The End is near... actually, the end is HERE!!!

The end was sooooooooo near... i can actually taste it.

So, on Tuesday, I worked another shift, the breakfast shift, my very last shift of my school term. Can't believe that I've worked at Markley for more than a school year now... (I started working last summer, where I practically worked 30+ hours a week, and during the normal school term, I worked an average of 15+ hours a week, that's some intense working hours there, but I like it and the money is good...

So, on Tuesday, I finally got myself together a little better, and started doing more math, and that's about it. I did a lot of packing too...

Wed, woke up pretty early to do more math, and the exam wasn't too bad, just that I did a silly mistake, and I was to blame entirely for another question which I just threw it away... bummer...

got back to my room, a bit disappointed, quite anxious about the exam tomorrow, which I barely studied for, and then extremely excited about going home on Sat... So, I virtually finished packing...90% at least, and then studied really hard for the exam, trying to understand what I previously don't and also tried solving the past year exams...

Thurs, woke up quite early too to study for the exam, but couldn't really concentrate because I've not been getting much sleep lately, and also, because of the fact that I was really tired of the semester, and I'm too looking forward to go home... I just want to get over with it and GO HOME!!! Unfortunately, the exam was pretty tough, and I was pretty badly raped. But hell, went back to my room and started moving my stuffs into the summer storage. It was pretty efficient and many of us helped out, and we got done at about 7pm.

Later that night, I went to the Markley party at Jeff's place, where many of us brought some hard stuffs there... I had quite a bit too much of hard liquor, and not so much beer, and wasn't too wasted, and I was at the party until 4.30am, where the other guys left in the party were heading to Denny's (R) for some food... while I just decided to walk home and started my long journey... i reached my room all sober at a little past 5am... it was freezing cold, literally... i was only left with one fleece blanket, so I went to bed in hoodies and that blanket...

Friday, woke up at 8am this morning, went to Markley for breakfast, and to say bye to the employees and also my supervisor. Later, I did a lot of things... almost everything on my to-do list was done... amazing!!! At about 10.23am, I took a bus to the Briarwood Mall to
1) get a plug for my US plug to convert it to Europe/Malaysia plug from Radioshack
2) suspend my cellphone service for a 3-month period (which I discovered that I can actually do it by just giving them a call)
3)M-Den to get some gifts/souvenirs to my bros and their gf

then, i went to CVS to get some multivitamin to bring it back home because it's much cheaper here. Next, I went the International Center to collect my enrollment letter. Then, I walked to Steve and Barry's and bought a couple more t-shirt, and then, went to another spirit shop and bought a cap and only I went back to my room... I helped my hallmates to move some stuffs, and at about 2pm, I headed out again to try to get some brochures, they don't deal with Emails... so, I talked to this guy, and also a girl, and they gave me a contact, such taht I can deal directly with the person in charge... next, I went back to my room, and later, went out with Quang and ChiaChye to get some food. Later that night, Chye and I went toThank you for smoking. It was an amazing movie... easily a 4-star or more movie... got back to my room at about 11pm... daddy called... chatted for a while. Quang, Chye and I went to Quang's new apartment to clear out some old shit... after some chatting and all, Chye and I went to grab some late night snack, where I had a slice of Chicago Meat pizza,(thick pizza)... and thn, I went back to my room and bathed, and did laundry... until about 4am... :) and I still need to fold them... that's insane!!!

will be waking early tomorrow to help out my fren move out their huge ass tv... and then, if there's time, going to Angelo's for some great American breakfast... and then, will be heading to the airport at about 10.45am...

my flights will take me from
1) Detroit Wayne County to Chicago O'Hare
2) Chicago O'Hare to Los Angeles
3) Los Angeles to Hong Kong
4) Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur International Airport

will be reaching Malaysia 1st of May early afternoon... see you guys soon...

oh yar.. about the title... basically, it's just saying that I can't believe that my sophomore year was completed so soon... in such hurry... and I was actually kinda worried about how fast college was actually going by... i mean, like in a snap of my fingers, i'm actually half done with college... that's just scary!!! really scary...

probably that's the more of the reason why I should be living harder... (study harder, work harder, party harder...) Life's just too short for not doing so...

Another week gone... another week to go...

