Sunday, June 27, 2010
I just returned to Singapore and it is HOT! So hot that I'm glad it rained cats and dogs this morning.
Also, I flew Emirates for the first time yesterday, and granted I've not had much experience with that airline, that one experience was better than many of my other experiences with SQ, so that must mean something right? Speaking of my flight, I now have new found respect for babies. How do you scream/wail/cry non-stop for 8hours!? It was the only thing that "spoilt" my flight, otherwise I would very much prefer Emirates to SQ.
Research proper starts tomorrow. Sigh... I wish my holidays could be longer.
Dan
4:02 pm
Thursday, June 24, 2010
I hate waiting for an exam. It's the worst part of studying. In Singapore I never actually experienced that because I was never actually prepared prepared for any exam I sat for. I always had that feeling that I could have done better. Here, I know that as I type this out, I have done everything I can. Doing the exam today and doing it tomorrow would not change my grade by much.
Why is waiting the worst part? Because I want to play, I want to relax. Actually I just don't want the exam stress anymore, and I feel like it is justified that I can ease off because I have reached that peak, but I cannot let go but must sit here and just wait because the stupid exam is tomorrow.
Played soccer last night, and it felt ssssoooo good. After watching 2 weeks of world cup, and not playing for almost a month, my legs were getting itchy. So itchy that I slammed the net 7 times. I thought that it felt great to play FIFA and then play soccer because there is that additional kick, but not really because FIFA is a computer game and computer simulations are unrealistic. Watching a match and then playing soccer is so much better because you know that what you see on TV is humanly possible.
OK enough ranting. Time to get back to the routine exercises just so that I don't forget what to do tomorrow.
Dan
4:30 pm
Monday, June 21, 2010
There are two ways to study for an exam. Understand the content and be able to explain succinctly so that you show you comprehend the subject OR memorise the mechanics without much understanding so that you show you comprehend the subject. Ideally, it's better to do the former but desperate times call for desperate measures. I hate blind studying.
What I also hate is failing technology. But I guess if I had to choose the better of two evils I'd rather failing hardware than failing software. However, as I found out today, hardware is more expensive to replace than software! I actually had a nice economic paragraph written out trying to argue that the hardware should be cheaper so that users can replace it, but I realised halfway through my argument that what Mac is doing is actually as predicted by theory.
Sighs, I get this feeling that I'm not far from the dilemma of deciding between fixing my current lappy or getting a new lappy.
Dan
10:20 pm
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Done with my notes and ready to begin the last leg of the revision process building up to the last paper. But I've stopped for now because the problems I've had to do at crazy hard! I can get the right answer, but half the time I don't understand what I'm doing, I just know what is supposed to happen. It feels... insecure not being able to explain what I'm supposed to know.
On another note, World Cup fever! Netherlands and Japan! Finally for once I'm going with the nation that is supposed to win, the Netherlands. I've been rooting for the underdogs in most matches, and last night was a great night with Serbia beating Germany, USA and England drawing their matches. I know that the underdogs probably won't win the World Cup, but my logic is that while I'm still young I'll support the underdogs because my heart can take the euphoria if they win, and the disappointment if they lose. When I get older and my energy starts to fade, I'll go for the big guns like Brazil and Spain.
Dan
5:03 pm
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Another one down! This exam period is just flying by, I am amazed that I'm even prepared to any of the papers. Praise to God definitely. Looking forward to the winter break! I feel like there's so much to do in one month. Going back to Singapore, golf, soccer, world cup, research, road trips! Interesting that research came 5th to mind haha.
All that is standing between me and winter break is one econometrics paper. One very BIG econometrics paper. Not looking forward to it at all. Since I'm on the topic of exam experience, there was big drama in my exam hall today! The girl next to me couldn't figure out how to do square root on her calculator and was panicking so badly that the tables around her (unfortunately myself included) were all distracted! I miss exam drama.
Dan
10:22 pm
Monday, June 14, 2010
World cup fever! And I have exams tomorrow. World cup really couldn't have come at a worse time. Having said that, I do love world sports. There's an additional excitement surrounding the event. I guess its because it only happens once every 4 years.
Tomorrow's paper is supposedly the second hardest of my three papers. Yet right now, I feel like I've reached my limit. If there is anything that I can't answer in the paper, it will probably be the case that I won't be able to answer it right now as well. Which means that I can do no better than to get it wrong. Sigh, this is econs talk.
No more study for me after this year!
Dan
5:04 pm
Sunday, June 13, 2010
One down and 2 more to go! And after Tuesday it'll be down to the final one! And its so exciting to have the world cup going on now. Need to stop getting distracted with the matches though. Not sure who I'm gunning for to win this years world cup. Many are going for Spain. It feels quite cliche, but I guess they could win.
