You Still Reading?

 Hello, this note is a sign of life. A sign that all is well. If you are reading this, welcome. Welcome to the start of a new blog post. Why? I am not certain, I just felt like posting one today. 

I hope you have a good day!

Cheers.

Why. Just Ask It.

Why? Why is the question why so powerful? Why do kids naturally ask it? Why can you always say why? Why?

I am an analytical person. Since I was born, everyday I have lived with a sense of wonder. I've questioned reality, questioned being, questioned life, questioned death, questioned mathematics, questioned music, questioned the brain, questioned politics, questioned computers, questioned board-games, questioned laws, questioned rules, questioned people, questioned society, questioned trees, questioned nature, questioned senses, questioned animals, questioned mountains, questioned gravity, questioned galaxies,  questioned books, questioned history, questioned technology, questioned meanings. I've questioned it all. Almost every interval of the day I have at least one thought in the back of my brain thinking about something.

When I was younger these thoughts were always kept inside my head. I felt that they were weird. After all hadn't heard my friends question life or death when I was 12. (Or even questioning the universe). It felt like it was me who always had to bring the conversation up to only be shut down quickly as it was not the most rationale thinking. At the time I knew other kids were out there who thought and questioned the world as much as I did but I was never surrounded by them. At least they were hidden from my sight.

I would always ponder in my head. That was my space and I loved it. Even till today thoughts of these and new questions arise at fast intervals whether I invite them or not. I love it and I don't.

Life near the end of high school was quite strange. It felt my head and my mind were going through deep understanding phases and truly processing the world for what it had to offer. From birth-grade 10 the tools I had access to, to answer some of these questioned were constrained to my experiences (which were not vast or in number). When In grade 11 something changed. I was old. I could take in 3rd party information (i.e. my senses, other people talking, school) and make my own concise decision on it. I was TRULY my own person.

Grade 11 was when I felt this shift In my brain (@the_end_of_puberty haha). I would constantly propose and bring up deep conversation material with many of my friends. Thus prompted many late night car talks with my buddies when they were to drop me off at home. I noticed that many of them were actually like me, they had their own thoughts about many of the deep questions I proposed to them.

While It was nice to see that others thought like me, it was incredibly apparent that I had a much deeper methodical thought to many of them problems. It was like all my answers were/are backed up by some intrinsic philosophy. In other words I was a born thinker.

I love challenging people around me to think deep. I remember this one experience I had was truly magical. In grade 12 my friend Greg (changed his name) had dropped me off one day at home and for some reason he came in to visit for a little bit more. Well, we talked much more than just a little bit. More like 3 hours straight, till 2am, casually right next to my front door. I made him get lost in the realm of the question why. That night we talked about everything, space, universe, hadrons, leptons, dark matter, gravity, string theory, life. Say anything and we probably had it covered in that conversation.

The most wonderful thing to come from that talk with my friend Greg was the sense of wonder in his eyes. Greg is a smart guy and I absolutely know he's asked the question why before, but I don't know if he's ever asked it multiple times in rapid succession. Doing so gets you to the much deeper stuff, like what the universe is actually composed of. That taste of deep wonder that Greg got that night truly set me on a little high. [I am not such an outcast of a person. I am only a person who asks why many many more times than people.]

After many more encounters like these it was apparent that I loved challenging my friends to think about deep topics that required the use of abstract parts of your brain. The lesson I hoped they could learn from these talks were to ask why more often. Stop living in such wonder of a world, challenge this wonder, ask your self, have thoughts in your own brain, ask why.

[As a thinker, I literally just thought right now as I am typing this that if people were to ask why one step further the world we currently live in would be much different. Don't get me wrong, the technological advancements, research scientists are doing, everything. It is all is so astounding and impressive. But think for yourself right now...why would asking why change the world we live in for the better? I think you could come to your own conclusion with that one :).]

People should try to live in a more "why" state of mind. Everything should be at least questioned to some extent. For instance (super random example but role with me), throughout my life it was always told that it's rude or it was awkward to ask for someones name twice after just meeting them. For me I ask why?! To clarify your possible question if you forgot your first dates name of course that not good but I just don't understand the justification when it comes to the general public's names. So I ask why?

