Seeing as how nobody has posted anything on the blog, I am just going to do a quick update entry. What happened to emoinacloset? He is always the one blogging and the one who inspires me to write a post. I guess the roles are just going to be reversed this time.
My life this week in no particular order:
1) I did pretty badly on my first econ 100A midterm, so I was pretty determined to do well on the second one. My studying started a whole three days before the midterm. I pretty much followed the studying plan I had set up for myself, I was just a little behind. Come Friday, I was very prepared and just destroyed the midterm. I knew how to do everything except for one problem. Not going to lie, I consistently amaze myself with what I am able to achieve once I apply myself. It makes me wonder why I did not take just a little more time studying for the last midterm.
2) Wednesday, which was a holiday for us public school kids, I spent three hours doing jiu jitsu. That day was great, as I was rolling (sparring) with people around my level. I got submitted a couple of times but I always came back the next round and tapped them back. My love for this art just keeps growing the more I do it. Jiu jitsu gives me focus in life and reminds me at times of academic distress that I do not suck at everything. I see myself doing this for life.
3) My anthropology midterm came back this Thursday and what a pleasant surprise. I thought I bombed it but turns out I just got a B, which with the amount of studying I put in, is actually really good. I credit the blog for helping me out with this midterm because it has improved my writing. Back to anthro, I am 99.99 percent sure that I am going to get an A in this class. After the midterms were handed back, the professor announced that anyone who got a bad grade, which he defined as a C or lower, could go to his office hours to retake the midterm and on the final, which is take home, if you write more than the recommended 7-8 pages, the extra pages will be used to boost your midterm grade. So yeah, I love my anthro class and my A count for this quarter just went up.
4) The deadline for study abroad is coming up, and I have not really done much besides choosing a program. I am a bit nervous about this as I really really want to meet up with emoinacloset in Shanghai and the program I chose does not have a 100% acceptance rate. There are 14 spots and last year 18 people applied, meaning the odds are pretty good. I am still trying to get to know my professors in order to get a decent letter of rec. Actually it is not really a letter of rec, but more of a questionnaire that takes 15 minutes tops. I still need to write my statement of purpose, which I am trying to get perfect. Bottom line, after this other econ midterm on Monday, I am going to devote my life to the study abroad application.
5) I start my job on Wednesday and I am very curious as to what the fuck I am going to be doing.
6) Windows 7 is amazing, and I mean VERY AMAZING. I wiped my whole hard drive and even put in a second solid state hard drive, on which I put Windows 7. The boot up time and the speed of this OS is just crazy. Best part is that Windows 7 was free! At first, I tried to get it for free from the upgrade program that Asus was having, but when I tried to email Asus my proof of purchase, my email was rejected because their inbox was full. Then Kevin told me that UCSD was running an event where they were giving away Windows 7 professional keys. Needless to say Kevin and I jumped on that shit and totally abused the giveaway. We came out with 5 keys between us. If you can get Windows 7, do it immediately.
-muffinman
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Appointment with the professor
Today, I had an appointment with my econ 100A professor. This appointment was a necessity, especially since I had tried to go to his office hours twice. The first time I went, I was in full suit and everything because I had an interview right after his office hours, so I thought I would make a good impression, but, when I stepped into his office, my professor told me that he had a meeting to go to. The second time, I was about to go to his office and then I checked my email on my Iphone right before and discovered that he had changed his office hours 3 hours before they were to occur. I do not understand why he bothers to list office hours on his syllabus as he never follows them.
Anyway, when I arrive at his office he asks me "What do you need"? Flabbergasted I reply that I have an appointment and that he had entered this appointment into his Iphone in front of me. He replies that his Iphone should have beeped off or something but told me that he believed me, and with this the meeting begins.
Before coming to the appointment, I had reviewed my notes to try to ask some intelligent questions. My first question, was what was a giffen good? To which he replied did you look into the book? At this point, you have to understand that the book is terrible, so it was natural that I said "No." So the first question that I asked just made me look like a complete idiot. Undeterred, I continued to ask surface level questions and continued to sound like an idiot for the next 30 minutes.
However, at the end of the 30 minutes I understood the concepts very well, but at the cost of my self esteem. At one point of the meeting, the professor even accused me of not going to class, which is of course partly true, but of course I fervently denied his accusation and explained that I attend class, but, mindlessly copy the board because I get lost in lecture and that the same thing occurs in my other economics class. Not sure if he believed me, but I got him to admit that the textbook sucked, so he might understand why I do not use it.
In the end, it was a cool first interaction with my economics professor. he may have been skeptical with whether or not I attended class, but nonetheless he helped me out tremendously and for that I am thankful. Maybe now I will do well on the next midterm.
