Thursday, August 26, 2010
I like productive days. It gives me the peace of mind when I go to bed at night that the most has been done. I think the finding comes as no surprise, and should be plain common sense (and it is!). But what is interesting to me is what I define doing as being productive. Apparently the bar isn't set very high, and I think that that is the truth in most cases! I always think that a productive day is when the most work is done, and I know that I don't have to rush tomorrow, but I now realise that its so much more than just that. I wish I knew the perfect combination to a productive day, but I guess there are just endless possible combinations.
I read an article today that was quite shocking, "AMERICAN evangelical pastor Terry Jones, 58, says he plans to memorialise the Sept 11 attacks with a bonfire of Qurans. The former hotel manager insists that he has a right to burn Islam's sacred book as 'it's full of lies'. Last year the pastor of 50 members posted a sign at his church declaring 'Islam is the devil'."
It's sad to see Christians take revenge into their own hands like that.
"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do 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. On 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." Romans 12:18-20.
Dan
10:27 pm
Monday, August 23, 2010
I watched the Australia election on Saturday night, and after more than 3 long hours the conclusion was that there could be no conclusion!!!
I honestly didn't intend to watch the election. I actually wanted to watch LOTR!! The final movie of the trilogy was supposed to air on GO!, but due to the dumb election (dumb cause it was a waste of time), I had no LOTR to watch!! Despite being disappointed by GO!, the election did eventually prove to be quite captivating. There is some fun in watching politicians fight over air, and the fact that it's live and unscripted and uneditted has some weird appeal. I wonder if Singapore politics will ever be like this.
Dan
1:18 pm
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Been reading up on the straits times lately. Not sure why... But I miss it. I remember I used to read it frequently in my first year. Anyway, I was reading an article about unusual marriage proposals (is it still an article if it only consists of 5 sentences?)
It was about how Singaporean men were getting "innovative" in their marriage proposals, but I particularly liked this line, "they're proving that unusual and different is a sure win way to a girls heart."
You would think that if you've reach the stage at which you're going to propose you would have already won the girl's heart! (Am I right?) Why would a guy propose if he thinks that there is a chance she will say no?
Dan
6:44 pm
Thursday, August 19, 2010
I liked the idea of work life because I thought that there wasn't such a thing as "homework". Since you work 9-5 everyday, without any holidays, why would they give you homework when you don't stop working? I guess I was naive to think that "don't stop working" means working 9-5 Monday to Friday all year. I've not started working yet, but I've been doing my research and it is as good as a 9-5 job! Working on revisions to the regression and generating results, I wonder how I will survive a lifetime with this kind of schedule when 8 months or research is already so taxing!
But I'm thankful that I have patience in work. The desire to want to see the numbers "work". A talent that not many have (if it is even a talent). Anyway, I'm off to do more revisions! I want to start writing my thesis NOW!
Dan
10:46 am
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The weather has been crazy lately. It was warm and sunny early this week and I thought "Great! Spring is here!", then the rain comes and it doesn't seem to stop. It's there when I walk to school, it's there when I'm walking home, it's there when I'm going to play soccer at night, and it's there when I'm on the way home. Then I wake up the next morning and it's still there!! The weatherman also agrees with me about the freak weather!! Apparently there's some cloud thing going on and winds from some direction, and a tornado somewhere west... or maybe it's east... I should really pay more attention to the weatherman when he's speaking.
On another note, research is going well I think. That's a big I think. It's so hard to gauge just how I'm progressing as compared to others when everyone is doing something different. Some have got their intro and lit review done, but have gotten stuck at their regression, others are still trying to perfect their theoretic models. I'm still getting my regression fixed, but I think after I've done that everything else should flow quite smoothly. I'm just hoping that I'm doing the right thing now. But I guess if my advisor doesn't say otherwise I have to be doing something right.
Dan
9:11 pm