andrewchow.com | this is my story.

Woops

andrewchow — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:30:39 +0000

Mixed up an .htaccess file and forgot about it, leaving the under construction gallery exposed for a while as it replaced the front page. Woops! Oh well, only one album was up.

Yeah, at last, I'm slowly adding photos going WAY back. Shh. No, it will not be public. I'll figure out access restrictions later. Most likely registration will be required to make things album-specific.

Song of the Moment #61: Bruno Mars – Just the Way You Are

andrewchow — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:51:52 +0000

From the guy featured in BoB's "Nothin' On You" is Bruno Mars' (aka Peter Hernandez) first single, "Just the Way you Are". Video came out a couple days back on Youtube. Go check it out! Nice song for the new lovebirds of the summer. Haha =)

Lyrics:

Oh her eyes, her eyes
Make the stars look like they're not shining
Her hair, her hair
Falls perfectly without her trying

She's so beautiful
And I tell her every day

Yeah I know, I know
When I compliment her
She wont believe me
And its so, its so
Sad to think she don't see what I see

But every time she asks me do I look okay
I say

When I see your face
There's not a thing that I would change
Cause you're amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile,
The whole world stops and stares for awhile
Cause girl you're amazing
Just the way you are

Her nails, her nails
I could kiss them all day if she'd let me
Her laugh, her laugh
She hates but I think its so sexy

She's so beautiful
And I tell her every day

Oh you know, you know, you know
Id never ask you to change
If perfect is what you're searching for
Then just stay the same

So don't even bother asking
If you look okay
You know I say

The way you are
The way you are
Girl you're amazing
Just the way you are

What I Needed to Hear

andrewchow — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:46:32 +0000

Just wanted to say that Harvest York's message yesterday was exactly what I needed to hear. My priorities have been out of whack and I have been too selfish at times but also wanting too much to please others or to gain their attention. It is obvious what priority #1 should always have been. This is fundamental yet it's easy to get lost and wander in today's world of mass media influences. Sometimes a reminder is all I need.

TSN Turning Point!

Soul-Searching

andrewchow — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:25:14 +0000

Yeah, I need to do some of that, to find myself and to find direction. Toronto has not been feeling right ever since I returned. I fear a lot of the good things that has happened within me and to me while I was away is being undone by the poor environment at home and by being fragmented away from community.

Toronto in the distant past has been host to many of the unkind events in my life. Either I face the demons or become insignificant and lost in the shuffle. Feeling a lot like Brooks Hadlin...well, minus the hanging myself part.

Or maybe... Toronto just sucks (i.e., sports teams and the TTC), and it's finally getting to my head, haha.

---

The UN can talk all it wants. Iran's centrifuges will keep spinning... and before long, in a moment of human weakness, none of what I want, what I have, or what is in my wallet will have any meaning. Something drastic needs to happen.

Write the Future

andrewchow — Sun, 23 May 2010 00:32:06 +0000

This is an amazing Nike Ad that really hypes up the World Cup and football in general. Featuring appearances by Ronaldo, Rooney, Homer Simpson, and even Kobe Bryant, this commercial is, in my opinion, three minutes of epic awesomeness. It really shows how the direction of an athlete's future can be defined by a single moment.

It is not only athletes that experience these moments. I have and I am sure everyone else has as well. From deciding which university or college to attend, whether or not you passed an exam, to saying 'hi' to that girl or guy, these moments can all define the direction of our future. The decisions we make all have butterfly effects that can lead us on paths to happiness and prosperity or misery and poverty.

But this begs the eternal and unsolved question: Do we have the agency to "write the future" or has it already been written? No one knows with absolute certainty but it is evident Nike believes in the former. For me, this has always been a point of contention, especially now for those who know me.

Synthetic Life

andrewchow — Sat, 22 May 2010 14:19:46 +0000

I heard about this yesterday in the news but thought I'd post the TED video of the announcement. Indeed, this is a philosophical shift in how we view life. Humanity has now taken its first step toward creating new life not from an existing organism but pretty much from scratch using basic building blocks.

This has, of course, divided the scientific community. Is this opening Pandora's Box? Is this playing God? Or is this something that could offer solutions to things we could not solve before? I am both intrigued and worried about the implications this has in terms of the environment, medicine, and everyday life in the future. Too much CO2? Here, use this special synthetic algae! Lost an arm? Code in your DNA sequence and this vat of amino acids, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and fats will grow you a new one!

Okay, maybe that last one is a little extreme for my lifetime. Or not? Create a synthetic sperm and an egg, use a surrogate mother, and there you go. Also, the potential for bioterrorism is real here. Imagine making a cell that thrives on asphalt and concrete. There goes a city's infrastructure. Yeah, that example was from Oryx and Crake.

Anyway, the first step has been taken and we can only guess where this leads. I hope the rigor of ethics approval for future projects is as strong, if not stronger, as the two year process given to this project.

A Trouble of Our Times

andrewchow — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:59:35 +0000

Just read this story about a women suing Rogers for inadvertently exposing her extramarital affair and the resultant loss of her marriage, children, and job. This is just ludicrous.

As much as I (along with many others) hate Rogers, it is a reasonable assumption that financial matters are shared between married couples as a sign of trust in one another. Stuff like this would not be happening in the first place in a healthy marriage. Trust, honesty, and love are values we associate with marriage in society and I am sure Rogers made that association as well. Those values are what joint accounts, with all their benefits, are built around. It is unreasonable to assume Rogers intended (i.e., with "criminal intent") on exposing this woman's affair to her husband in what was supposed to be an honest marriage.