-muffinman
PS: Check out new blog in the Coffee Grounds Section or this link http://rawrihtm.blogspot.com/
Anyway, when I arrive at his office he asks me "What do you need"? Flabbergasted I reply that I have an appointment and that he had entered this appointment into his Iphone in front of me. He replies that his Iphone should have beeped off or something but told me that he believed me, and with this the meeting begins.
Before coming to the appointment, I had reviewed my notes to try to ask some intelligent questions. My first question, was what was a giffen good? To which he replied did you look into the book? At this point, you have to understand that the book is terrible, so it was natural that I said "No." So the first question that I asked just made me look like a complete idiot. Undeterred, I continued to ask surface level questions and continued to sound like an idiot for the next 30 minutes.
However, at the end of the 30 minutes I understood the concepts very well, but at the cost of my self esteem. At one point of the meeting, the professor even accused me of not going to class, which is of course partly true, but of course I fervently denied his accusation and explained that I attend class, but, mindlessly copy the board because I get lost in lecture and that the same thing occurs in my other economics class. Not sure if he believed me, but I got him to admit that the textbook sucked, so he might understand why I do not use it.
In the end, it was a cool first interaction with my economics professor. he may have been skeptical with whether or not I attended class, but nonetheless he helped me out tremendously and for that I am thankful. Maybe now I will do well on the next midterm.
-muffinman
PS: Check out new blog in the Coffee Grounds Section or this link http://rawrihtm.blogspot.com/
Friday, November 6, 2009
There Goes the $$$
We got dropped from Fed Challenge. Whereas last year we got second place nationwide and lost only to Harvard, this year we lost in the preliminaries this Thursday to the fucking College of New Jersey. Now, I want to ask – who the fuck is the College of New Jersey? I’ve never even heard of these guys and they apparently beat us to go to the semi-finals. I suppose we had some pretty radical ideas: we were trying to be socialist, gain more power, and try to start our own TALF-esque program for small businesses because we thought what the government was doing wasn’t cutting it. It was either go big or go home, and unfortunately, we ended up going home flat on our faces.
Although it was disappointing we didn’t even get past the prelims, this isn’t all bad news. No more late nights in the Stern basement, no more poring over economic reports and speeches by Bernanke, and no more having to cut time out of my studying to do Fed Challenge (note: I didn't cut time out of partying -- BAM!). Now I can actually focus on school since I probably spent an average of 20 hours/week working on that stuff, and that doesn’t include the extra individual reading we did to keep up with current data.
I think I might have overextended myself this time around because I got my ass kicked by the previous rounds of midterms. I didn’t do so badly that I wanted to sniff coke and forget all my problems, but also not as well as I had hoped. I was especially frustrated because there were a lot of easy problems that I should have gotten right. I mean, who fucks up on comparative advantage in macroeconomics? Apparently, I did, and I paid for it badly.
Perhaps I’m not as smart as I thought I was – or maybe in high school I didn’t care as much. Can I keep up with my studies when I was doing so much extra work? But then the question I need to ask myself is, why can’t I do this shit? There are plenty of people out there who are able to not only keep up with their studies but also have a job, hold positions in leadership, and do their own crazy stuff on the side.
Time to study for round two of midterms. I just got my last midterm back this week but I already have a midterm on Monday. These exams just never seem to stop coming.
-Emoinacloset
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UPDATE: Apparently, our advisor agrees with the general sentiment among our members -- "Who the fuck is the College of New Jersey?" Unfortunately, Tik won't let me post the e-mail, which was probably a good idea on his part. I'll just have to make do by telling you guys about it.
Although it was disappointing we didn’t even get past the prelims, this isn’t all bad news. No more late nights in the Stern basement, no more poring over economic reports and speeches by Bernanke, and no more having to cut time out of my studying to do Fed Challenge (note: I didn't cut time out of partying -- BAM!). Now I can actually focus on school since I probably spent an average of 20 hours/week working on that stuff, and that doesn’t include the extra individual reading we did to keep up with current data.
I think I might have overextended myself this time around because I got my ass kicked by the previous rounds of midterms. I didn’t do so badly that I wanted to sniff coke and forget all my problems, but also not as well as I had hoped. I was especially frustrated because there were a lot of easy problems that I should have gotten right. I mean, who fucks up on comparative advantage in macroeconomics? Apparently, I did, and I paid for it badly.
Perhaps I’m not as smart as I thought I was – or maybe in high school I didn’t care as much. Can I keep up with my studies when I was doing so much extra work? But then the question I need to ask myself is, why can’t I do this shit? There are plenty of people out there who are able to not only keep up with their studies but also have a job, hold positions in leadership, and do their own crazy stuff on the side.
Time to study for round two of midterms. I just got my last midterm back this week but I already have a midterm on Monday. These exams just never seem to stop coming.
