Update from China

Epic stuff. Saw a five-legged elephant. Was quarantined for 2 days in an infectious diseases hospital. Took a 40 min. trolley ride over a tropical rainforest. Saw a pile of rocks. Ate some stuff that should have made me sick but didn't. More later.

Get ready...

For this...



And this...



and this...
That's right, I'm going to heaven. In Chinese, its called Xishuanbanna (its actually four words but they write it like this in English) and its actually in South Eastern China (I think?...hey don't judge me, China is big). China is so big that it takes the same length of time to go from Vancouver to Beijing as it does go from Beijing to Xishuangbanna (although the second trip will be by bus). This trip will be all about sightseeing and photos and being one with nature. When I get back, expect a couple long blog posts on my adventures in the wild jungles of the motherland. Actually, I should change that to if I come back. Not to be a downer but its just not as safe in China as it is in Canada. Those peacocks you saw earlier probably carry bird flu or something. Oh well, at least I got vaccina...oh wait, I didn't. Also, when I get back I will be so out of the loop that this will be all I can talk about. Here's to hoping the Canucks are still around by the time I'm back (The hotels have free internet but we're not bringing a computer so unless I go to an internet cafe populated with Chinese Starcraft kids, there's going to be a lot of catching up to do). World, don't you dare go crazy on me while I'm gone.

How to judge if someone is good

If the technology ever gets advanced enough, someone should create a realistic simulation of what the world would be like if everyone were you. You wouldn't experience life from all their perspectives but rather everyone on the face of the Earth would look like you, have the same personality, talk like you etc. Of course each of them would have different experiences and would accomplish different things but it would be interesting to look at the global effect of such a move. For example, if everyone on the Earth were like me, I assume the Earth would be more quite. The global food shortage would probably be resolved because all the people who eat more than me (that's a lot of people) would eat the same amount as me. Fastfood chains would go out of business since I haven't eaten fast food in years. The number of cars on the road would be significantly reduced since I assume all the versions of me would be equally as incapable of passing the driving test. I guess that solves global warming too. There would probably be a lot of bad thigns that happen as well but self serving bias won't let me think of them. Also if everyone were me, how would the many versions of me reproduce? I guess that's a question for another time.

D-day

If I survive tomorrow, I well be well prepared for next week. If I don`t, I won`t need to worry about next week. Win-win situation.

This is just to see if I can actually influence what the ads are about...

banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.
banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.
banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.
banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.banana.

When you type a word that many times, if begins to seems weird.

Way to go Pearson. You are slowly alienating your customers.

"Don't do it Mastering Physics. Don't you dare..Damn it, why did you do that Mastering Physics. You're lucky you're the last Mastering Physics, Mastering Physics, because otherwise..." This was I thought as I stumbled through the last Mastering Physics(for those who don't know, this is an online homework assignment website in conjunction with our physics textbook) assignment of the year. I swear to you, I was this close to becoming the Asian version of this kid:

Scary to think about isn't it? Now what I am left to wonder is why Pearson, the company behind mastering physics and biology and chemistry and all the expensive textbooks we have to buy would do something that would alienate their small base of customers. What am I talking about? Let me explain. Pearson products are targeted to University students. University students are generally pretty smart. Smart kids generally like to be right. Pearson makes up questions on topics we haven't learned about and then makes them into multiple choice questions where if you make the wrong choice, you get 0 on the question. That doesn't exactly jive with the philosophy of a smart kid who always wants to be right. No, in fact, that throws the wrongness in that kid's face and says: "Ha, you should have known better. Now your physics mark will suffer."You might argue that we learn from our mistakes, and yes I did learn from this unfortunate experience. I have learned to detest Pearson and all its products, especially Mastering Physics. Luckily for me, I probably will never take another physics course again. If there is something called Mastering Pharmacy, so help me God...

P.S. The "smart kid" I mentioned wasn't me. Just smart kids in general.

Spot the big kitty