[First of all, I bet you the person you just met also forgot your name. Secondly, why does it have to be awkward just say "hey I forgot your name, my apologies." Thirdly, why does it matter? It doesn't. We are all human with many things on our mind]

I don't particularly know why I posed that example to you, I figure it's something that I am underlying passionate about and has been particularly bugging me about the world. But just ask why? Please, try to question society standards.

Literally in history class I learned about the best thing the other day. In the 1700s (ish), the enlightenment era of philosophy took place. This is where philosophy took a turn to become more analytical and about thinking for yourself. It was thought that people were basing to much of their life on superstition, religion and black magic. (I do not have anything wrong with religion, in fact I think religion is a blessing to the human race, but that's another topic of discussion) Twas out of this era that spawned the type of science we know today. This was because the most important thing that humans took from it was that we started to more-or-less think for ourselves.

I am personally blessed to be surrounded by like minded individuals in engineering as the ideas can rattle endlessly off each others brain. YES! That's what I was going to say way up there in this blog. Comparing to my little kid brain in high school to now it is apparent that being enrolled in engineering at university has truly advanced my thinking. Since first year of uni I am on an entirely different level because it is here now that my ideas and concepts can be critiqued by my peers who have also thought the same, but from their own unique perspective.

 This is why I am inclined to believe that if we all asked a simple why more often - if humans were to question things a tiny bit more - more answers to life altering problems would be found. Challenging ideas and concepts are the beauty about asking the question why. Why is where real conversation takes place. It's the fundamental back bone to all science and every mathematical paper. (Because in a mathematical paper you are literally explaining WHY to the answer you have).

Why can be used in every sense of the world. Why climate change, why don't all humans get along, why is there war, why do people bully, why are people mean, why are people angry, why can't we all just be, why is there depression, why is there anxiety, why do we cry, why do we laugh, why do we sleep. Why. Just why. Why is something that the world needs more of.

But why?

That's for you to answer.

This blog post was created because today was a particularly cool day. I shared with my friend a theory that I started forming from grade 11 and he thought it was pretty cool haha.

Cheers.

The Station - By Robert J. Hastings

The other day my grandma shared me this wonderful piece of writing. It was a snip-it from a newspaper she estimated to be from the 1980s. Yet shes kept it all this time as she read it often. This piece of writing is so beautiful yet so discrete that I had to share it.

Cheers.

The Station

By Robert J. Hastings

Tucked away in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision in which we see ourselves on a long journey that spans an entire continent.  We're traveling by train, and from the windows, we drink in the passing scenes of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at crossings, of cattle grazing in distant pastures, or smoke pouring from power plants, of row upon row of cotton and corn and wheat, of flat lands and valleys, of city skylines and village halls.

 

But uppermost in our minds is our final destination – for at a certain hour and on a given day, our train will finally pull into the station with bells ringing, flags waving and bands playing.  And once that day comes, so many wonderful dreams will come true.  So restlessly we pace the aisles and count the miles, peering ahead, waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.

 

“Yes, when we reach the station, that will be it!” we promise ourselves.  “When we're 18...when we win that promotion...put the last kid through college...buy that Mercedes-Benz...pay off that mortgage...have a nest egg for retirement.”  From that day on, we will all live happily ever after.

 

Sooner or later, however, we must realize there is no station in this life, no one earthly place to arrive at once and for all:  the journey is the joy.

 

The station is an illusion – it constantly outdistances us. Yesterday's a memory, tomorrow's a dream.  Yesterday's a fading sunset: tomorrow's a faint sunrise.  Only today is there light enough to love and live. Yesterday belongs to history: tomorrow belongs to God.  So gently close the door on yesterday and throw the key away.  It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad but rather the regret over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow.

 

So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles.  Instead, swim more rivers, climb more mountains, kiss more babies, count more stars.  Laugh more and cry less.  Go barefoot more often.  Eat more ice cream.  Ride more merry-go-rounds.  Watch more sunsets.  Life must be lived as we go along.

