#also i drew this to destress from Another drawing

[funtergeist]

are there still any shadowpeach fans

[godhanjisung]

At First Sight - Chan Scenario

Summary: Children are great, for sure, but only if they’re your kind thing. They weren’t yours so you ended up getting help from the master child himself – Chan. You just didn’t know he would have this effect on you.

Genre: Fluff

Rating: 13+ [SFW]

Words: 2552

It is universally acknowledged that anyone who takes on a babysitting job should have at least some experience in the art of babysitting, or at least kids; luckily for you however, it seemed that your mother’s friend had not caught the memo. As a result you now found yourself all alone in a small apartment with no one else around but two small children, who by the end of tonight were probably going to leave just as scarred as you were if things turned out half as good as you had imagined. You mentally patted yourself on the back, that’s right think positive, optimism was the only way out of this.

A small tug on your fingers brought you out from your thoughts and you stared down at the two young boys standing beside you. The child whom had tugged on your fingers was staring up at you with his large doe eyes, his brother beside him holding onto a large dolphin toy – dolphin holder was Tom and the other Tim. You placed a smile on your face kneeling down to Tim’s height, tilting your head to the side before speaking.

“Yes?”

You watched as the boy opened his mouth wide before closing it suddenly, “hungry.”

‘Of course’ you thought - food. You sighed before placing your hands on your knees and lifting yourself from the floor, turning around quickly before power walking towards the kitchen. Their kitchen was large and spacious and newly renovated, the white and grey hues blinding you as you entered.  You had decided on cooking pasta coming to the conclusion that simple was the way to go. But before you began searching for the appropriate ingredients you made a bee-line to the pantry opening the door and pulling out a packet of cookies. After all something had to keep the children preoccupied whilst you cooked.

Thirty minutes later and you found yourself backed into a wall. Tim was on his back, red in the face with his limbs going up and down in violent chaotic strikes. Likely half the neighbourhood could hear him screaming as if you were beating him with a stick. All you had said was, "No." Apparently denying him a second cookie was as devastating to him as someone stealing your home and all your possessions would be to you. You watched as he suddenly stopped and stared at you before flipping over and banging his head into the floor. That did it. In seconds you had the cookie in his now sweaty hand. He flipped to his bottom and stuck it in his mouth, staring at you with sullen eyes under a forehead that was sure to bruise. What would his mother say? What would your mother say? You sank to the couch and ready to call it a night but then you remembered, where was child number two.

Quick as a flash you began sprinting throughout the house only to find him in the recreational room playing. You slowly dropped to the floor sighing in relief. Babysitting was much harder than you thought it would be. At that moment Tim entered, cookie in hand, now sporting a large grin as he shook the cookie in front of his brother’s face, teasing him. ‘Please no’ you thought a grimace already set on your face but Tom ignored him completely engrossed with his teddy bear.

“Do you know,” you began “why teddy bears never get hungry?”

Both the children turned to look at you, Tim enthusiastically shaking his head, whilst the other, Tom, peered at you.

You stifled a smile as you recited the line that always got you cackling, ‘because they are always stuffed!’

Lifting your head to the ceiling and laughing at your own joke, you suddenly felt like you were going insane, were kids supposed to be this difficult? Then you wondered if you were asking yourself a stupid question. They were children how could they not be?

Exhaling you got up from the floor and quickly jogged back to the kitchen. You quickly took out some bowls and placed the pasta you had cooked inside each one, ready to call the kids over to eat. It was at that moment you heard the doorbell ring and you silently thanked whoever it was from saving you from another tiring moment. If watching kids was this hard you didn’t want to even imagine the battle it would be to feed them.

Opening the door you are immediately find yourself face to face with a young man sporting a very large grin. He had dirty blonde hair however his brown roots were visible and already beginning to overtake the rest of his hair. His brown eyes were the opposite almost invisible as they were scrunched into slits as he smiled at you, full blown with all his teeth. Something about his smile made your stomach churn, he had the kind of smile that made you feel happy to be alive and just that little bit more human.

