I'm sure everyone has at least heard of TED talks. No? Well here's their website; http://www.ted.com/ They go by the slogan, Ideas Worth Spreading. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend TEDxKL. Basically, TED talks first originated in California which attracted worldwide attention, and now, the conference has expanded globally. However, it is the local groups who organize and mainly local speakers who present in the talks under TED. The reason TEDxKL has and 'x' in it is because it stands for, "independently organized TED event."
I really did not know what to expect but was feeling pretty hyped about the whole thing. Of course, I had watched TED videos before, and even attended a talk by a speaker for TED while in University, but this was the real whole day conference. There were a total of 18 speakers and the topic varied from economics, humankind, the environment, to music, magic and robots. Here's a list of the presenters: http://www.tedxkl.com/presenters-2014/ It was really interesting to hear about topics that I knew of and to learn on others I knew little about.
However, I feel that there were quite a lot of economists, or speakers speaking of economics. And for some speakers, I had no idea what they were talking about or heading towards, which was a little tedious. Plus the theme for this TEDx talk was 'The Open Future' and though most tried to relate their talks to that, some did not and so felt a bit out of place.
Saying that, it was still a really great experience. The incorporation of a few music performances was a fantastic idea; it livened the audience and was really captivating. The magic performance as well was really fascinating, though it probably would have been better if he was not the last speaker, as a lot of people had left and some were rushing to leave (including myself).
And I did feel that the audience were not as responsive as could have been. I guess I am to blame as well. If any of the speakers are reading this, I just want to say that you all did a fantastic job and I was really impressed. Thank you so much to the presenters, sponsors, organizers and volunteers who helped to make this happen. I will not forget this experience, the first time I ever attended a TED talk!
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, I was lucky to be part of this huge event here in Edmonton. I volunteered to help out and got assigned to be a route volunteer. The World Partnership Walk is a 5km walk to raise awareness and funds to end global poverty (especially those of mothers and children) and 100% of the proceeds goes to the Aga Khan foundation. A spectacular event with a huge turnout of more than a thousand people walking with a purpose. And I know approximately how many people walked because I had a counter (those old school clicky ones) and did my best to count every person that passed me.
It was a pretty fun day and I was standing 90% of the time, so am pretty exhausted right now. But the main advantage of volunteering at events like these (apart from helping a good cause) is that you meet new people and make friends. I have definitely become more open and less shy around new people since I've been here and that's a good thing. I'm not saying I'm no longer an introvert (I'm pretty sure I always will be), but that I am now less uncomfortable and awkward around those I have just met.
I feel like I am experiencing life right now, and what better time than in university huh? Being all on my own and exploring new places, opportunities, people. These few years are going to be fun. I'll definitely want to help out next year (this is a yearly walk).
To end, here is a picture of me at the event grounds:
So yesterday, on the 10th of May, was Canada's national 'Defend Our Climate, Defend Our Communities' day. This day opposes the government's relationship with oil companies-- especially against the tar sands and pipeline productions.
I actually did not know we were going to have quite a big turnout. It was pretty epic even though there were some mishaps and problems along the way (especially with the weather). This was an event organized by Greenpeace, and I was one of the volunteers. I was supposed to be at a table giving out information leaflets and flyers to people who wanted them, but it was too windy and at some point it started to snow, so we didn't set the table up.
Not the best day to be out and about at a wedding, but it was definitely worth it. My only regret is that I didn't take a picture at the end with the backdrop. Well I'm just glad that there are so many people out there who cares about our environment. Even young children participated. And it was across Canada, in places like Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria which had much bigger turnouts, though I personally feel that ours was more epic.
You don't have to be in Canada to defend our climate. Defend yours with small steps at a time! Leave your environmental footprint behind and let people know that you care.
On top of that, I had my last finals today, so I'm doubly happy. =]
Yesterday I volunteered at an Earth Day event with Greenpeace Edmonton. It was just a few organizations gathering to promote what they do and raise awareness in the community though, nothing big.
