Snow!!
I think i’m going about crazy on this snow stuff…the rational side of me says its just frozen rain anyway…but the other side of me still gets so incredibly happy and cheerful when it starts snowing outside…
Case in point: Today was quite a crappy day as I had just messed up my lab test by drawing the wrong conclusion (stupid second-order low-pass filters masquerading as resonant band-pass filters!!) so I was feeling pretty down. I felt totally demotivated to study tonight and just kept thinking about the stupid mistake…The thing was, I didn’t realize it had started snowing outside but once i stepped out, i was pleasantly surprised by the snow flakes lightly fluttering down around me, coating everything in a thin sheen of white…The sight instantly brought a smile to my face and all my sorrows/worries/disappointments disappeared…Now how’s that for cheering me up? Lol…
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— John McCrae
busy busy busy…
wow looks like i haven’t updated for more than a month! it’s been super busy for me this sem as i’m taking 6 courses and i have 3 major commitments as well. i’m in the exec of massa, co-leading as a volunteer for a bible study group and also just joined as a member of the mcgill formula SAE racing team. this past few wks have been a blur of assignments and mid-terms…now the dust has sort of settled down but i still have 1 mid-term this wk and 1 next wk.
anyway it’s fall now over here and montreal looks completely different! have a few nice pictures to share…
An alarming statistic: 90 guns for every 100 US citizens!
According to the 2007 Small Arms Survey, America has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed country in the world.
To put this number in perspective, India has the second largest civilian gun-arsenal percentage, coming in at just 4 guns per 100 people!
Oh, and one more thing. More than half of the guns produced last year were purchesed in the US. That’s 4.5 million out of 8 million worldwide.
Does this explain why things like the Virginia Tech shooting happened? I’ll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions…
Flickr Photostream
Just added my flickr photostream to my blog. Check it out! Heh.
On a sidenote, school started today. Uneventful. Only one lecture today. Looks like it’s gonna be a busy semester ahead…
In transit at Narita Airport
Hello from Tokyo! I’m currently in transit at Narita Airport. My flight is not till another 4 hrs’ time. Managed to find a Yahoo! free internet cafe here so i’m camping out here until they ask me to leave. The only problem here is that all the software on this computer is in Japanese so i’m navigating by memory. Also, the arrangment of the keyboard is really weird so i keep pressing the wrong keys. Only the alphabets and numbers are in the same positions. All the special symbols and punctuations have been shifted around. I look like a computer idiot, staring at the keyboard hunting for certain keys as i type. It’s not helped by the fact that the spacebar is only half its usual size and the other half is taken up by keys that change the keyboard from typing english characters to japanese kanji (or whatever they call it). Took a few minutes to figure out how to stop sprouting nonsensical japanese characters and get back to typing english. Oh well, shouldn’t complain too much as all this is free.
Now i’m fighting the urge to sleep as I haven’t been able to sleep on the flight so effectively i didn’t sleep through the whole night (SG time). If i get too tired i’ll probably log off and get some sleep at the dayrooms which are provided at 6.50+ an hour. But then again, if i can hold out longer, i’ll be more tired on the long flight over and hopefully able to sleep through most of it.
The time difference here is only an hour ahead. The flight over was uneventful except for a spot of turbulence on descent, when the plane fell and rose by quite a significant bit. Managed to catch Spiderman 3 and half of some movie which i forgot the title of. Hopefully can continue where i left off on the next flight. The only other interesting movie to watch is Shrek 3. Sigh. So far, nobody has come close to beating Singapore Airlines’ inflight entertainment programme. You can literally watch movies from start to end on long haul SIA flights. Oh well, you get what you pay for i suppose.
When i arrived here at 6am, narita airport was absolutely DEAD. Not a single shop was open and only a few transitting passengers like me were wandering around the deserted hallways of the airport. Had to wait around for nearly 2 hrs before the shops started opening. I stood waiting outside this Yahoo! cafe a few minutes before it opened with a small group of other internet junkies. Managed to grab a good seat by the window with a view of the airplanes sitting on the tarmac. One shortfall that i’m just beginning to realise though is that the rising sun shining through the window is beginning to make it harder to read off the LCD screen.
Anyway, I’m off to read more about Nikon’s latest DSLRs, the D3 and D300! Will probably post a short update before i leave later.
Amazing Hand Puppetry!
Just an interesting video to share.
GREAT Shadow Puppetry – The most amazing home videos are here
10 days left and counting…
Its 10 days left till i depart from Singapore back to Montreal! I really wish time could pass by slower but i guess its also nice to go back to school again. Lessons are gonna be much more interesting this semester. Probably more challenging too. Been busy meeting up with many friends ever since i recovered well enough to go out. Now i’m concentrating on sorting out photos from my summer hols to print out before i go back. Have to start packing soon…Noooooo…… =(
Singapore still feels too much like home. Don’t know when is the next time i’ll be back as i’ll probably be finding work next summer or doing an internship. Furthermore the plane tickets are quite ex and its quite environmentally unfriendly to keep flying across half the world to and fro. Visiting family won’t be a valid reason for the visit anymore as my family will come visit me in December after my sis finishes up her A lvls. She might even end up studying in Canada if she doesn’t get into NUS Medicine either (though i think she stands a pretty good chance). Will be quite sad if this will be my last time in Singapore for an extended period of time.
