impromptuz

a very overwhelming start of the school year!
for the past 2 semesters, I have been taking classes that r pretty ‘passive’ …
like microecon, accounting, data analysis. the learning mode is like this:
“you go to class, listen, read the powerpoint, do your pset, exam, the end. ”
participation or attendance is really optional.

but this semester….far more intense.need a lot of brainstorming.
gotta get used to this quickly

1. Pr0ject Evaluation
the syllabus of the class is “basic concept I,II, III and advanced topic I, II, III”
it is a class about sustainable infrastructure planning –term project, pset and exams.
my advisor is my professor, so I really have to do my work and preparation before going to class.  I think it’s interesting coz my number-crunching classes usually just hv to deal with investments and financial returns—ignoring tragedy of the commons. but here the motivation for public projects is social benefits and sustainability (the 3Es–economic, environment and equity).

random fact I have learnt today –Unlike Hong Kong MTR (our railway),  which the fare is a function of distance,MBTA, our (?) transportation system in MA, charges a fixed cost ($1.70 USD). It in fact only covers around 35% of the operating cost. and while for MTR, as a public traded company, is one of the few public transportation system that could break-even totally, i.e. the fare could cover both the capital cost (the actual intial cost) and the operating cost. -the end-

term project..i have high-speed rail in China and west kowloon cultural distict in mind, suggestions?

2. Japanese 6
I took  Japanese 5 in 2008. now it’s 2011 already !! I have lost all my memories on the grammar and vocabs. keep shaming myself when sensei cold called on me to speak….reaaaallly have to work hard!! sigh….but it is always great to learn something that I like. hopefully I will continue Japanese 7 next semester in Harvard!! language class is always super demanding, but it is reasonable. have to memorize CC la….hahaha..懐かしいな。we have to do a term presentation on japanese culture, someone did 忍者、萌え！、女子高校生のスカートの長さ。i want to do 駄洒落, but nothing much to talk about besides listing some examples.

3. Optimizations
so many people are taking this class!! so I am not too worried about the psets hahaha. its about linear programming…seems okay to me. but it requires attendance becoz they distribute CLICKERS…hmmm anyway, the professor is okay funny. I am impressed by how others could brainstorm so quickly, while I still couldn’t generate one thread of idea. have to warm up my engine la!!

4. Corporate Finance
wah….so I am in this MBA session, 100% case-based class, 25% class participation, 4-page of case write-up per week. as I have mentioned in my last blog entry, my professor is awesome. So wish me luck la…..I never speak up in classes.

5. Options
no comment…it is one of the usual “you go to class, listen, read the powerpoint, do your pset, exam, the end. ” class. but still there is one case write-up assignment.

6. grading
to meet my breakeven target …im grading microecon again this sem !