expensive piece of jewelerly college men get to wear, just sum up all the tuition money, it’s crazy!

Finally, I want to go to an opera. While taking a study break today I listened to Madame Butterfly and it made me want to get more civilized. It’s time to throw away engineering hoodies, put on a suite and go get cultural!

24 Preludes by Chopin was my favorite tonight. The dance was contemporary and combined humor, romance, chaos and harmony of the music with body movements of the dance and lights. Although the costumes, only covering the very minimum of one’s body, were not my favorite, the flexibility and vibrance of dancers was beautiful. Then came the second piece where a cello player performed on the stage, while a dance around. For this one, at least to me, the dance was not memorable, but I had a great time listening to the music. I realized I really enjoy watching string instruments performances where not only can I hear the music, I can see the love and affection that is put in it. Lastly, the Four Seasons performance finished the day. I love Vivaldi and although the crowd was endlessly applauding to the dances, I must say this was my least favorite piece of the day. The dances were so crude and so many, I could not focus on the music.

All-in-all, the night was great. I am glad I came out. Going forward I should be more proactive at attending these cultural events I miss very much but don’t make enough effort to find and attend, or haven’t yet at least. I shall now also go to my friend’s performance with the Silhouettes Dance Company 2010.

APRICOT, short film by Ben Briand (sponsored by his incredible actors and crew) from Moonwalk Films on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, you have to play this audio start to finish, or otherwise the plugin won’t work. If you paused, you need to refresh the page and listen again.

Was it mean? Yea! Did she deserve it? Sounds like it!

(Photos from the Dundas Square) !

[update] Now I know why I like watching Boston Legal so much, turns out ‘Danny Crane’ is Canadian.

Flickr comes a great source of help in this matter. Once in a while I log in to flick and browse various photos, be that nature, people, or what have you. By simply starting on one really good shot I can “travel” in space and time.

Take a look for example at a photo of the Karakorum Highway in Xinjiang (photo link) – it is marvelous and I was able to stumble upon it thanks to the photographer who posted this shot. Just an hour ago I didn’t know anything about this highway (wikipedia) and now I want to see it and take in the beauty. There are many places like that in the world but without traveling around one could never find them. These things aren’t been advertised for the general public, they don’t have shops or sculptures or fancy drinks, all so desired by various travelers. All there is – a calm view of the mountains. How about this shot of a mountain creek somewhere in the rural China, or this one of the distant mountains? It is breathtaking and is certainly worth seeing. The last shot in particular reminds me of the Chinese kung-fu movies I used to watch when I was a kid.

In today’s world most likely I won’t get all the time in the world to enjoy these sceneries, but I ought to try as much as I can. I can gather ideas going through people’s Flickr photography, but seeing all this in person would be fantastic!

Some other shots I founds interesting today:
Fall in Nova Scotia , Misty Evening , Canoeing in the Nunakani Lake

Here’s one of mine: Harrison, still after rain

Think about it, when you ask you friends for an advice, they simply give you the answer based on some of the following:
1) What they think you need to hear
2) What they think you want to hear
3) What they think is best for your to hear
4) Their prior experience
5) Their “analysis” and their “understanding” of the problem

The fact is though, there is never an identical problem which would have a sure-thing solution. All we can do is make some assumptions, look at the facts, check with the gut instinct and then go from there. Friends can do it all, but they cannot follow an instinct because they will never have more information than we do.

I was chatting with an old fiend who was asking me for an advice on her relationship. It was kind of funny that she was asking me for an advice, but she was, yay! Luckily, I didn’t know much about the problem so all I could do was to abstract it, look at all the information she gave me and then tell her what I thought she should do based on what she wanted to happen, and what would likely happen if she did otherwise. I am happy to say I think it worked out well.

I liked what she told me afterwards. Apparently all her friends were telling my friend something else, they hated the guy, thought he was an ass and clearly weren’t looking at what she needed. Her friends were pushing to leave because that would protect her from possibly getting hurt. The thing is, I knew that she really wanted stay but didn’t know what she needed to do to stay and make things work. For a while I only heard from her how great the guy was and how exciting it was for them to be together, but then afterwards when things weren’t working out so smoothly, she was putting the blame on him. It was easy  to walk and jump on some other boy who was already in stand-by, but I think she finally figured out what really matters to her in the end. She now admits that her friends really didn’t know the guy the way she did. They knew what they heard, what they saw, but only my friend could see the whole story, feel what she needed to read between the lines.

I am happy for those guys, but this might be an exception to the rule, who knows. Some people prefer to follow advice and to stick to a plan, some don’t. Maybe I should listen to my friends and do what they think is right, or maybe I will stick with the course and see where it takes me. Maybe I had been watching too many happy-ending cartoons when I was a kid, time till tell.

Lastly, I forgot to include an entertainment piece. Here it is!

It is just mind-blowing how out of control people get . The show is about Japan, but it is most likely that similar things happen all over the planet. In the episode they talk about sexual education, but it is beyond that. These guys seem to have no morals, at least from the perspective of a general notion of morals. Why is that? That is probably a complicated question stemming from family composition, to education, to popular culture … etc. Non-the-less, it is quite sickening how animalistic people are in the 21st century, in a developed world. Even in North America it is not uncommon to hear something along the lines of “…get her drunk and take her home”. *Sigh* people, get a hobby!

I also enjoy watching Olympics because of the amount of dedication that all athletes demonstrate during the games. A lot of people notice events such as the performance by Joannie Rochette. Of course it was difficult for her to perform in light of her mother’s death. However, we should not forget all the other athletes. It is difficult to train for and compete in the games. I enjoy running and from that experience I can tell that it is often hard to keep going; the pain is there to weed out the weak. But, should you persevere and push yourself over the hump, adrenalin kicks in, wings grow, and moving on becomes easier than ever before. These athletes do it every day.

I had never before really followed sports much and I think I know why. I haven’t had a TV for the last five years so watching games of all sorts was not a quick option. Luckily, these Olympic games are being broadcasted online (at least for the Canadian audience) and I spent a lot of time this season watching lots of sports. It was fascinating to see some people perform. Also, being here I really  got into watching the hockey games this week! Canadian team is doing wonders and it is just fun to watch.

Another enlightenment this year was the fact that in the past year I haven’t been going out enough. Skule(tm) was always quite stressful and the cost of going out wasn’t encouraging either. This year though, my friends and I try to get out and enjoy life a bit more than we used to and it has proven to be quite successful. Aside from just relaxing a little and spending time with friends, there are some silly moments that will probably be remembered. *sigh*

Alright, enough of that. Back to cheering team Canada in their battle against Russians. All I can say is: Scoreboard! =)

This video describes the system and what kind of information it can deliver.