Monday, September 28, 2009
We planned a great trip to the Gold Coast for this mid sem break, and I was especially excited as the date grew closer. I guess a tad over excited, but thats acceptable right?
Well, I don't know what to say, but what happened in this week for the Gold Coast trip is definitely going to be a very memorable one. First I get diagnosed for a suspected case of appendicitis. Such a downer. And of course I don't want to miss my flight, so I head to the A&E to see if I can get a definite answer. But guess what! It turns out that the doctors can't tell you if you definitely have an appendicitis or not. So I'm convinced by the doc that the surgery is the safest and probably the best option. So I sign the form, and get warded for surgery.
I wait for almost 36 hours. And within that I get starved for the ENTIRE period, get wheeled to the operating room, and at the end of it all get told that perhaps its not a case of appendicitis!! How crazy is that? I was so hungry at the end of it I was too tired to tell the doctor off. But you would think that after so many years in medicine, they would be able to tell you something a little more professional than to just snip off the appendix to be safe, after all if its not an appendicitis, it won't do you harm.
After that whole ordeal, I quickly get on the next flight out of Melbourne and into the Gold Coast to catch up with my long awaited holiday. But my flight gets canceled!!! So I have to wait in line and deal with very very incompetent Tiger Airways staff. To cut a very long story short, I get on the next flight to Gold Coast, and finally get to start my holiday.
But that's not all!!! On the trip, I lose my theme park tickets, and my friend loses his camera!! I have no idea what to think of this trip other than I'm very thankful that I'm back home in one piece.
Dan
9:43 pm
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Holidays is coming!!! So exciting. Great plans for the Gold Coast. Really glad that it's a 2 week break, that way I can spend one week relaxing and one week working. But I guess there really isn't much to work on since I've been cramming for the mid terms before the break. But thats good as well.
Rachelle and I have been sewing and it's been rather exciting. I think it's wonderful to create something from nothing. Well not really nothing, but like useless things which people have no use for on its own. Granted that its a rather feminine "sport", I make up for it by exploiting my commerce skills. How?? By setting up an online shop! That's right, we've set up a shop to sell the things we make, and although nothing has sold just yet, I think it's a great experience. Real, and exciting lessons to learn at a cheap cost. But I will get to all those lessons in time to come.
I bet the question on your mind now is "where on earth is this shop??!!" Well if that question is not on your mind, it should be. You can find us at
lacethread.etsy.com and you can follow us on this exciting journey on our blog as well!
lacethread.wordpress.com
We would have chosen to host the blog on blogspot, but someone took our name =(
Dan
12:20 am
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Had a lecture on neuroeconomics today and I must say that while it is interesting, I feel sorry for the economists and neuroscientists who had to sit in labs and look at monitors and scans to study the brain so that my lecturer can conclude that nothing conclusive can be drawn from it yet. So instead of wasting my time listening to something that is for now inconclusive, I found myself wandering into another field on economics, and my conclusion?
Welfare Economics.
This field of economics aims to measure the welfare generated or loss from decisions made by firms, individuals and the government. The theory, as do most theories, aims to explain the decision making process based on welfare. So here's a thought.
Rationality of the individual is an assumption commonly made in many economic theories. If we know from welfare economics that a certain action will increase the welfare of an individual, but we observe that the individual does not take that course of action, then theory will tell us that welfare is not maximised. But the assumption of rationality is that the rational individual will seek to maximise welfare. Therefore, does this mean that the individual is no longer rational, or was he making a rational decision, but will live to regret it later.
Can the rational individual be regretful? Of course this begs the question of what is rational, but that is a thought for another day. So much for inconclusiveness right? Maybe this is how all these weird studies begin in the first place.
Dan
4:26 pm