“Hi! I’m Chan!”

You nodded your head slightly, despite how good looking he was, you didn’t know who he was or why he was here.

“Ah! Right sorry, I just came here to help you out. It got pretty loud so I called up their mother and asked if I could help…she said yes.”

You immediately narrowed your eyes, your mouth opening slightly. Who did he think he was? Sure you had not done the best job thus far, but it was your first night! Suddenly you felt annoyed at him what if you lost this job because of that one phone call of his? Just as you were about to go off at him he stuck his hand into his pocket and brought out a note. You looked at the note your eyebrow raised.

“Take it, it’s from the Tim-tams mother.”

You slowly grabbed the note from him opening it before scanning through the message. Yes this was definitely Tim and Tom’s mother’s handwriting and signature. It was also a note that clearly said that Chan would be around to help you out with anything as he lived right next door.

Chan then held out his hand for you to take. You complied, but instead of shaking hands like everyone else, he brought your hand to his lips and placed a gentle kiss upon it. You felt your face flush warm and the hairs on your neck stand. Something fluttered in your stomach. You didn't know what that feeling was. You thought it was a bizarre sensation, but it wasn't unpleasant. In that moment you knew that if you spoke, your words would fumble and you wouldn't be able to make your usual witty remarks. Right there and then, you were at a loss for everything; no words, no breath, no thoughts. The only thing that came out of your mouth at that moment was your name, and even then it came out shaky and quiet. For once in your life, your breath had taken away by a complete stranger - by the eyes of a complete stranger and most definitely his smile.

Chan, although much older than he looked, was like babysitting a third child. You watched as the children laughed and played with him, jumping up and down at his jokes and laughing at the endless amounts of faces that he pulled. They particularly enjoyed his duck impressions, although you did give him the benefit of the doubt for those, not even you could keep the small smile off your face.

He always squatted down onto the floor, folding him arms to his sides like wings, and started flapping them, his ducks noises anything but accurate. You watched him as he made the impression for the tenth time as you quickly finished off feeding Tim before sending off on his way to join Tom in watching and cackling at Chan. They were both giggling before they stopped, simultaneously jumping onto him and making him fall.

You smirked slightly picking up the bowls of pasta and heading to the kitchen. Despite being initially quite annoyed at his appearance you couldn’t deny how much easier it had become to look after the children once he had arrived.

Leaving the kitchen you entered the living room to find Chan, Tim and Tom playing with some model dinosaurs. You were busy looking at the kids and didn’t notice Chan’s stare, however when you finally met his eyes you watched as his lips lifted upward. You watched the way his one dimple crinkled, the way his perfectly aligned teeth emerged and you definitely noticed the warm glow of happiness that his smile. His smile was a ray of sunshine and you felt as though you were getting burned.

Since that day whenever you were babysitting Tim and Tom, Chan would always come over at random intervals to help you out, never at cooking though, you had quickly realised that wasn’t his forte. However playing and keeping them occupied? He was an angel at.

One day he would help you take them to the park. Those mild spring days were days where the kids were so happy to run outside without jackets. Running to the swings, their legs moving wildly in order to pump themselves higher and higher. Chan and you would push them from behind talking.

“You must really like kids.”

“Haha yes, you noticed?” Chan didn’t look at you when he replied but by then you could imagine the smile on his face.

“I did.”

Chan glanced at your for a second before looking away again, “Kids are so innocent being with them destresses me out. I find it strangely relaxing.”

You snorted at his response, “I wish I could say the same.”

“You’re not that bad, if kids like you enough to be near you there’s no way you can be that bad.”

You turned to him smiling, “Thanks?”

He chuckles, “Yeah don’t worry it was a compliment.”

The next day you were babysitting Chan insisted that you take the kids out again, he not being a large fan of the indoor lifestyle. You had been surprised when he pulled out chalk from his pocket as he bent down on the sidewalk and began drawing. Far away from computers or television he drew squares on the sidewalk and numbered them – you were all going to play hopscotch. Stones on the sidewalk were easy to come by as you all had begun to play excitement oozing off everyone in waves. The sun had already begun beating down on all four of you but none of you had noticed.