 

“Relish the moment” is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: “This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

How to Save Money as a University Student

As a student you probably don't have a ton of money to spend that is why I have quickly compiled a list off the top of my head of my best student money saving tips!

1. Don't buy the text book until the course shows that you must.

A lot of the time a course that you are enrolled in states that you must have a specific text book. Don't listen to these claims until the course shows you itself. Lot's of professors like to set up there classes so that a text book a not needed. Even some provide a free copy of the text. 

Now I am going to use an example in my own schooling career to explain why I stated "Until the course shows that you must." For instance I had taken the course Statics, which is fundamentally a course on teaching how we analyze stationary structures. I thought going into this course that I would NEED the text book, after all Statics sounded like it would be calculation heavy so i'd need to do lots of practice in the text. Welp. I was wrong, the prof provided all the practice problems so I didn't open the text book once. In contrast I took a calculus course and I bought the text. I used this thing like how a dog drinks water. Also used the same textbook for 2 other calc. courses soon to be 2 more.

So what can you learn from me. Just wait a little to see how the class is structured. If worst comes to worst you will be behind in text book studying by like a week and we all know nothing exciting happens in the first week.

2. Utilize Googles Products

This one almost seems like a no brainier to some but may be hidden pure gold to others. I sense that some people feel that the only good document processing programs arise from the Microsoft Office platform. If you are lucky like myself my school provides free Microsoft Office Products but if you are not, use GOOGLES PRODUCTS. Dang, even I still use them.

Hidden inside of you google account is google docs. Inside google docs is 4 different programs, 3 of which are direct clones of Microsoft offices products. There is: Docs, Sheet and Slides, which respectively are Word, Excel and PowerPoint Clones.

These programs are phenomenal and are honestly basically the same thing as using Microsoft office products only better cause they are free! Also, these google programs let you save files as their respective Microsoft office product file type. Meaning they are completely compatible! There are so many benefits to list but I can't list them all here, do some research for yourself! (But one being that it is all stored on you google drive so you have automatically take your files everywhere :) )

3. Student discount bois.

Okay, I am a huge music user. I will listen to that stuff till the end of time. But when it comes to school paying you Spotify subscription or Apple music subscription is a real money sink. $10 bucks a month really does add up. But...because you're a student I got good news for you.

Both Apple music and Spotify offer their service for $5 a month. Saving you $5 a month which could be put towards that yummy coffee you crave.

I personally love ordering packages online and I am sure all of you do too. It's like a Christmas day every time you receive one. So take a look at amazon prime as well, they even offer a student discount. This discount almost $4 a month on prime subscriptions. 

If you were already paying for both of these services might as well get the student discount ones right? It's almost a $10 a month savings...*calculations happen*...meaning you save $120 a year! Not bad that's almost the cost of a page from a text book!

Overall look everywhere! Services for students are actually a thing, they are just poorly advertised. Enjoy.

Cheers.

The Best and Easiest Way To Save Money

When talking about saving money the conversation can go in all sorts of different directions. "Make a budget," they tell you. "Buy less Starbucks," maybe they even tell you to, "Just spend less money." While these are all fantastic methods to help you save money these ideas fail in one area: all of them entrust you to them. That is where my method of saving money succeeds the most, you don't have to be in control at all.

Generally people in today's world partake in online banking. It is only a minute population that still religious use tellers to do there banking. It is with immense benefit to be on the online platform because you can really take control of your finances. And this is where you can really optimize you savings.

READ - How to Start Investing

The Method

Firstly what needs to be done is for you to have a savings account. If you already have one open - congratulations you are almost there to saving more money. If not...open one. 

Savings accounts are great for two reasons:

• You can earn interest on the money that's in your account
• Gives you a place to store your money outside of your chequing account.

The point I want to focus on is the 2nd point. This point is extremely important, by having a second home for your money (not just having one account) this allows you to have money that's somewhat out of sight. Ever heard of the saying "Out of sight, out of mind?" Exactly, it applies here.