If only Le chatelier's principle applied to life

For the non chemistry students, this principle basically says that chemical equations at equilibrium will find some way to remain at equilibrium even if you add a lot of product or reactant (if you are a chem student and didn't know what it was, I renounce you as a friend. That's the science thing to do). Why would I want this to apply to real life? Well, haven't you ever noticed that when good things happen to some people they happen in bunches and when bad things happen to people, they happen in bunches as well. For an example of the good, just look at people in highschool who got scholarships. Generally the people who got full ride scholarships got full ride scholarships from another university and then went on to become valedictorian etc. Then for an example of the bad, just look at Jennifer Hudson, who lost both her mother, brother and nephew at once. If le Chatelier's principle applied, this wouldn't have happened. Every good thing would be immediately balanced with a bad thing. For example, if some rich kid gets a pony for their birthday, their puppy must die. Or maybe you get AIDS but you also get accepted into Harvard. Could you imagine how many Asian kids would get AIDS just to get into Harvard? Could you imagine how many parents would support their kids getting AIDS to get into Harvard? I'm not sure if this actually returns you to equilibrium but let me continue. As a continuation of the principle, small changes require small adjustments and big changes require big adjustments. For example, if you accidentally forget your keys in your car, you might find that the Tim Horton's coffee cup you are holding has won you $20 which negates the inconvenience of locking yourself out. However, if you got a terminal illness then you would have to get something big like immortality. I'm not sure what that equilibrium state would look like but that's up to the philosophers to ponder. Also, consider the following scenario: A genie magically appears and grants you 3 wishes. Of course to counteract the awesomeness of this, you would die after the first wish has been granted. You might say: "Hey, just ask for immortality." But of course, the genie won't allow you to do that. Thus, you would have to wish to live a normal life and die when you are supposed to die, returning you to your normal state. Man, inventing a way for the world to operate is hard work. No wonder God rested on the 7th day.

Caveman diet anyone?

Anthropology was supposed to be one of my throw away, meet-your-18-credit-arts-requirement courses, but it has turned out to be pretty interesting (except for the fact that it is a night class and lasts 3 hours long). What I have learned from this course has only reaffirmed by belief that I was not cut out for the break neck pace of modern western society. Did you know they have a word for people who literally work themselves to death in Japan? Anyway, all the so called "primitive" cultures I learn about seem to living it up in style. Maybe I'm a little biased because I've had this dream of living on a tropical island ever since I saw the Swiss Family Robinson (did you know they were making a remake of this movie with Will Smith and family as the Robinsons? They would have to figure out what to do about the swiss thing but otherwise that might be a pretty good movie. Robinson is an African American name anyway right? At least it is better than Beyonce trying to get cast as wonder woman. I understand she is ambicious but who's going to belive that she came from a tribe of Amazons who are all white?) Back on topic. Anyway, there are people out there who catch fish, hunt and forage for food and then relax for the rest of the day. That's their work, to feed themselves. Isn't it odd that in our society, eating seems to be a break from working? That's 20 hours of work a week that's not really work because you are getting the immediate gratification of eating. I'm sure that these people also have their own problems such as the possibility of starving when you can't find something to eat. I for one would be willing to make that sacrifice to live the forager's way of life, as long as I could bring along my computer and TV.

Why I'm doing all these posts all of a sudden

So, I went on a long hiatus without blogging. There goes the theory that if you do something 25 times it becomes habit. I guess the longer I go without blogging, the less I need it. To bad the same thing doesn't happen with food and water because then a lot of the world's problems would be solved. Well, why am I doing these posts all of a sudden. Do you want the answer? It's guilt. See, it was a great idea to start a blog and an even better idea to raise money for cancer research but then suddenly, if I don't blog, it's like I don't want cancer research so I'm personally sabatoging the whole thing. At least when I was a naive bystander who didn't do anything to fight cancer I didn't feel guilty when I continued to not do something. I will try to post regularily from now on. Thank you to all those who support Blog for a Cure. I would just be talking to my self without you guys.

30 years from now...

We will all be under water. Just kidding. Time has a way of doing stuff to people like making them famous or tearing apart friends and relationships or making us look older. Can you imagine what the world will be like 30 years from now. I heard somewhere that scientists predict that in the year 2049, a $1000 computer will have greater processing power than the entire human race. The question I want to ask is: Will it be a PC or a Mac? But seriously, that is a lot of change. Now that I'm in university, I hear all these crazy stories that have happened at my old highschool since I had left or all the things that have happened to my highschool friends since we all went our seperate ways. What will that 30 year high school reunion be like? Surely, somone will be rich and someone will be famous and someone will be a drug addict but probably not the same person, although it is possible. There really doesn't seem to be much purpose for a 30 year high school reunion as most people will have probably forgotten each other. I have a sneaky suspicion that schools put these events on to motivate students to become successful so they won't be embarrased when the kid they used to tease and who has just arrived in a ferrari asks them what the hell they have done with their life all these years. I'll admit, it is pretty good motivation. It's times like these when you really regret attending an IB school.