As days like this became more frequent you found yourself enjoying them more and more, not just because you had come to love Tim and Tom, although you couldn’t deny the connection that had formed between the three of you, but because of Chan. His character – bubbly and loud always allowed you to the find joy in actions you didn’t realise could make a human happy. The way he could turn something so boring into the most attention-grabbing thing – cleaning, cooking and even a simple two minute walk. You adored the conversations you had with him, as you always remembered each word he spoke locking them away into your heart and mind, never wanting to let them go.

Chan had become a drug, your drug.

It was a day similar to this when Chan smiled at you with ease again, that big wide grin on his face making him more beautiful than ever.

“Call me if you need anything, and I mean it. Day or Night, I’m never too busy for you.”

Your heart flutters at his words, ready to fly out of your chest and into his hands. However you already know it is too late for that for your heart is already in his hands. He could squeeze it and you would feel the pain immediately, he had complete control but for some reason that didn’t scare you. You didn’t feel like a puppet and Chan your puppet master, you dangling completely limp on some strings as he moved and played you to his will – no, it wasn’t like that at all.

Rather you were a bird you had willingly given up some of its freedom, its ability to fly and sore, to be with him. The smile on your face wavered a little as you continued to smile at him, you were in love, deeply in love and it was completely by choice.

Maybe it was his smile at first, the way his eyes smiled along with his mouth or maybe it was the way he had played with the children or the manner in which he had been so willing to help you? Whichever it had been you had been mesmerised, you had fallen in love.

“You listening?”

You blinked rapidly, laughing a little “Sorry just spaced out for a bit.”

Chan hums, “I see, I do that too sometimes it’s nice.”

You stifled a laugh as you nodded.

“Anyway I was asking you if you wanted me to walk you home today?”

You loud “Yes!” escaped you and as his smile got wider, your cheeks got redder.

It was raining outside and every person that surrounded the two of you was moving at maximum speed with their head hanging down. The sound of feet on wet paving stones is almost lost against the splashing of the traffic, only the click of high heels still clear. 

You don’t notice when it was that you arrive at your place. You had been too preoccupied conversing that you thought time had stopped for the two of you and deep down you wish it had. Chan is already turning to look at you to say goodbye and the only thought in your head is ‘no, no, no, please don’t let this end!’

That’s when warm lips pressed against yours. Your eyes widen and it takes approximately one point three seconds for you to realise Chan is kissing you and a further three point eight seconds for you to realise that you’re kissing him back. Your eyes have fluttered shut and in the darkness you can see light exploding. You forget that you’re in front of an apartment building with people around, you forget everything, your only focus Chan. The soft moan he makes, the way he tastes like cotton candy, the way his hand has moved to your waist and the way he pulls back.

Your eyes are still shut, you’re too afraid to open them. But all it takes is Chan’s laughter the image of his smile in your mind for you to open them.

For sure you still even know weren’t sure what it was that had made you fall in love with Chan. Was it his eyes? His ability to handle children? His smile? His sunshine personality? Who knows? All you knew for sure was that you had fallen in love with him.

Fallen in love at first sight.

[garbageivereleasedintothevoid]

04-11-20 (Saturday)

Drew this because I asked Sarah Wolf for an animal drawing suggestion and she said wolf which I should have predicted.

The snout looks longer in the pic.

Slept for about an hour last night was so fucked up.

Got a delivery today that I ordered at the beginning of the month and it helped me relax. Yes, it was sex toys. I splurged a bit on them because I had the extra to spare but honestly I made a good choice because it helped me destress like a LOT. ALSO I got to use a promo code for MacDoesIt on youtube and I've used Dr. Doe's promo code before which is the same discount so it took my $76 order and made it $56. Got two different things to use at the same time and it was... Relaxing.

