Tyler’s Twitter Digest for 2012-12-13

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Wendy's on Urbanspoon
Always love Wendy’s frosties. The fries were surprisingly good too.

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Tyler’s Twitter Digest for 2012-12-12

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Qoo Cafe 米芝蓮餐廳 on Urbanspoon
I find that the food quality at Qoo Cafe is pretty consistent. It’s nothing I’m blown away by, but it’s nothing I’m particularly disappointed in either.

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Tyler’s Twitter Digest for 2012-12-11

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Dancing through finals

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Confession: I’m not perfect (I know, right? Most shocking revelation of 2012). Although I blog a lot about how important it is to take care of yourself, to eat right and exercise, and to find balance in university, I don’t always follow my own advice. The days leading up to my first exam, the dreaded CHEM 233 final, were super unhealthy and stress-filled. I was subsisting off of caffeine and UBC Food Services baked goods (the banana chocolate chunk muffins are a particular favourite of mine), spending every spare second thinking about chemical mechanisms, and even dreaming about carbohydrate cyclization. For five days straight I would get to the library every morning at 8:30 and leave when it closed at 10, taking breaks only to fill up my water bottle or to grab a massive coffee from the SUB.

On the morning of the exam, I woke up ready to log a few more hours of studying before my 3:30 timeslot. But after going over a couple of practice finals, I realized I couldn’t do it anymore. I was physically and mentally exhausted. The chemical structures were starting to look like hieroglyphs, and my brain felt like the melted Stay-Puffed marshmallow man at the end of Ghostbusters 2. It was bad.

So with a mere couple of hours left before my exam, I threw on some Lululemon shorts, lugged my iHome speakers over to the Totem commonsblock, and turned the ballroom into my own personal dance studio. It was just the release I needed. Instead of agonizing over the steps of imine formation or trying to decide what reagent is required to convert an aldehyde to a carboxylic acid, I just needed to count to eight and try to nail a few fouettes. It reminded me of how thankful I used to be during high school finals when I had no classes but still had to go to dance every night. Dance has always been my stress release, and I miss being able to do it every day. After an hour of jumping, turning, and receiving a few weird looks through the ballroom windows, I changed into my exam attire, went to the SRC with my mind cleared of all stressors, and might have written the best final exam of my university career.

Find that thing that keeps you sane during finals season and do it often. Whether it’s running the Wreck Beach stairs, watching a movie with your floormates or hammering on the drums (like my girl Nirel), make sure your life doesn’t revolve around your schoolwork. It’s a stressful time, for sure, but taking an hour off won’t kill you. Just the opposite, in fact.

PS: Watching dance videos on YouTube makes for a pretty good (and dangerous) procrastination tool. If you’re into that kinda thing, check out some of my favourites here, here, here, and here.

Tyler’s Twitter Digest for 2012-12-10

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Tokyo Thyme on Urbanspoon
If you’re looking for higher quality sushi, come here. If you’re used to AYCE-sized
portions, come here prepared to either spend a lot, or to leave hungry. We had to ask for
everything explicitly (eg. tea refills), but it didn’t hinder the experience too much

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Tyler’s Twitter Digest for 2012-12-09

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Margaret Atwood’s Writing the Future

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Margaret Atwood came to UBC last month to give a talk titled Writing the Future. I don’t have too much I want to say about the talk right now, though I think it opens several interesting discussions. On a side note, I’ve yet to be much of a fan of Atwood’s writing style (as I recall, I didn’t much enjoy reading Alias Grace), but after hearing/watching several interviews with her, I discovered I very much like hearing her ideas. It’s amazing how she talks so monotone-esque, yet still manages to incorporate so much humour into her speech.

During part of her talk, at least as I recall it, Atwood went through many prevalent monsters in human history and tried to tie them to patterns society was seeing. For instance, werewolves were tied to the disease rabies which may have been rampant at some point during the werewolf fad. Both werewolves and rabies are tied to dogs, and both conditions lead the affected to want to bite other people. Also, vampires were tied to the aristocracy. (Perhaps) Both vampires and aristocrats lived in massive castles, and were prone to seduce common villagers. Perhaps, like vampires, the aristocrats also didn’t like sunlight due to the effects it had on the skin.

In any case, Atwood ended her talk by looking at the recent zombie craze. She suggested that the zombie apocalypse was a foreboding doom that society felt may be approaching, where zombies are people with no hope for the future. I think this is an interesting idea, and I see how the connections can be made.

Similarly, I can see the connection of zombies with apathy. I think it may also be possible to say that zombies represent people disconnected with reality. For instance, if you kick a zombie in the balls, it isn’t going to react–much like an apathetic society. Zombies don’t do much that is constructive, as they are usually concerned only with finding food (Hmmm…). Perhaps we should take warning of the direction society may be taking. It may turn out we’re heading towards a global population of people who are neither living nor dead, in heart, soul, body, and mind.

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Dan Pink’s Drive

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Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates UsDrive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m writing a super short version of this now because Good Reads ate the longer version I wrote earlier…

Dan Pink’s Drive is a non-fiction book exploring the idea of motivation.

The book opens by looking at research that suggests carrot-and-stick motivational techniques are effective. Digging a bit deeper, Pink argues that carrot-and-stick methods are motivating only for tasks that are simple and mechanical, and examines research that shows rewards and punishments are actually de-motivating for tasks that require thought and creativity.

Next, Pink looks at what he suggests are better motivators for those tasks that require thought and creativity. Those things are Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. In examining each of these, he explains how and why each is motivational, and also introduces ideas to implement such motivators into one’s personal or professional life.

The last part of the book is a reference guide with a bunch of resources further explaining how to implement Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose in life, and also resources for deeper reading on these topics.

Overall, I quite liked Dan Pink’s Drive. I thought it was both informative and practical. I also personally resonated with it as I see Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose as big motivators in doing work I enjoy.

View all my reviews

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Tyler’s Twitter Digest for 2012-12-08

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Chronic Tacos on Urbanspoon
Never been disappointed by the battered fish
taco at Chronic Tacos! Discounts on Mondays though!

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