Speaking of leaving Singapore reminds me of the National Day Parade this year. It was quite a good spectacle in itself although it has quite a weird paganistic theme to things this year, such as the portrayal of the ‘four elements’: earth, water, fire and wind. also all the bowing down before ‘Singa’ nonsense. Besides that though, i really enjoyed the military display this year as it really made use of the water around the floating stage to good effect. Was at one of the rehearsals and was pleasantly surprised to see a Chinook hover above the waters to allow divers to jump into the water as part of the display.
Speaking of NDP suddenly makes me realize how fast time has passed. It was just a year ago that I was part of NDP, doing all the backstage communications stuff. In the blink of an eye, i’ve ORDed, left for studies in Canada and i’m back watching the following year’s parade. In no time at all (3 more yrs actually), i’ll have gotten my Bachelors. Hopefully by then i’ll be able to decide which Masters i’ll take. At the moment i’m looking at a Masters in Biomedical Engineering but i’m also considering something in Computer Engineering or Aeronautical Engineering.
Wow, what was at first a short update has now turned into a full length post about so many things.
Spontaneous Pneumothorax
Spontaneous pneumothorax is a sudden collection of air or gas in the chest that causes the lung to collapse in the absence of a traumatic injury to the chest or lung. Usually, a distinction is made between a spontaneous (primary) pneumothorax, and secondary (complicated) pneumothorax.
SPONTANEOUS (PRIMARY) PNEUMOTHORAX
Spontaneous pneumothorax occurs in individuals with no known lung disease. It affects close to 9,000 persons in the United States each year- most often among tall, thin men between 20 and 40 years old. The cause of this type of pneumothorax is the rupture of a bleb or cyst in the lung.
Symptoms include:
* Chest pain on affected side
* Dyspnea (shortness of breath)
* Cough
* Abnormal breathing movement
* Rapid respiratory rate
Spontaneous pneumothorax is diagnosed by chest radiographs.
The way the condition is treated is dependant on its size and course. The objective of treatment is to remove the air from the pleural space, allowing the lung to reexpand. A small pneumothorax will resolve on its own in 1 to 2 weeks. Larger pneumothoraxes require either needle aspiration or a chest tube. Hospitalization is required for chest tube management as the reexpansion of the lung may take several days with the chest tube left in place. Surgery may be performed for a repeated episode to prevent recurrence.
– American Lung Association
That was the condition that afflicted me out of the blue a few weeks ago. Unknowingly, I had been walking around with a half-collapsed lung for possibly up to three weeks before i discovered the condition when i visited my GP last Tuesday. After that, everything happened in a flash and i ended up in hospital with a chest tube sticking out of my left chest. However, my first hospitalization ever was over within 2 days and i was relieved beyond anything to be able to get out of my bed, which i had been confined to for the past 48 hours due to the chest tube that was connected to a suction machine.
I would like to thank everyone who visited me during my short hospitalization. It really cheered me up to see so many people, especially when I was going through quite a bit of pain and needed to take my mind off it.
Anyway, i am really looking forward to having my stitches removed this thursday, exactly one week after i was discharged. After that, i can resume going out and meeting up with all my friends back in Singapore! =)
F1 is coming to town!
No i’m not referring to the news of F1 coming to Singapore anymore. Yes! F1 racing is coming to Montreal next week! The atmosphere here is simply terrific. Everywhere there’s F1 related ads already and just today i saw 3 Ferrari road cars! -drools- The build up to the race will be electrifying…i’ll probably go down to hang out at the circuit area and try to get cheap tickets to watch the race! My first up close and personal experience with F1 racing!
Anyway i’ve just completed my first month of summer studies and just took my finals on Thurs. It was quite disastrous considering that it was a very simple final. Oh well…don’t want to dwell on it. Summer studies was much more intense than i expected as we’re completing 4 months of studies in 1 month. So every week of lesson is 1 month of lessons and since we only have class 4 days a wk, it means dat every lesson is 1 weeks’ worth of lesson. The good thing is that we get over the course in 1 month and during summer we only concentrate on 2 subjects.
Also had to do an oral presentation for my Communications in Engineering class about our project wearing formal stuff with tie and all. Dreadful experience but i learnt a lot. I guess that’s stuff I have to get used to for next time coz as engineers we’ll have to do lots of presentations like that. The hardest thing is trying to explain highly-technical or specialized info to pple who don’t know anything about the subject as they keep asking the same questions over and over again. Luckily i did quite well despite all the nervousness.
My next semester of summer studies start on monday next week and it should be good since i won’t have anymore 8.30am lessons. My lessons next month start at 1.30pm! Can sleep in! And ger’s coming back to Montreal in 2 wks’ time!!