To a.lot of people that's weird. And to some people it's even weirder considering my background but I control this experience. If I want to stop, I can. If I don't like something, I can just stop. I don't have to worry about anyone else. Just me and feeling good. And... Idk. It helps with pain too.

It's why when people had a very brief discussion about disabled people who still had feeling but very limited movement needing some help I was for it. Like obviously this would need ro be supervised and the worker would probably need to be specifically trained and okay with doing it. Or we could fucking legalize sex work and solve the damned issue.

Anyway the point is that this is a human need. And I hate how much it's stigmatized. Like yeah obviously it's not specifically sex with another person that is a need. But sexual release is a very valid need. Like maybe there won't be much physical damage but it can be very difficult emotionally. And like.. there's nothing wrong with it as long as it's handled appropriately. Obviously you can't go wanking it in full view of the public or engage with minors but sex should not be so stigmatized that saying you masturbate in relevant context makes people uncomfortable or even cause them to mock you. I don't wanna fuck anyone else. I don't wanna go get laid. Okay to be fair, I do but that ship isn't going to sail with me on it ever and I've accepted that as fact and come to terms with it. And honestly that's okay with me. She's happy. I'm happy enough. I would never violate consent with any human being on purpose and I'd hate myself if I did that to her. My highest priority is refraining from hurting her. But maybe I need to set another priority at equal value. Not hurting me. It's time to stop. I'll keep her secret forever and take it to my grave. But it's time to move on. I deserve that much at least.

How the fuck did I go from the original topic to this. Oh god.

[robertkstone]

2019 Byton M-Byte First Look: Mega-Byte

A couple of years ago, at the press introduction of the Toyota Prius C in San Diego, I was chatting with chief engineer Satoshi Ogiso, a central figure in the history Toyota’s hybrid technology. As we both stared at a Prius parked at the curb, I asked him what worried a guy like him about the future.

He answered more quickly than I expected (I’m paraphrasing here): “Startup car electric car companies. A gasoline engine has thousands of parts, and it takes a big company with a lot of resources to manufacture. But an electric motor is cheap with one moving part. The barrier for an electric car startup is very low. I worry about them.”

Five years later, his fear is realized: The entire drivetrain of the imminently arriving China-based Byton—its motors and powertrain electrics from Bosch, its underfloor battery pack from BMW-supplier CATL, with prismatic cells chargeable at a 180 kW rate—has been outsourced.

This particular version of Ogiso-san’s nightmare adds a twist, though: The Byton isn’t just another 0–60 EV railgun. While the 680-hp Tesla Model S P100D, 1,000-hp Lucid Air, and 754-hp Rivian R1T will all bazooka onto on-ramps, the Byton’s standard configuration—with a modest 272 hp rear motor and 71-kW-hr battery (250-mile range)—will be merely “quick.” Its “fast” version adds a front 204-hp motor that’s really just a shortened (cheaper) version of rear one, and the automaker claims can travel a Tesla-like 325 miles on 95 kW-hr. But even then, its combined 476 hp won’t raise one eyebrow among performance wonks these days. Although Tesla has sometimes crowed in their quarterly reports about MotorTrend’s blistering Model S 0–60 times, Byton President Daniel Kirchert tepidly defended his car’s performance to me, saying it’s “not a lame duck.”

Underwhelming? It’s intentional, one leg of a three-legged stool of foundational design bets, each totally dependent on the other two.

To be honest, the keystone is probably another company entirely: Aurora Innovation, Byton’s autonomous-tech partner. Although overshadowed by Waymo, Aurora is a first-tier player headed by Chris Urmson, from autonomous hotbed Carnegie Mellon, who became Chief Technology Officer of Alphabet’s self-driving program; Sterling Anderson, MIT robotics Ph.D. who led the team that created Tesla’s Autopilot; and Drew Bagnell, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute and founding member of Uber’s Advanced Technology Center. It’s an all-star trio Byton is relying on when the M-Byte (Byton’s initial crossover offering) is delivered with available Level 3 autonomy late this year in China and 2020 in the U.S. and Europe. The prototype of the second Byton, the K-Byte sedan (due in 2021), even shows off visually obvious lidars—literally wearing its potential for Level 4 and 5 capability on its sleeve.