I hope this case gets thrown out. Otherwise, tax dollars are going toward defending a lying cheating scumbag who cannot take responsibility for her own actions, while at the same time increasing Rogers' expenses that would probably affect our own bills in some way. The case going forward would also undermine the very concept of a marriage. Get caught cheating? Recoup your losses by suing!

What is this nonsense of suing for "breach of confidence, breach of contract, and negligence"? That's exactly what she is doing to the vows she made on her wedding day. This case is not about privacy. It's about a lady desperately trying to cover her ass playing the victim. She made her bed and now she must lie in it! If by some miracle, she pulls off a travesty of justice and wins, the money should go to the lives she just destroyed (i.e., her children and her husband).

A trouble of our times is that there is too much pointless litigation and too little personal responsibility. Realize the role of your own actions and take responsibility for them instead of wasting energy looking for ways to blame others. Unless, of course, you did nothing wrong and injustice was truly done upon you. You know, the cases that should really go forward in the courts.

---

This is just me practicing my vocabulary, writing style, and conveying an opinion. It's all in good fun.

The Pursuit of Awesomeness

andrewchow — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:22:42 +0000

I heard this song on the radio and it made my day. Spose - I'm Awesome.

When I say I don't want to be that guy, the guy in this video is that guy.

When I say I am training, I am training to not be that guy. But to be truly awesome instead.

Or to be awesomesauce: a sauce of equal parts of awesome, amazing, and breath-taking slowly cooked with small parts of uncanny, extraordinary, and magnificent added. (Urbandictionary.com, 2008).

Ok, here is the video:

---

Medicine is as much an art as it is science. It's time I worked on my arts.

A Cross Too Heavy?

andrewchow — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:56:54 +0000

Even the younger generation has some things to teach me. Though, I consider myself spiritually noobish after all.

This was shown to me while I was slaving away in study rooms earlier these past few weeks. It really resonated with the long path I have taken and the long path that lies before me. These trials and tribulations all act to challenge me, to transform me, and to prepare me for what lies unseen ahead. So, thanks, for putting things in more perspective.

May you continue to brighten the lives of those around you in the years to come, and that in your pursuit of dentistry, that you don't lose yourself completely in it - that it does not become an idol. That was my mistake in my pursuit of medicine.

The little things can have the strongest impact.

Song of the Moment #60 – B.o.B. Airplanes Part II

andrewchow — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:11:16 +0000

Down with procrastination, down with excuses, down with not trying, down with people telling you what you can't do, and down with families divided... I will do all in my power to ensure none of this adult world nonsense that has bore down on me will make its way after me.

---

[Chorus - Hayley Williams]
Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now
Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now

[Bridge]
Dreaming.
(oh oh oh oh)
Of falling (mmm mmm mmm mmm)
Dreaming (ooh oh oh oh)
Of falling (ya)

[B.o.B - Verse 1]
(ya) Lets pretend like it’s 98
like I’m eating lunch off of styrofoam trays (ya)
trying to be the next rapper comin out the A (A-town)
Hoping for a record deal to ignore my pain (ya)
now lets pretend like I’m on the stage (check)
and when my beat drops everybody goes insane (woo)
(okay)
and everybody know my name (bob) and everywhere I go people wanna hear me sing (oh)
oh yeah and I just dropped my new album on the first week I did five-hundred thousand
gold in the spring and diamond in the fall and then a world tour just to top it all off
and lets pretend like they called me the greatest selling out arenas with big ass stages
and everybody loved me and no-one ever hated
lets try to use imagination

[B.o.B - Verse 2]
Okay lets pretend like this never happened (never)
like I never had dreams of being a rapper (rapper)
like I didn’t write raps up in all of my classes
like I never used to run away into the blackness
now lets pretend like it was all good (good) like i didn’t live staring in a notebook (notebook)
like I did the things that i probably knew i should (should)
but I ain't have neighbours that's why they call it hood (hood yeah)
now lets pretend like I ain't got a name before they ever call me BOB aka Bobby ray
I’m talking back before the mixtapes (yeah) before the videos and the deals and the fame
before the ever once compared me to Andre before I ever got on Myspace
before they ever noticed my face so lets just pretend and make wishes out of airplanes

[Bridge II]
and it seems like yesterday it was just a dream
but those days are gone (gone gone) and just memories
(oh oh)
and it seems like yesterday it was just a dream
but those days are gone (gone gone)

[Eminem]
alright lets pretend Marshall Mathers never picked up a pen
lets pretend things would have been no different
pretend he procrastinated had no motivation
pretend he just made excuses that were so paper thin they could blow away with the wind
Marshall you’re never gonna make it makes no sense to play the game there ain’t no way that you’ll win
pretend he just stayed outside all day and played with his friends
pretend he even had a friend to say was his friend
and it wasn’t time to move and schools were changing again
he wasn’t socially awkward and just strange as a kid
he had a father and his mother wasn’t crazy as sh-t
and he never dreamed he could rip stadiums and just lazy as sh-t
f-ck a talent show in a gymnasium bitch you won’t amount to sh-t quit daydreaming kid
you need to get your cranium checked you thinking like an alien it just ain’t realistic
now pretend they ain’t just make him angry with this sh-t and there was no one he could even aim when he’s pissed it
and his alarm went off to wake him off but he didn’t make it to the rap Olympics left to his plane and he missed it
he’s gon’ have a hard time explaining to Hailey and Laney these food stamps and this WIC sh-t
cuz he never risked shit he hopes and he wished it but it didn’t fall in his lap so he ain’t even here
he pretends that…

[Hayley Williams]
Airplanes in the night sky like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now wish right now wish right now
Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now wish right now wish right now

Uh hmm oh oh oh ooo
Uhu mm aalalalaa
[End]