Swine Flu? H1N1?

Over the past 2 weeks it seems that many people have been mysteriously been getting sick. There is definitely something floating around in the air. I personally have had this lingering cough that just REFUSES to go away! At one point the name "frosh flu" was being passed around, but I'm starting to see that it's not just UTM frosh leaders who are being affected.

I'm pretty sure I don't have Swine Flu/H1N1 Virus... but just to make sure I looked up on Google what possible symptoms to look out for.

(haha, nice to see what people are searching for nowadays.)

I visited this site: http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/qa.htm

According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms are fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Basically the same symptoms as a seasonal flu. How are we supposed to distinguish whether or not it's a normal flu or H1N1? They didn't really give much detail. The only significant difference between H1N1 and the normal flu (besides the fact that a number of people have died recently) is that people aged 25 and YOUNGER (a.k.a.. ME! yikes!) are more susceptible to death/serious complications.

Another kinda interesting question was if the CDC recommends "Swine Flu Parties." A Swine Flu Party is exactly what the name pertains. It's basically a "party" that is held for people who WANT to become infected by someone who is currently infected with a mild case in hopes of building up some sort of immunity. The CDC obviously states that this is NOT recommended because not everyone has the same immune system, so a mild infection for one person may be fatal for another. (duh?)

I got an e-mail from UTM the other day saying that if we are feeling sick and showing signs of H1N1 to stay and home and fill out a "Flu Absense Declaration" form on ROSI. That means we don't even have to leave the house and get a doctor's note! It's funny because at the end of the message, it stated not to take advantage of this even though they clearly have given students a free ticket out of class. It'll be funny to see how many students try to get away with it. Although it would be pretty bad if karma got them back and they did get sick!

My New Love....

Today I realized that Adobe Illustrator is AMAZING. I really regret not taking the time to learn it this summer. Thank goodness I chose to take CCT204! (*BONUS* All CCIT students get a copy of Adobe CS4 on October 5th! I love Love LOVE my program.) I honestly did not realize that Illustrator was so EASY to learn and maneuver. I can't wait to use it for my future pieces, especially since I've decided to take a more artistic role for my clubs this year.

I definitely have spread myself out (hopefully not too thin?) in various areas.

• CCIT Council
• UTM Rotaract
  
• UEC (Undergraduate Economics Council)
• HCC/Peer Health Promotion

Regardless, I'll hopefully be able to build up my portfolio with stronger pieces too since I'll be using my new Illustrator skills.

Also, I played around with the layout a bit more today. There are a few extra random links lined up in a row at the top. I'll try and update them every now and then to keep things interesting (so you'll get a chance to why I am the Queen of Procrastination) and maybe find some REAL images instead of MSN Messenger emoticon shortcuts.

New Layout... RAWR!

In a debate whether or not to go to bed early for once... I decided to work on my blog! Voila! Here is the new temporary template I'll be using until I can figure out how to make my own! (with my own graphics!) Who doesn't like Domo?

So to celebrate this, I will officially start making this blog public (a.k.a. post it up on Facebook) sometime this weekend once I clear up a few things (links, titles, fonts, etc). I am excited!

UTM Rotaract Club Poster

Over the weekend I made this poster as new "VP Marketing" for the Rotaract Club at UTM.

I used a red and yellow colour scheme, to match their logo (which looks SO bad because I had to stretch a 300x300). I then found a few images of people looking happy and made them into vector/shadow-looking so it would look as if those people were kinda in the distance with the sun going down (or rising?).

The "Service Above Self" is one of the Rotarian slogans. I really hope this club works out this year and I can do more than I did last year! I definitely encourage everyone at UTM who loves volunteering to join. The Rotary Club is recognized around the world and Rotaract falls under their umbrella.

Writing Piece Brain-blast

I know I've been seriously slacking on this blog... But I promise that will soon change :D (Once I figure out my life because right now I'm a bit disorganized)

The past few weeks I've been thinking "If I were to write a piece, or a book, what would it be about?" and I've finally decided! I'm going to write about my multi-culturist-ness (sorry, I'm tired; I needed to make up a work to fit).

I honestly feel like I have an identity crisis every few months because I tend to question myself and my actions excessively. One thing for sure is that I am definitely not brainwashed to one culture/ethnicity. And I feel that I have had enough experiences in my life to actually write about it. And that I shall do.

I can see it now, I'm going to label sections of my piece/book/story/narrative thing by "colour", as in "Yellow, White, Brown, Black" as these are the common terms used nowadays to label people of different ethnicities. Of course these are not the most descriptive of terms, but they put the point across. Yay, I'm super excited!