The puzzle pieces are starting to come together. Think about it: If a car is geofenced Level 3 autonomous, everyone inside is also usually a passenger, meaning the drivetrain really needs no more than chauffeur-level performance. All that supercar-level of horsepower is a waste of money better spent on the user’s digital experience and autonomy tech.

I’ve spent some time in Cadillac’s excellent L2+ Super Cruise system, and after about 10 freeway miles, you’re thinking two things. One: This thing’s noticeably destressing. Two: You’re pretty quickly bored. So last year I pilgrimaged to the opening of Byton’s satellite Santa Clara office—a 13-minute drive from Aurora’s Palo Alto location—where at that time, 150 people were focused on developing The Screen.

This thing is ridiculous

At 48 inches wide—spanning A-pillar to A-pillar—and 10 inches tall, The Screen has the surface area of more than 24 iPhone 10 Maxes. The glowing heart of the car, it’s the precious centerpiece that Byton isn’t outsourcing like its drivetrain or automation, and it’s designed to be replaceable as screen technology improves. Will it be 24 times more compelling than an iPhone 10? Our own Miguel Cortina, who grew up in Mexico City, saw the movie Roma in 70mm film at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood after first watching it on his tablet via Netflix. Better, Miguel? He strongly nods. Then again, while screen size matters, what matters most is what’s on it.

Directed by the Byton operating system, called Byton Life, the digital world being cooked up inside borders on the fantastical. Climb in the cockpit, and cameras on the dash identify you and everybody else while your phone and wrist heart-rate data is synced to the car. Blended with your seat-measured weight, health tips might appear: For instance, after setting a nav destination, the system might ask if you might like to park a half mile away from there to get a needed walk. The digital instrument display moves up and down on the screen when you adjust the steering wheel—there are plenty of extra pixels.

On the highway in Level 3, the Faurecia-supplied front seats can each swivel 12 degrees toward each other for easier chatting. To instruct the giant screen, the driver has a 7.0-inch touchpad on the steering wheel itself; no, the image doesn’t turn with the wheel (Byton calls the steering wheel an engineering feat all its own, given the airbag). The front passenger has an 8.0-inch touchpad in the center console, and both can just finger-point to spots on the screen using its gesture recognition. What about hand-bounce over bumps? Accelerometers compensate and predict where you’re pointing.

If you and a friend separately ask Alexa to play your individual music, it recognizes whose voice is whose. Do you like steak but your passenger is into seafood? Asking for a lunch recommendation returns places that serve both. Abe Chen, who leads Byton’s digital technology department, described another example: “Let’s say you drop your kid off every day at school and then go to Starbucks. The car recognizes your coffee appetite and suggests an interesting alternative nearby.” To enable this, the M-Byte will be the first car to have full connectivity on the go via multiple antennas and 5G preparation.

Creeped out by all this connectedness? Chen understands. At Apple, he created their worldwide new-product security team; he was Tesla’s director of information and product security; and in 2017, his group bested 75 other teams to win DEF CON’s Car Hacking Village Capture the Flag competition. CEO Carsten Breitfeld calls the Byton “mobility’s smartphone moment.”

Who the heck are these guys?

Carsten is a craggy, steel-eyed Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, a 20-year BMW veteran, a 10-year BMW Group Vice President, and most recently project manager of BMW’s carbon-tub Batmobile i8. His co-founder and Byton’s president, Daniel Kirchert, is lean, speaks concisely, and has spent much of his life in China learning its culture and business ropes as managing director of Infiniti China. These guys are the antithesis of an Asian web tycoon-turned-lawsuit-refugee or pot-puffing Twitter warrior. Breitfeld and Kirchert are seasoned, no-nonsense auto-industry Germans with decades of experience experiencing “manufacturing hell,” brought together by a Chinese seed-money investor.

