Saturday, November 14, 2009
You would think that after such a stressful period I would want to just rant and unwind, but I find strange fulfillment in writing stories, and thinking of make belief. Maybe thats my escape from this pressure-cooker world we live in.
So when we left the last time, our knight was going into his first day of battle, and the heart of young fair maiden seemed far away.
The fight was brutal, and many were slain. Mistakes were made on both sides, and delays were all around. Chaos reigned in the last few moments as soldiers struggled to fight off the enemy. He glanced up and realised that time was running out. He had to finish this battle before it was too late. He looked down into his enemies eyes and released his final blow. The enemy seemed dead enough, and that seemed to satisfy him for now. As he left the battle ground, he started to wonder if enough had been done. But the enemy was long gone now, and there was no turning back.
He had been gone for awhile now, and she was starting to get restless waiting for his arrival. She cooked up a task for herself to fill the time, hoping that when he returned from battle he would would what to say to make things right. The castle door opened, and the knights had returned from the first day of battle. He seemed tired and still lost for words. What a disappointment. When would he learn? Or is it true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks?
Romans 12:17-21
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. 20On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Such an encouragement to read this passage. First command, peace. Second command, love. So simple and yet we can't do that.
Dan
11:34 pm
Friday, November 13, 2009
There's an epic tale to be told today. I've been thinking about it for about a day now, and I have a feeling that events will unfold that will extend this into what I hope will be a wonderful story with a beautiful ending. I know I did badly in the last time I tried to tell an online story. The code was too easy to break, the meanings too obvious, and the ending was just terrible, at least in the story, it had a happy ending in real life. But I'll try to do a little better this time round.
We begin with our knight and fair maiden, who shall not be named (doh! I think the code is broken), leaving the castle grounds to head to the training arena where preparations have been on the way for the final showdown that the knight would have to face. It's been 3 years of training and fighting for this knight, and no battle has he feared the most than the one he is about to encounter. Fair maiden of course, has no place in the battle grounds, but thats not to say she has no battles of her own, for back in the castle every night she fights to maintain her poise against the physical, academic, and domestic chores that await.
Training was tough, and the heat from the summer sun just made the ordeal worse. The knight and fair maiden were spotted taking a stroll through the gardens, but something looked amiss.
His heart is honest and true, but the words that he speak seem to fail him. He fights the anger that so easily arises, but his self control fails him. He hurts because deep inside he is truly sorry but he can think of nothing that will show it. He spends the next few hours preparing for D-day, all the while trying to think of something that will express his heart better than words.
She hurts because of his ignorance and foolish words. She wants him to be her knight, but he seems too caught up with his own issues to be any kind of knight. She wants him to understand, but does he really? His words seem so ordinary, and his anger seems to prevail. She wants to know that his actions are out of truth and not just words, but how will she know?
Will our knight ever be able to do anything to bring back the fair maiden? Will he survive his first day in battle?
Dan
12:59 pm
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
I'll have to admit that I've never been a big fan of online shopping, but I think ebay is that foot in the door for me. I've been ebaying quite a bit, and I got quite a bargain on a desk from Ikea. It's original price was $45 plus plus, but I got it for $12.50!
So the desk was delivered today by this very nice ang moh family. I came out to collect it from their car with a trolley, and the father placed the table on the trolley and kept asking if I could manage, and I said that I could handle it, and after it was all loaded, he said I didn't have to be shy to ask for help, of course I said I could manage, but it got me thinking, what did I do that made him think I was shy to ask for help?
Was it because there is a stereotyping that Asians are generally quiet, traditional, cultural, not-very-liberal, keep-to-yourself people? I can't blame the ang moh's for thinking that way, because I guess generally ang moh's tend to be more open about a lot of stuff. Maybe it is because I am small, a fact which I cannot run away from. If I were bigger, would he still say I didn't have to be shy to ask for help? Maybe I looked like I was struggling.
I'd like to think that even if I dropped the table once, or twice, I could pick it up myself and complete the job without having to depend on others.
Maybe I'm just paranoid. I'm sure the very nice man didn't mean anything in asking the "innocent" question.
Dan
12:13 am
Sunday, November 08, 2009
I hate the heat! It's so bad that its making me lose my concentration. I wish I had an aircon.
Dan
11:36 pm
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Here's something interesting. Maybe not to most of you, but at least to me.
Demand is a persons willingness to pay for a given good. And in economics, we would love to know people's willingness to pay so that then we can form a demand curve that maps reality as close as possible. But we've come to respect that people's willingness to pay is probably something that we'll never truly find because no one would reveal their true willingness to pay, and even if they did, how would you know? So economists have nicely coined it as private information, private only to the buyer.
But what if the buyer doesn't know their true willingness to pay?
Dan
11:40 am
Friday, November 06, 2009
The trailer for the upcoming movie 2012 has been coming on the air quite often. As far as I know its a movie about the end of the world, and I gather from the trailer that the world ends with a host of natural disasters happening at the same time... what are the chances right? But I better not speak too soon.
But I've realised that Hollywood directors are getting more realistic about how they think the world will end. First they thought it would end with aliens invading earth and so we had movies like Independence Day. Then they realised that aliens were probably quite far fetched, so then they lowered their standards and thought that the world would probably end with some meteor hitting earth. Maybe they got the idea from the evolutionists who say that a big meteor killed all the dinosaurs. Thus we had movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact. And then after awhile, that became too far fetched, and they thought it'll probably end with all the natural disasters happening around the world at one time. And now we have movies like 2012, I think there was one more before this.
Wonder what is next.
Dan
5:09 pm
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
I've been studying and I'm glad that its going well. The feeling for this exam is different. I can't really place what kind of difference it is, but I know that I'm aware of it everyday. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but I guess we'll find out in a few weeks.
Was looking through my honours application and I realised that I made a mistake!! I had enrolled myself for too many subjects. Now I'm left with a dilemma of choosing between health economics, behaviourial economics, or public economics. I guess it won't be much of a dilemma if I don't get honours to begin with. But what a blunder to make, now the dean must be thinking what kind of honours student is this, doesn't read instructions when applying how is he going to handle the fine print of the thesis.
I should email the dean and tell him the mistake is the result of my enthusiasm in doing honours and that he couldn't ask for a better student. Actually I should study for exams now, and not day dream about honours let alone talking to the dean, otherwise I won't get to do either.
Dan
5:05 pm
Monday, November 02, 2009
Been slogging and altering my schedule every other day to fit my studies because of random things that keep popping up to consume my time. But oddly enough, I still find that I'm on track. But that is not as settling as it sounds. I've already completed my revision for Derivatives and I'm set to complete macro tomorrow and get through as much of Industrial as I can, but I sit back and ponder, and I can't seem to recall any facts on Derivatives or Macro!!! That is scary, maybe I just need to start doing the questions to gain that confidence. I'm always like that. Lacking in confidence.
Dan
11:27 pm