To put it all in perspective

Most of you reading this probably don't know what you are going to do with your life. If your parents are Asian, then they probably want you to go into one of the following 3 things: business, engineering or medicine( if your parents are not Asian, they will tell you they just want you to be happy but they still secretly want you to go into one of the three careers mentioned previously) Unfortunately, those 3 faculties only accept a certain number of students. Well, what do you do if you don't get in? Well take medicine for example. It is one of the most difficult faculties to get into, but don't despair if you don't get in. Think about what a doctor does. He/she diagnoses and treats illness in humans. That is the important part. Imagine a career just like that description but with one slight alteration. Say you want still want to diagnose and treat something, but no one will trust you with their life. Well, then why not become a veterinarian. Benefits include not having as much stress on the job (I mean if you lose a gerbil on the operating table, no one's going to be that devestated and that means no lawsuits). Or if no one is willing to trust you with their pet's lives then you can still diagnose and treat illness in plants. That's right, plants. Absolutely no one cares about these things so you can accidentally kill as many as you like and get away with it. Unfortunately, a new imigrant could easily out compete you since they will charge alot less to do the same work. If no one trusts their plant's lives with you, well, then maybe you just weren't cut out for this whole job thing. Better luck in your next life. (By the way, this was not intended to insult any of the people who do the jobs mentioned above. In fact, I would probably rather be a veterinarian or a gardener than a doctor if I were to choose.)

Entropy wins twice today!

Today was a very odd day for me. Two things happened, both of which have affirmed my faith in the phenomena known as entropy (basically randomness is favored over order).

1. I did a caffeine lab this morning. I prepared for the lab like I prepared for all my other labs. During the lab, I followed the procedure as carefully as I could so that I would extract a pure sample of caffeine. Well, after I evaporated the CH2Cl2, we were supposed to end up with a white solid on the bottom of our beaker which was supposed to be our crude caffeine. Well, guess what happened? I ended up with nothing at the bottom of my beaker. Nada. Zilch. I brought this odd empty beaker to my TA. She confirmed that there was nothing in my beaker. The look on her face was priceless. Anyway, she told me to do it again but this time to only do 2 washes of CH2Cl2, which would basically save some time at the expense of accuracy. So, I haphazardly did a second attempt. By haphazardly, I mean that I drained out some of the emulsion that we were supposed to prevent from getting out. Yet, this time, after I evaporated the CH2Cl2, there was a white solid at the bottom of the beaker. I had done nothing differently except that I have done things in a more random and chaotic manner.

2. After the caffeine lab finished, I was walking to my dorm when a girl approached me and asked where the admissions office was. I asked her if she knew the address and she said it was on East Mall. Well, we were on West Mall so I decided to show her exactly where it was by leading her there in person. I felt pretty good about my self at this time because I was helping for no other reason than to help. Anyway, after I led her to East Mall, I turned to where I thought it would be and continued to walk down East Mall. When I got there and turned around, the girl was no where to be found. I was sure that she was walking alongside me the whole time until when we got to East Mall. Not only is this event in itself random, it ended up separating two people from being close to each other to far away, like we were liquid particles evaporating.Oh well, I still helped her out, I think.

People should really think stuff through

I just found out that Prison Break would be stopped after its 3rd season because it had naturally run its course. Do you know why it naturally ran its course? Because the stupid writers called it Prison Break. With a title like that, how can you do anything but escape from prison, which however exiting it may be, will eventually get old. In fact, it seems a lot of shows can't survive very long because they are hindered by their initial concept. For example, what happens in Two and a Half Men when the actor playing Jake is a man himself? What happens to the characters of Friday Night Lights when they all leave high school (If you continued to follow their lives, it wouldn't be Friday Night Lights anymore because none of them would be in high school)? Do you know what kinds of shows survive for a long time? Shows that have names of people in them i.e. House, the Simpsons, Grey's anatomy. Or maybe shows with really general concepts like Lost, 24, CSI. See, the great thing about these shows is that the plot can go anywhere anytime and every episode can be a new story or the continuation of a longer story arc. Smarten up writers, because I don't want to get addicted to a show only to have it run its course after three seasons because they couldn't think of a better name at the beginning.

The world is unfair ( if the world revolved around me)

This is not about me taking 6 courses (that is a problem I created for myself and I will deal with the consequences). No, this is about the stupid exam scheduling bureau or what ever it is at UBC scheduling 4 of my final exams to with into 3 days. Actually, its not even 3 days since one of the exams is at night. I actually calculated this, and with each exam being approximately 2.5 hours long, I will spend approximately 40% of my waking life in those three days writing exams. Sure, you could argue that this means I get it over with quickly and that it also means I have a lot of time before this block of exams to study. This may be true, but I don't know what kind of mental and physical duress such a intense period of examing may have on my already frail and immobile body. The one positive I can think of for this is that once I finish an exam, I won't have time to worry about the answers because I would be off writing another exam. Maybe I should document my experience like Morgan Spurlock did with eating MacDonalds for a month. If at any time you see me post something like the following, call for help: "nice fluffy kitty, nice fluffy kitty.. haha"

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