During a Q&A session after the car’s debut at CES 2018, the more spontaneous Breitfeld leaned back and got to free-talking (in a manner that reminds me of a German James Mason). At 50 years of age, he could have ridden out that big career at BMW. But he chose to throw himself into one last life-defining battle and pull the ripcord into this uncharted new jungle of EVs and autonomous and connected cars.

One reason is the conviction that China will be writing the next chapter of the automobile. Problems at Byton, he says, are fixed by the time a legacy automaker would be drawing up a Gantt chart. Quickening the timeline is designer Benoit Jacob, responsible for the BMW i3 and i8. Breitfeld relies on his sensitivity to production practicalities, to avoid time-wasting misunderstandings between engineering and design. The $45,000 base-price M-Byte advanced from a conversation to reality in 28 months compared to the customary four, even five years for most automakers. Maintaining that pace, their third car—a bigger, seven-passenger MPV—will be based on the same platform and drivetrain as the M and K. (Byton openly questions Tesla judgement in creating two platforms.)

Although hubbed in Shanghai, Byton’s 1,500 employees are dispersed among five locations. Construction of the nearby Nangyang factory is complete with equipment now being installed. (Breitfeld says its initial capacity of 100,000 cars is a critical threshold for meaningful economies of scale; total capacity will be 300,000.) Roughly 100 M-Byte prototypes are being tested right now; design and engineering happens in Munich.

When I asked where Breitfeld finds scarce software engineers in the Silicon Valley area, Carsten smiled. “They just drive north up Interstate 5 from Gardena,” he said. That’s code for the home of Faraday Future and its perilous existence. Mention Faraday, and Byton’s founders simultaneously wince. Yep, they fully understand the skepticism—another futuristic, China-based EV startup, right? At every opportunity they seem anxious to be crystal-clear about their financials and partners.

The Ride

One evening during this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show, I stood in the chill night outside the mostly deserted convention center waiting my turn to ride in an M-byte prototype.

The car was a cobbled-together mule that snail-drummed over the street’s ripples and snapped Buddy Rich rimshots over the potholes. In actuality, its screen graphics were just a quickly monotonous video loop. So I sat back and just stared as the streets of downtown L.A. slowly reeled by me.

Ahead are two illuminated worlds. Looking up, the still-glowing neon office towers are slowly sliding past each other like giant playing cards. Left and right, people are prowling the dirty sidewalks beneath the  renovated Depression-Era masonry lofts. Some of them are pausing to consider a restaurant I don’t know or crowding around a club or gallery that might be fun. Cocooned in this car, I’m abstracted from them. Like watching aquarium fish through the thick glass.

I stared at the other illuminated world in front of me—the panoramic Byton screen that’s still looping its same graphics. In a matter of months this could be the portal through that barrier, merging me to them, those places, that world out there. Recently, I called the Tesla Model 3 the Automobile 2.0. Maybe the Byton is what the post-automobile will look like. It’s not about driving. It’s about living. Suddenly conventional cars seem one-dimensional. Go from here. To there. This is 3-D.

A few years ago, we did a speculative story about what an Apple Car might be like. (Apple’s Project Titan was an open secret.) Soon after, Tim Cook pulled its plug, though smart money says they’re still developing an autonomous system. Now, the iPhone’s sales have softened, Apple’s stock has tumbled, and its failure to bet big again in the time since the Steve Jobs days is coming to roost. I ask you, Mr, Cook, how did the scrappy guys at Byton build the Apple Car you guys couldn’t?

IFTTT

[fromkimsasperspective-blog]

Mieke Vink

Mieke Vink is my friend from first year. I met her through living in the same residence. We lived on the same floor in first year!

Mieke was born in China and was raised in Toronto, Canada. She is adopted by Canadian parents so she does not remember anything about China at all. 

