Thursday, July 29, 2010
Research is such a tedious process, why would anyone put themselves through such torture!!! I'm at the stage just before I generate my results, and the pain I've been through just to reach this stage is indescribable. No words can explain the feeling you get having to truncate over 7 million observations to get 488838 observations, and that's just the beginning! How do you describe the pain of analysing 488838 observations to write up over 200 commands to create 9 variables for the first simple regression?
I'm actually asking!! When someone asks, "How's your research?" I know they are looking for a simple one liner, but how do you summarise the above? So far, I've only been able to come up with "painful".
Dan
6:48 pm
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
There's nothing better than "you've got an assignment due in 2 weeks" to mark the first day of school. On the bright side, I've been overcoming the hurdles in my research quite well, the only BIG hurdle is time. I don't have enough!!! I wish I could turn back time, and realize what I needed to do earlier.
On a completely different note, I won 2 passes to the Taste of Melbourne!!! Not sure what made me call into a radio show to answer a riddle, but I did and I won!! Best part was that I didn't even know what the prize was before I called, but I figured that it wasn't that important since I may not be correct, and even if I am, what are the odds that I'll beat all the other callers??
Dan
12:36 am
Monday, July 26, 2010
Today is the first day of the last semester!! It's so exciting, because it'll be the last time I get the first day of school feeling. Last in a long time, that is until I do masters. The winter holiday has been alright, not what I had planned at the beginning, or expected, but it has had it fun moments.
I've become quite good at pulling all-nighters, which is not a good thing, but necessary for my research. Well, necessary in the sense that I get the most work done then, maybe because all possible distractions are asleep. But it can't all be perfect can it? I've discovered, while pulling all-nighters, that that is a great time to make sales on Etsy, and during the holidays we've made 4 sales! Just to give you some frame of reference, previously we'd make 1 sale every 3 to 4 months.
I've got a new camera as well! It's not a great camera, but it will do the job for now. I've been carrying it around with me, so that I can capture moments, and maybe post them here. I've been thinking about ideas for my next blog, since this one will end when I graduate. While I had a thing for adding colour to the words, I might let the pictures do more talking in my next blog.
Alright, off to school now!
Dan
10:13 am
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Paul the octopus. I'm sure that many have heard of him by now, and if you have not you really should go read up on your world cup news. I find it quite hilarious that a country would rest its world cup predictions into the many hands of an octopus. If I were the country's leader I would be rather embarrassed by this hitting the news.
The octopus has been right in all his predictions thus far, and its reported that the home fans are quite displeased that he rooted for the opposition in their recent quarter-final playoff. Statistics are in favour of the octopus, but giving it some common sense meaning, do we really expect to draw any correlation between the outcome of the game and the prediction of the octopus? I'm think causation is more likely.
Imagine this:
Head coach walks into dressing room to give his final motivations before the game.
Players wait earnestly to hear the news they've been waiting for.
Head coach: Paul has picked us to win!
Dan
10:03 am
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?
Dan
9:45 pm
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
It was recently pointed out to me that what I had deemed as important for the past 3 years of university isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. First class honours: it's what everyone aims to achieve isn't it? Well almost every Singaporean student aims to achieve. Grades are so important, but 5 or even 10 years down the road who will remember that I got that 1st class honours? Who would even remember that I got honours? I guess its just like how no one bothers that I failed chinese throughout secondary 2, or I failed Chemistry in secondary 4, or that I got A1's for math.
Such thinking isn't ideal for a student, but I guess when it comes to relieving stress and thinking clear, it does help. To know that at the end of the day there are more important things in life than work and grades. I wonder how many Singaporean parents teach their kids that school isn't everything to life.
Dan
12:03 pm