Another week gone... another week to go... before I head home after more than 20 months away from home... and... again, it was 23rd yesterday... marking an exact 20 months that i'm away from home... pretty amazing... yes indeed... i'm not sure how i did that but i did it... it's crazy...

thinking how it will be like when meeting my parents and brothers after 20 months is just crazy... i'm so excited, but yet kinda anxious... i missed them soooo much... but to see them, first I have to endure the 30+ hours flight + layover... making the meeting them more the better...

so, last week was pretty much full of excitement... it started with the final for my Financial Economic (ECON 435) on Monday... the exam was pretty tricky... and i got the shock of my life right after the exam... as i met up with my friends talking about the exam...(sorry heah, i know this is not your thing), and we started comparing answers(from the top of our head) as paper were handed in... the conversation between us:
A: "So, what did you get for ur last question ar?"
B: "I got 40 something.... point 09090909... something like that...."
C & D:"YES... i got that too...."
Me: " Holy shit... you kidding me, i got 31.179... no way... i counted twice... eff... 12 points gone..."

A:"How about 2nd last question... you get 3/5 rite...?"
B:"0.6... yar..."
C, D :"yes too..."
Me:" NO WAY... i got 2/3... i'm pretty sure I got that one rite... damn... was I hallucinating and making up my own questions??" Another 8 points gone...

A:" OK... what about the 1st True/False question... the one about put option... False right???"
ME:" OK... something must be really wrong... i read it 3 times and checked it again... and it's definitely about call option...fuck it... there must be more than 1 version of the exam... no way I'm reading that many questions wrong..."
So, i ran to another friend of mine(another group) and ask her whether she knew there were several version of the exam... and she said... yar... got 2 versions... I went like... what the heck... scared the hell out of me... NOT FUNNY... my heart was beating all weird and all... i thought i was going to have a heart attack... and what not...(I found out later that there were actually 3 versions) what's the odd of 4 of my friends got the same version... while i got the different version...

after the exam, i went to the Student Actuaries @ Michigan (SAM) meeting where we had our election... funny.. the attendance was really bad... where only 17 members attended... among the 17 members, many of them are graduating soon... hence, not eligible to be board members... so, the election went on... and more like assignment instead of election... where professors/current board members just assign ppl to the board... as long as you accept it, the position is yours... i got the job as the Career Center chair... where my responsibility is to coordinate with the Career Center, and possibly companies to organize the on-campus presentation and interview...

after that, i attended a MAS meeting... and listen to a talk from a rep from CRUSAP... www.crusap.net ... got back to my room at about 8.45pm... went to the library at 9pm... to finalize on what we are putting on my UROP Symposium poster...

pretty tired... but i studied a little while more for the exam on Thurs...

Tuesday, worked, attended lectures... and met up to do the poster board... spent about 2 hours on it... and finally, completed the board, pretty professional looking board... :) using paper cutter and all... studied more for the exam...

Wed... lunch at the UClub with IAPA board... with many advisors... (Marty, Susan, Chris, Ching-Yune, Begonia, Andrew, Leslie) and the new IAPA06 (Victoria, Alice, Michelle, Omonya(not sure about the spelling), in case you haven't notice, i'm the only guy IAPA...

after the lunch, I went the UROP symposium... where I stood in front of my poster for an hour... answered a couple of questions, attended the Oral presentation, then walked around searching for interesting posters for about an hour... got back to my room at about 5.15pm... did the required assignment for UROP... and studied more at night... dozed off at 8.15pm... woke up 3 hours later... i'm screwed.. started studying til about 4 in the morning.. couldn't fall asleep until about 5am... wonderful...

woke up the next morning(Thurs) about 8.45am... sweet... did more studying... then, took the exam at 4pm... well, it's a pretty challenging one... so, the grade will be pretty surprising.. (one of those either very good or very bad paper, can swing anyway)

after the exam... went to dinner (Sang Woo's and Lynn's and Salim's grad dinner) at Noodles & Co... not too bad..had a mushroom stragonoff with beef... met other old time IAPAs... they are all graduating...i'm the only one left...

after dinner, we went to get dessert... at Za's... I had Coconut Cream Chocolate Chip cheesecake... it taste like Girl Scouts' cookie... don't think they will be happy if they find out about it... anyway... we waited til about 10 past nine... for Tina to call... but, well, we were all exhausted after the long day... and decided to leave her a msg and we called it a night... all the best to Sang Woo and Lynn and Salim!!! and great to see Viktorina too... she's working now... and just bought a car... how nice...

i went back to my room... pretty tired but not sleepy... i think i'm getting the insomnia thing... coz, well, i slept for about 3.5 hours... yesterday... (nap not included... ) but even if included, i had 6 hours... but, well... i just didn't feel like sleeping...so, ended up started cleaning up my room... and threw a bunch of stuffs... and started planning on what to pack and all...

oh yar... another thing... my stupid agent got my name on my boarding passes wrong...!!! i emailed him and he said only 1 letter off, nevermind... what the heck... he said he will contact Cathay and notified them about it... too late for me to change it now.. i'll see how things go... hopefully, it won't give me too much trouble...

so... slept at about 2am...