-Emoinacloset
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: Apparently, our advisor agrees with the general sentiment among our members -- "Who the fuck is the College of New Jersey?" Unfortunately, Tik won't let me post the e-mail, which was probably a good idea on his part. I'll just have to make do by telling you guys about it.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Update
Hey all!
I was sitting at home, bored with nothing to do, so I thought I'd update ya'll on what's been going on with me.
The video blog idea didn't pan out. I downloaded some new software, but as it turns out, it is super awkward to yell into my webcam while I'm alone in my room.
Anyway, after all of my friends left for college, I was stuck at home alone with nothing else to do except go to school. It was then that I decided I simply had to get a job.
I started going to grocery stores, video stores, restaurants, fast food chains, pharmacies, and etc, asking for applications. The good news is that I got applications from every establishment I went to! The bad news is that no one is fucking hiring!
I did my best and sent out resumes and job applications to every corporation and mom&pop store I could think of, but while I waited for job offers, I decided to hunt for internships as well.
Luckily enough, all internships are geared towards either high school students or college uppperclassmen. A freshman undergraduate student, I was stuck right in between. I was starting to feeling really good about this "job thing."
Feeling defeated, I reluctantly went on Volunteermatch.org
I was searching for a part-time volunteer position, hoping that not only would it be part-time, but also temporary for a company would offer me a job! Or so I hoped.
I replied to several postings, getting responses back from almost all of them within a matter of minutes. Were these guys desperate for volunteers or what? I replied back, setting up possible interview/orientation times, and I was all set.
What I didn't realize was that The Rebuilding Alliance, one of the organizations I contacted for the "Data-Entry Assistant Volunteer" position, is helmed by an MIT alumna, who graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. After the orientation, I told her that I would be interested in working on other projects after I finished what I originally signed up to do.
After I was done entering data, I got assigned to the legal research team as an intern! (what the random?! A science guy like me, a legal research intern?)
-----------------------
Some background info on The Rebuilding Alliance...
The Rebuilding Alliance (TRA) helps rebuild war torn communities in Israel. More specifically, TRA works to rebuild Palestinian homes that were demolished by the IDF and also takes on human rights cases, one of which I have been assigned to work on under an attorney.
---------------------------
My job is to pretty much work with an attorney, the head of our research team, and figure out pertinent information we can use to possibly win the case. In recent news, President Carter, himself, has expressed interest in becoming personally involved with the case!! Ka-ching!
This is just one aspect of my life at the moment. I'll try to update you guys on more things later on.
Cheers,
Robocop
p.s. Hope all is well on your end.
I was sitting at home, bored with nothing to do, so I thought I'd update ya'll on what's been going on with me.
The video blog idea didn't pan out. I downloaded some new software, but as it turns out, it is super awkward to yell into my webcam while I'm alone in my room.
Anyway, after all of my friends left for college, I was stuck at home alone with nothing else to do except go to school. It was then that I decided I simply had to get a job.
I started going to grocery stores, video stores, restaurants, fast food chains, pharmacies, and etc, asking for applications. The good news is that I got applications from every establishment I went to! The bad news is that no one is fucking hiring!
I did my best and sent out resumes and job applications to every corporation and mom&pop store I could think of, but while I waited for job offers, I decided to hunt for internships as well.
Luckily enough, all internships are geared towards either high school students or college uppperclassmen. A freshman undergraduate student, I was stuck right in between. I was starting to feeling really good about this "job thing."
Feeling defeated, I reluctantly went on Volunteermatch.org
I was searching for a part-time volunteer position, hoping that not only would it be part-time, but also temporary for a company would offer me a job! Or so I hoped.
I replied to several postings, getting responses back from almost all of them within a matter of minutes. Were these guys desperate for volunteers or what? I replied back, setting up possible interview/orientation times, and I was all set.
What I didn't realize was that The Rebuilding Alliance, one of the organizations I contacted for the "Data-Entry Assistant Volunteer" position, is helmed by an MIT alumna, who graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. After the orientation, I told her that I would be interested in working on other projects after I finished what I originally signed up to do.
After I was done entering data, I got assigned to the legal research team as an intern! (what the random?! A science guy like me, a legal research intern?)
-----------------------
Some background info on The Rebuilding Alliance...
The Rebuilding Alliance (TRA) helps rebuild war torn communities in Israel. More specifically, TRA works to rebuild Palestinian homes that were demolished by the IDF and also takes on human rights cases, one of which I have been assigned to work on under an attorney.
---------------------------
My job is to pretty much work with an attorney, the head of our research team, and figure out pertinent information we can use to possibly win the case. In recent news, President Carter, himself, has expressed interest in becoming personally involved with the case!! Ka-ching!
This is just one aspect of my life at the moment. I'll try to update you guys on more things later on.
Cheers,
Robocop
p.s. Hope all is well on your end.
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