Ok, back to Argentina and Nigeria (:
Dan
12:59 am
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Statistics is a wonderful thing. So many academics place their research on stats because numbers cannot be wrong! If an artist would rather show you a painting and let it talk for itself, than to write you an article describing an painting, then many researchers would rather show you number and let the numbers do the talking.
I was watching a documentary on sharks last night, and the recurring message? Sharks bite because their are curious, they are inquisitive, they won't eat you because you're not on their menu. You are more likely to be killed my lightning, or attacked by a dog, before you are attacked by a shark.
I do not disagree with researchers that sharks are inquisitive, but I think they are missing the point! Then problem isn't being eaten by sharks (eaten in the sense that you're actually disgested), the problem is that the shark bites, and that hurts! If you know the odds of being struck by lightning are low, then why not take a walk in an open field during a thunderstorm? And the numbers may show that dogs are more likely to attack you, but how many people can control a dog by command? And for every story on a dog attack, how many stories are there of friendly dogs?!
Statistics is a quantitative measure, not a qualitative one. When people raise concerns about quality, how can you answer them with quantitative measures? Its like going to a showroom and while you're inspecting the car trying to determine its quality, the salesman is rambling off about selling 200,000 of a particular model, or some car model being number 1 in some tests.
Dan
10:06 am
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Exams in two days! It feels so good to be near the end of formal education. Stress has taken its toil and the first sign? Laundry smells even after wash! How is that possible I hear you say? Well, if you leave damp clothes lying in a pile I guess you ask for it. So I have to rewash everything again. You would think the laundry terror stops there. Half way while rewashing I realised I placed in the dryer something that shouldn't have gone into the dryer! So what happened!! It shrunk ):
And to prove that stress isn't just setting in now, but has been here all the time. I have a dishwasher which I use every one to two weeks because I get lazy to wash dishes from time to time. Now I don't normally use a dishwasher so I'm not very used to the mechanics of it all. I place the dishes in the rack, and take the dishwasher soap which is tightly wrapped. I think to myself for an entire semester, "Wow! They take so much pride in their work that they wrap this thing so nicely its so hard to unwrap without causing all the powder inside to fall out." And for a whole semester after I open each wash I wonder, "Why are my dishes all soapy and not completely washed." Then just yesterday I had to be prompted, "Why do they wrap the powder block so tightly?" So dumb me reads the instructions on the box (YES! For the first time in like 4 months) and realise that you're NOT supposed to unwrap the powder.
Stress does wonders.
Dan
9:45 am
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
It's sad when blogs come to an end. It's like closing a window in your life. I was reading a blog today and she gave a very elegant speech on why she was closing her blog. I wish I had the patience to reiterate her points here, but after reading it, I gained another perspective on the issue.
It made me think about the beginning of this blog. When I started, there was a goal in mind. To record down my University life. A big chapter in my life. Inevitably, this chapter will end come December, and I'll move onto a new chapter in my life. So in keeping with the purpose of this blog, I have set the end date for this blog as 31st of December 2010.
Not sure how many followers I have out there, but I will start a new blog for a new chapter. Working on it now actually. Trying to make it fit the circumstances that I anticipate I might encounter.
Dan
4:38 pm
Monday, June 07, 2010
My mac cable has a mind of its own. One week it chooses to work, and the next it doesn't. I guess it's all signs that the lappy is getting old. Time for a new model? Maybe I'm just looking for reasons to get a new lappy. Frankly, I'm quite surprised with the performance of my current macbook. It's not failed me once, and I've been able to run two OS concurrently. Quite like that idea.
Exams start this friday! How fast! I can still remember the introductory brunch at the beginning of the semester. So much has changed, I don't think I've had time to sit down and properly take it all in.
Dan
3:19 pm
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
A quarter way through into the exam week preparation and I wish I could say that I am more than on schedule, but the truth is that I'm lagging behind. It's nothing new because I've been having this feeling for a few weeks now. What's bothering me is that for the last few weeks I haven't been able to solve my problem, probably because I didn't know what the problem was. A feeling that just was not right.
Today as I was dragging my feet through my revision it hit me that what I lacked throughout the whole semester was confidence. I had no confidence in my assignments, I had no confidence in my tute work, and now I have no confidence in my exams either. I had to refer back to the solutions more than half the time, but now that I know the problem I've decided to drown myself with exercises. Practice makes perfect (: Hope it is not too late.
While I'm on the point of no confidence, I figured I might have no confidence for my research as well. Not quite sure what I can do to make that better though. But one thing at a time, right now I just need to make sure I don't do so badly that they kick me out of the course.
Dan
9:34 pm