There were also activities planned for children, as it was located in a community centre, and one of the activities was learning basic sign language. I joined that one, and yay I can sign most of the alphabet now. I forgot a few letters, but know enough to spell my name!
Here's a little poster to get you thinking.
Think of everyday as Earth day. If the Earth dies, you do too.
Do what you can to save this world, one footprint at a time.
Sorry, this post is going to be about university life again. It's a huge experience, so will have quite a few posts dedicated to it.
I think that because I am now living alone and don't have support (meaning my family and my pets) when I reach my new home; that I've become more sensitive to emotional triggers. I think I mentioned before that I cry easily in situations. Well those situations are mostly limited to confrontations but now, I get easily upset when I don't do well. To be fair, I do have high expectations for myself and when I don't achieve them, I feel pretty down.
For example, I am taking this one class which is an Introduction to Women's/Gender Studies and though it is very interesting, it is also quite hard to score highly. I did quite poorly on my mid-term and subsequent assignments. I have been feeling low after every one of this class, then I take a day or so to feel better and then the class comes again and another cycle starts. I have been trying hard to improve and one of the things is that I'm extremely shy and don't talk at all in class. Problem is, 10% is for participation, so I've already lost 10%. And I've never felt like withdrawing from a course before, but I seriously considered dropping this. But then I got over that and told myself that I don't give up. I'll just have to try and improve my grade the best that I can.
A good thing about this course is that it has a Community Service Learning component to it, so I signed up for that and paired with an organization called Men Edmonton. They hope to help raise awareness in boys and men of sexism. For this project I created a web-based campaign and posted photos I edited as well as any other videos I could find. Here's the link if you want to take a look! www.fightforgenderequality.tumblr.com
Anyhwo, back to the subject of highs and lows. I think a big part of what kept me from feeling so low, was playing basketball and exercising. I mainly walk to the supermarket on days that have good weather, and since Spring is here, that means most of the time. Its good to be able to just take a stroll and not be kept inside for the whole day. I also joined this co-rec basketball team and though we lost both games so far, it was still fun and I made some friends.
So yeap, I hope I've moved past the lows. It's also because of this new environment that would've influenced how I felt. So if you're ever feeling lonely, I know how you feel. But know that things will get better and to exercise! (I put this under 'issues', because of the gender studies component. Sexism is a huge issue!)
I am an introvert. I like being an introvert. So why are people constantly looking down on my preference to bury my head in a book instead of someone's ass? Sorry, that was a bit crude. I meant that when you're with others, you'll always feel the need to be liked, thus the sucking up. It's better to just stay alone so you won't waste time trying to make someone like you which they probably won't once they find out that you're an introvert (unless they are one too). Not to mention the small talk.
What is with this general view that introverts are below extroverts? I would like to know who keeps coming up with these ridiculous hierarchies. I guess the answer to that would be ourselves. Society has put the 'cool' label on people who party, who get wasted and who get laid. But how is that at all cool? Have the images of celebrities become so powerful that even when they are publicized negatively, the people will follow?
In this current competitive world, extroverts are favoured because to be successful you need to be able to speak in front of people. You'll need to be liked by people in order to expand your network. If no-one likes you then you're not going to get very far. We promote winning. Being on top. Because if you're on top, you've fulfilled your life's goal right? Frankly speaking, I don't think we were put on this Earth to stress our lives away. Introverts too can be successful and we don't need to party or be in large crowds to achieve success. Quality, not quantity.
Let me put it this way. To all you extroverts who have friends who are introverts: treasure them. Because we are not like others. We will tell it to you straight, or otherwise euphemize our words to tell the truth. You don't need to be afraid whether we're using you because to do that would take too much energy and time. Our time and energy is precious. It is saved for our reading and napping schedules.
However, we are not entirely robots; once you get close to us our weirdness comes out. Do not be alarmed, we are just coming out of our shells for a little while because we enjoy your company. You should consider yourself blessed.
So to all of you who have ever made me feel for even a second that my introvert-ness is a bad thing, I say, 'good-day' to you. Good-day.
