Ivory Tower of Babel

Coming Up Soon: 2011大事瑣事回顧。Stay tuned!
(天音:Who cares?)

  • 4 years in college..in terms of happiness~
    As volatile as the stock market within the same period haha
  • 超級感激上一世的我,(1)讓我可以在有生之年看到phoenix 和bump of chicken的演唱會,(2) 我部ipad個display跌壞左,再跌多次竟然back to normal !!(誤)
  • Always hear complaints from friends from other universities..”my professor..who graduated from MIT… is @#$@#$@”. haahaaha sadly I am trained this way too….obeying models/theory/assumptions/principles strictly even for things that are meant to be intuitive and dynamic. Following models with blind faith is dangerous or even useless at times.
    “Well, you can always run a regression or try Lagrangian to see if its true when you have time!”
  • Senior Fall:Final report x 1, Final Exams x 2 left !!!!
  • 2012..these 3 are the must-take classes…probably need to do some “class-shopping” next year:
  • Submitted minor proposal..continue to exploit the system wahaha..

Freedom from Desire

My professor (who has 2 PhDs from NYU and Stanford in Physics and Finance)
just gave us a 5-minute 1-slide lecture on happiness
It is by far one of the most inspiring lectures I have ever had

—–

What is happiness?
You may say, only if I hv enough money,then I can travel around the world, then I am happy.
Only if I get this job offer…only If I get into this PhD program…only if I become tenure..then I am happy.

But then, such desires are never ending,
And we will never be fully satisfied as new level of desires will just continue to emerge

These have guided our actions.
Desires have become our master, we become the slaves.
And this seems to go on forever until we die.

If now God could grant me with 3 wishes…
There is only 1 ultimate wish – to be truly content with everything I have now.
Free me from these 俗世 gains and losses then this is true happiness.
處之泰然

(this slide came right after the slides on index options..treasury bond and IRS..that’s why it’s extra-striking hahaha)

晚安了 想感謝每一盞亮著的燈

  • Upcoming flights (subject to change)
    Dec 20: Fly to Hong Kong
    (home~family~good food~~can’t wait…)
    Jan 6: Fly to Fukuoka, Japan
    (time to realize the appreciated value in my JPY savings account + lots of authentic ラーメン in the winter + Bump of Chicken concert!!)
    Feb 2: Fly to Boston
    (for the very last time >o<)
    Jun 2: Dad mum bro fly to Boston for graduation ceremony
    (and Oasis of the Sea ..largest cruise ship on earth!)
    Mid-July: Training in New York
  • Found something I blogged back in July 2008, feel so good to be inspired by the 18 year old f10ni. haha
    “when uncertainty/ fear reigns..
    remember,
    1. Fear impedes action
    2. inaction = lack of experience
    3. lack of experience breeds ignorance
    4. ignorance guarantees fear
    i.e. a vicious cycle. “
  • Quote of the day from my PhD classmate in managerial psychology
    after our 50 MC questions final exam..
    “我已經33歲,有兩個孩子,為甚麼還要做multiple choices的考試喔!“
    .
  • 本來想同個朋友講“我走啦”,但literally講左“我要跑步啦(I gotta run)” ….orz

The Aegean Sea

我在這藍色天地下,躺在沙灘椅上,看書,回憶,喝雪碧。
海風輕拂,把書頁的角落一頁頁吹起。
我閉上眼,
與那溫柔含蓄的海浪聲為伴,
融化於

愛琴海的氣息裡。

(鏡頭一轉)

hmm..the guard just asked for my MIT ID in the study room..
Am I so hea that I look like a homeless person?@_@…………

  • team meeting
  • aptitude test
  • Final exam  1 + study
  • Grade pset
  • Enter grades + timesheet
  • Meet with minor advisor
  • Final report 1 due
  • Do data analysis for presentation
  • Rehearsal and practice for final presentation
  • Final presentation
  • final assessment due
  • aptitude test 2
  • minor advisor mtg fri 2pm
  • transportation pset due
  • Grade pset
  • Enter grades + timesheet
  • Final report 2 due
  • Final Exam 2 + study
  • Final Exam 3 + study

-end-