Blog Anniversary: 200 Posts!

As I sit down to write my 200th blog post on this platform, I find myself taking a moment to pause and evaluate my progress, as well as consider the future. This blog began on August 27th, 2013 at 15:39 with a brief overview of some thought-provoking websites. Shortly thereafter, I failed the physical exam…

Why I’m Following #SOCHI2014

After many years of self-imposed oblivion towards matters pertaining to sports, news, and world events, I am awakening to the importance of events like Sochi 2014 with a kind of bleary dull-headedness. (I’m also acutely more aware of pop culture scandals than I have been at any previous time in my life; but then again,…

Why Illness and Social Media Do Not Mix

For the last several days I have been (as many other people are at this time of year) struggling with a terrible cold. This tiny virus in my body comes complete with achy muscles, stuffy head, chest congestion, and frequent headaches. I can feel my body’s resources fighting it off, and the conflict distracts my…

I’m so #Social and the #Holiday #Break

First off, I’d like to wish everyone safe travels, happy holidays, and a wonderful New Year! This will be my final post until 2014, and I’ve taken a silent vow to try and avoid Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and all my other social media outlets as well. (Though I’ll still be checking email on a daily…

A Daily Indulgence

It’s 2:37pm on the day before my thesis defence. I’m nervous, excited, and altogether anxious to get through the proceeding 24 hours. A two-year process full of work, stress, new insights, and rapid learning experiences is about to (symbolically) come to an end. I hesitated to talk about my thesis defence publicly, on a blog…

Living Life Online

Every time I click the little “Publish” button on this WordPress website, my writing zips through cyberspace and lands in various social media feeds – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Linkedin. It’s amazingly interconnected, and a fascinating psychological phenomenon to watch myself eagerly evaluate the stats on website visitation levels, clicks, and page views. I have…

On Friends, Employment, and the Two-Option Falsity

As I sit down this week to hammer out the flaws in my final thesis draft in preparation for my oral defence, I have a lot to reflect on from my graduate school experience. I feel that in terms of real knowledge (i.e. number of journal articles read or new technical skills earned), I have…

Viewpoint: Social Media as Valuable Tool

Yesterday I wrote a Viewpoint blog article that outlined some of my criticisms towards social media and technology in general. I suggested that social media and technology can control your life life if you’re unaware of its influence over you, mostly due to the presence of the sensation-seeking “monkey mind”. The path to enlightenment when…

Training for Employment

Today I’ll be participating in my first Physical Abilities Requirement Evaluation (PARE) test, as a single component of my ongoing application to be a park warden with the Federal Government. I’m nervous, but have many supporters and cheerleaders behind me, so I am simply going to do my best. I first saw the posting for…