Canadian Gothic.

Glebe Grad '11 Prom

Now I know why people fantasize about prom all the time

TED: 'ideas worth spreading'

TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a global series of conferences initiated by a non-profit organization. Just like their motto 'ideas worth spreading', the conference's  main focus is on presenting speeches from inspirational people of various discipline. Past presenters include famous figures like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Al Gore, and Gordon Brown; the six major disciplines are technology, entertainment, design, business, science, and global issues.

I've been recently spending much time on watching TED videos that are related to my interests; photography, urbanism, sustainability, social change, etc. The experience was truly inspirational and thought provoking. Not only it was a good opportunity of listening to the speakers who are so passionate and has great amount knowledge in their field, but it was a good experience because all of them have the ability to convince their vision and make the listener feel the same way as they do, even the listener had no previous knowledge in the field.

I hope many of you visit their website and start watching videos that are related to your interest. If you don't know where to start, simply click any video that looks interesting from unique categories like 'jaw dropping', 'persuasive', 'courageous', and 'ingenious'. They also provide subtitles for more than 20 languages, which eliminates the language barrier for those who doesn't understand English. Each video doesn't take more than 15 minutes, so I really want to recommend you to watch one video per day before going to sleep. Well at least that's what I've been doing in the past week and keep on doing.

On this post, I'm attaching a very short 5 minute clip that can inspire anyone; it's a short reflection from a guy who was on board of the Flight 1541 that landed on Hudson river in 2009. It's not an academic speech, and more of a storytelling and a self reflection.

Binary Sunset.

I had to look out when the sunset brightly filled up my room.

This reminded me of a classic scene from the Star Wars

Intersection.

Status Update.

1. The Lynch-Getty Global Student Award (+1k Scholarship)
I haven't told anyone about this, but in the April, I applied for the award established by the Ottawa-Carlton Education Network. Last afternoon, I got an unexpected call from the director that I have been selected as one of the four receivers (yikes!). There is a whole 'nother story on the application process but I'll save it for later.

2. University Application
Since there was a deadline extension, I have applied to the University of Toronto at Scarborough. Considering that they give another two weeks for me to write the Supplementary Application Form, I'm expecting to receive a decision around early July.
I don't know the exact English mark that I'm going to get, but I can tell you that I'm feeling optimistic. As soon as I get the mark, I'll be calling the universities  that were feeling 'unfortunate' to me and ask them to reconsider the decision. (University of Toronto at St.George and University of Waterloo).

3. Prom
For a while, I wasn't thinking about going to prom because of the rejections from universities (probably guiltiness of failure?). But what the hell, this is going to be the one and only prom I'm going to have :) so I guess I'll be going! This is happening on the June 24th. (Thanks for changing my mind, mom!)

4. Chicago
This idea has been staying at the corner of my head since the last winter, but I guess it could come true during this summer. I'm hoping to stay in that city for one or two weeks and explore the architecture, urban landscape, contemporary art, and anything that I have interest on.

5. Photography
Looks like in the past months, I haven't taken out my camera often. Although inspirations for pictures are just flooding off my head, I'm just making memos for now instead of spending more time on it.

6. Highschool
There are only two weeks left. Oh wow.