FASHION OF THE MIND

Middle school: lim02

High school: 95limj

University (UW): jslim

University (DTU): S100852

Work (CRA): jlim

Work (Stantec): juslim

Personal: jstnshmnlm

I feel bad for categorizing some friends in an ‘Other’ list or a ‘Miscellaneous’ list on the Internet. Everyone deserves a worthy connection to my life, right? Right, mister-met-you-at-a-leadership-workshop-five-years-ago-pal? 

Do you know that May is National Masturbation Month?

Is there some sort of rally or parade I could partake in? 

Six thoughts:

1) I’ve been working with AutoCAD for the past two weeks! To me, freedom means turning off OSNAP and ORTHO. 

2) I can’t read fiction anymore - my brain is trained to analyze not sympathize.  

3) My favourite material possession is my leather Fossil watch. It reminds me of the time, that time does not wait, that nothing lasts forever, that punctuality is principal, and that wounds may be healed. 

4) My favourite book? The Tipping Point my Malcolm Galdwell. If engineering doesn’t work out I will try to become a behavioural economist. Psychologists can get pretty involved with personal lives I feel, whereas behavioural economists simply observe from afar, and manipulate people change experiment variables. 

5) I love biking. 

6) I went for a jog just now in my neighbourhood and thought to myself: Look at all these houses, what’s the story behind the people who live there? I wonder if someone is celebrating their birthday at this moment as I jog by… I wonder if someone is anxiously expecting really bad news waiting by the phone… I wonder what sort of shit they had to put up with in their lives? I wonder what regrets they have.

sondageikobenhavn:

I mean how the fuck do you say, “Thank you for tolerating me.”

Thanks for keeping me in check. 

According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four legs, four arms and a head with two faces.

Fearing their power, Zeus split them apart, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other half.

theangrytherapist:

As a child we ate ants, pissed our pants from laughing too hard, ran barefoot through shit, and won staring contests.  We shook structure and punched the sky.  We talked about everything, stayed out until we got hungry then ate until we felt sick.  We licked, kissed, and smeared.  We confessed our crushes and took dares very seriously.  We thrived on curiosity.  The world was big.

As an adult we eat what’s on our plate, laugh only on the inside, drive around pot holes, and avoid eye contact.  We shake hands and punch clocks.  We talk about nothing, stay out until the check comes then stare at a screen until we feel tired.  We suppress, compartmentalize, and analyze.   We confess to no one and take ourselves very seriously.  We thrive on fear.  Our world is small.

“I am putting pen to paper for this post. Whenever I try to express myself with a keyboard, I am distracted by the thesaurus, and my words and their meanings become exaggerated or misconstrued. I spend more time frantically tapping ‘backspace’ than forming complete sentences. At any rate, I have now a decluttered an uncluttered table, a cup of hot ceylon jasmine green tea, and a smooth writing pen. Let’s do this. 

Yesterday at work during lunch my colleagues and I talked about personal finance. We did not talk about money-saving habits so much as just sit there in appreciation and awe of how our parents managed to provide for us. As the only millenial millennial in my office group, I could not share any stories of hardship or frugality. One of my colleagues reminisced of his childhood family vacations. As (very fortunate) children, I guess we all take these things for granted. The entire time his eyes were fixated alternatingly on his palms. And you could see it in his eyes he was simulating or replaying personal scenes of toil and sacrifice. It was a particular poignant moment for me and spurred my consciousness into focusing on my own monetary responsibilities. 

Get this: I haven’t met anyone else in my generation where his or her tuition fees (and living expenses for the most part) are being paid for by their parents. I am spoilt. These is a small catch however. I will be the piggy bank for my sister’s education. Even so, I’m going through the infamous cash-strapped years of undergraduate student life, well… in a not-so cash-strapped state. To be fair to myself I have always been grateful and have never gotten myself into overspending debt. I just think that I should pay more attention to my budget, my savings, and understanding how to persevere for a big-ticket item like a house. From what I heard, it takes a lot more than just not eating out for lunch everyday. Those overseas graduate degree tuition fees are looking mighty guilt-triggeringly ridiculous. 

My hand is kind of tired… okay now moving on. 

Let’s talk about learning how to drive. I disagree in general to the tradition approach. Fuck making a timid left turn at an intersection and stopping a lightyear before the stop line for a red light. I’m all out for getting in a car (wearing the seat belt) and flooring it, and slamming on the brakes after reaching top speeds. Max out the steering in one direction, and then the other, whilst accelerating with a lead foot. Repeat in reverse gear. 

Now, I don’t know about you, but I would definitely know how to drive (in that car model) after that tire smoke test drive. 

It’s all about getting a feel for the car and for your own response reflexes. 

I say fuck overly cautious gas pedalling. 

Find yourself an abandoned airfield and reign those horses in. 

I am not responsible for your death. 

I have something else to write about regarding engineering, but I can no longer read my own handwriting and I want to watch Family Guy now, so… 

Spelling is hard. Thanks for reading.”

More unknowns than equations.

Start making up assumptions.

That’s engineering, and that’s life.