So while I was in China, I was happily walking about oblivious to the people around me and just, you know, chilling. Then my world fell apart when my mom pointed something out to me:
"Did you notice that all the girls here are tall and skinny?"
*Glass shatters*
No I didn't. Thanks mom. But seriously. All of them, (OK not all of them because obviously I didn't see all the females in Beijing) were tall AND skinny. Not the seniors but like the working class people. AND they were really quite fashionable as well- I reckon its all those markets where they can get cheap and good clothes.
You see, I consider myself "above average" in height and that's about all I got going for me and then I'm in Beijing and feel like a dwarf. Alright, alright, I'm exaggerating. I'm not so much shorter than them, about half a head maybe. But on top of that, they're skinny as well. I mean come on! Rice is the national food of China, WHERE DEM CARBS AT?
Actually I think I know the answer to that. They walk/cycle everywhere. Considering the number of cars on the road you'd think that China has a car per family. But no, you see, there's about 1.35 billion people in China and if you approximate that the top 10% of China has cars that's already 135 million cars. Thus the incredibly astounding long traffic jams.
Anyways the rest of the people will cycle or walk to their destinations and that ladies and gentleman is where dem carbs at. Not at their destinations- I mean, at- you get what I mean. So the solution is to walk everywhere. Unfortunately in my country if you walked to your destination, you wouldn't get there. Either you would get lost because of the lack of pavements, get hit by a car or like me, take one step out of the house, start sweating buckets and run back in.
I don't know if China is becoming the next South Korea, in the sense that plastic surgery is becoming the norm, but it's insane that about 90% of the young females I saw were both tall and model-like skinny.
All jokes aside, this is actually a serious issue. China and America are probably the biggest two countries where conformity is the number 1 rule, regardless of how America promotes individuality. Just take a look at their models, their celebrities (though they're diversifying more) and the stereotypical high school life depicted in movies.
I would just like all you females out there to take time to watch this video.
At first I was flabbergasted, thinking that she was contradicting the very point she was trying to make. In the video she says that "[She's] comfortable with her body", and of course she is, she's fit and beautiful, regardless of those idiots calling her a pig. But then I watched it again and understood that, though it sounded a bit arrogant, it wasn't. She has paved her way into a modelling career even when she wasn't skinny enough to get in and even when she got called a pig, she still held her head high. She's setting an example and making people wonder, if she's a plus-size, what does normal size look like?
I know I need to work on this as well, but we need to feel beautiful no matter our body size. We are after all, individuals and so cannot objectify beauty as a number on a scale. Be healthy, be strong-minded, know yourself and be content with how you are. Don't give in to the stares, or ever let people tell you that you're not good enough, because if you're good enough for yourself, then that is all that matters and who are they to say otherwise?
So I take back what I said. Go to China.
P.S. Just found out about this video depicting the truth about the media and what a lot of girls are striving for: an impossible 'perfect' body.
So as much as this blog is about marking one's footprint in the World, it is also about equality. Thus I have to share with you this absolutely ridiculous set of guidelines produced by (I'm ashamed to say), the Malaysian Education Ministry on how to identify gays and lesbians.
First of all there is completely no need to "identify" people's sexual orientation. It is not a disease and it does no harm. Secondly, the guidelines that they have come up with...just...makes me speechless and at the same time laugh at the absurdity of it. Thirdly they generalized waaaaaay too much.
An example for spotting gays ; Likes to wear shirtless, V-necks and are muscular. (NONSENSE!) An example for spotting lesbians; Like to hang out, have meals and sleep in the company of women. (RUBBISH!) I like to sleepover with friends who are girls. Am I a lesbian? No, however what business is it of yours if I was?
How we have gotten such people to be at the head of our country I will never know. This is why we need to make a difference in the World. And this is just a silly thing that would hopefully not be taken seriously. Out there in the World, there are tons more worse things happening and governments are getting away with it. Heard of the Arab Spring? Syria is still at war with itself.
You can make a difference. Plant you footprint in the Earth today.