Mieke thinks that living in Vancouver feels good, and that there’s not much of a difference between Toronto and Vancouver. It culturally feels very similar and she didn’t go through any cultural shocks. She really likes it UBC and says that it “feels pretty normal”. She felt like a lot of people had cultural shocks or lifestyle shocks but that didn’t apply to her since she was raised in the same environment. She also mentioned that her life at home was different than some of her Asian friends because many of them had stricter parents. She didn’t have strict parents at all and she said that played a role in not feeling the distance and homesick all the time. She also never had the rebellious moment in university because she felt like she had that freedom already, growing up.

She doesn’t talk in class in university, but that’s a different case in high school because in high school, the classes were much smaller and she knew everyone better. It was also much easier to follow along in high school, so participating here requires a lot more effort. With friends, she can say whatever she wants but in a class setting, she is more shy. When she was young, she was told to speak up more but she was never pushed to be more outgoing. Her parents and friends left her alone to do whatever and she feels good about that.

Usually, when she feels strongly about something, she is not afraid to speak her mind, no matter the age. She can tell it to younger, older and people her age group if she strongly agrees or disagrees with an opinion. It’s not that she was raised by her parents to be this way, but it’s that she was raised in an environment where it was okay to do so. She believes in standing up for what you believe in. For example, there was once where she disagreed with a professor because he was stating how “family is who you are born with”, but for Mieke, as she is adopted, she disagrees and wasn’t afraid to say what she felt like at that time. 

One of the very situations in which she might feel uncomfortable in speaking up is when she is speaking to someone who has authority over her, like her boss. But other than that, it doesn’t matter who she’s talking to. 

Grades definitely matter to Mieke. But, she does feel that social is more important for the life aspect. It is what you have in life that gets you far because academics only give you so much. She thinks that social connections are needed to be happy, and she needs people, like her friends and family, for her to be happy. Academic helps with jobs but you “can still get a job without an education”. It is scary if there is no one there to support you. Also, her parents never pressured her with grades at all. But, her dad did pressure her a lot to learn about Chinese culture. He opened up a camp in the summer for her and other friends to learn about the Chinese culture. He wanted Mieke to take mandarin lessons and he goes to China all the time to teach at a monastery. Even though Mieke herself doesn’t feel at all part of her hometown/or where she was born. She doesn’t identify with that culture, maybe a little because she was born there but it doesn’t mean as much as a Canadian. 

It was interesting asking Mieke to think about an object and explain why it relates to her culture. During this time in the interview, I waited for about 20 minutes and asked if she had thought of one yet. She replied to me with a bunch of questions like, “What is Canadian culture?” She was trying to find something that represented multiculturalism, since she has Chinese, Canadian, and Dutch in her. She was definitely struggling and in the end she couldn’t find one because she doesn’t want to stereotype things and place it into cultural categories.  

Mieke is Canadian therefore she feels like she really belongs in the community. There have been small instances where she has felt awkward, for example in elementary school when her friend stretched out her eyelids to make it look like the “small eyes” and Mieke was offended by that. But, she definitely feels pride in where she’s from as well. She doesn’t feel a huge sense of nationalism, but pride sometimes when she interacts with another Chinese person and understands some of the things they are talking about. Also, she is happy that she is in a location where sustainability efforts are substantial. She is also proud about the reconciliation events that are happening around campus. 

The rugby field is the important place for Mieke, because that place has helped her a lot this year. She allows herself to destress at this place, because she can’t be thinking about assignments anyways so she allows her to get her mind off of work. She also feels more like herself playing sports, Last year, she did not have this opportunity and felt like a big part of her was missing last year. Other people use this space to play American football and rugby. No matter where she is, since she grew up with gymnastics and rugby, in whichever field she would feel normalized because this place is same or similar around the world.

For Mieke’s “student life” drawing, she drew her bedroom with important things to her in it, for example picture frame of her friends, music, and desk. In the middle of the page, she made a diagonal river to metaphorically signify that she is drowning in work and on the other side of the river is just a huge amount of paper that shows how many assignments she has to deal with.