Friday... nothing much... tried studying... but lol... ended up doing nothing...oh yar... i went running... to the Arb.. and did the weight machines at CCRB... felt really good after sweating because I haven't been running the weekly run for quite some time now... :)
went to the SAM meeting at about 6pm... had dinner at Good Time Charley's with the old board members and the new board members and Prof. Huntington and Prof. Moore... later, went to Bubble Island for Bubble Tea and popcorn chicken and also Jenga... after that, went hunting for beer and went to my friends' Jen and Lindsey apartment to party... fun... was sober and all, partied til 3.30am... and went back...

Saturday... didn't do nothing either... again, tried studying, again... failed... watched quite a number of episodes of Initial D... slept in the afternoon... went dinner with a whole bunch of ATU10 ppl...for Chye's birthday... wanted to catch a movie that night... but too bad, it was raining too heavily... went to my the Medieval party at Mike's place when the rain kinda stopped at about 11.45pm... dressed up as a Mage... (haha.. thanks to someone's graduation robe... wanted to wear a bathrobe, but too bad, i don't have one)... got totally wasted that night... pretty funny stuffs happened... but too funny to be disclosed here... i just found out that I can never play dice (Seven-Eleven Double) because I got effed up everytime i play the game... so, i will never ever play this drinking game again... beer pong yes... dice no...!!!

was really sick the next(Sunday) day... threw up a couple of times... skipped lunch... and only had light stuff for dinner... able to do some math that night... and then, family guy, popped a couple of Tylenol(R), and then, tried sleeping... but couldn't(well, i slept for far too long in the day)... so, woke up and did a bit more math... was kinda slow at it... but was doing it right... so, wait til i was really tired at about 1am... and called it a night...

and woke up this morning at 7.30am... went to Markley for breakfast... did laundry... and all... will be working 2 shifts later...

oh.. by the way... it's all warm and nice out... and the flowers are blossoming... and blooming

another 7 days

well well... since i'd used the title 'another week' for so many times now.. hence the title...

anyway... i'm really excited as my counter counting down to the day which I'll be leaving on a jet plane, going home... looking forward to reaching home... not really looking forward for the ride home... (well, it's a 20+ hours plane ride... plus some layover... a total of 36 hours more of travelling...)

so... i'm excited... in this can't-wait-for-this-semester-to-end feeling all the time... in other words, longing for home... (nope... this is not home-sick... it's different because home sickness is kinda negative... while this is definitely positive... how so? well... it just is... trust me...)

where should i start?? oh yar... the previous post was about my crazy shopping last Sat... so, on Saturday night ... i just went to a Bar with Quang and had a huge beer... some really good wings and ribs... and that's it... Sunday... did some work... quite a lot actually... and then, played tennis...

Monday... as usual... was my most productive morning... classes, meeting... nothing..

Tuesday... work, classes, got back my exam... pretty good... nothing much either...

Wednesday... work, classes...met prof for UROP thingy... oh yar, i signed the contract for my summer internship today too... so, it's formal that i'll be spending my summer hol not holidaying... :) instead... i'll be studying for my Actuarial course FM for the first month... (exam on the 25th of May) and then working at Accenture KL Malaysia, from 29th May til 14th Aug... and then, flying back to the States on the 20th Aug...

Thursday... work, classes, that's all...

Friday... work, classes... and thank goodness is Friday...

so, i'm planning to study a lot this weekend.. and only gonna drink tonight... and my no drinking on weeknights plan/promise/policy/watever has been working so far...

ok... so, i think it would be great for me to list down all the important dates from now til I go home for summer...

April 17th (Mon) - Econ 435 Exam
April 19th (Wed) - UROP Symposium
April 19th (Wed) - IAPA lunch
April 20th (Thu) - Econ 402 Exam
April 20th (Thu) - Sang Woo and Lynn's graduation Dinner
April 24th (Mon) - Work and start packing up
April 25th (Tue) - Work and continue packing and cleaning up my room and studying for finals of course!
April 26th (Wed) - Math 424 Exam
April 27th (Thu) - Econ 406 Exam
April 27th (Thu) - Markley Party
April 27th (Thu) - More packing and moving stuffs into storage
April 28th (Fri) - Moving stuffs into storage
April 28th (Fri) - Dave's 21st Birthday - will try not to get drunk
April 29th (Sat) - Leaving for HOME!!! Malaysia!!!
(will only be reaching home on the 1st of May... considering the 12 timezones difference)

so... it's a pretty hectic period for me... but.. it's all good...

Spent and overspend!!!!

hey... i really have to give credits to ppl (mostly females) that can shop (or at least window shop) for hours... and hours and hours long...

first to window shop... u must have the strong will against 2 forces...
1) the force of temptation... after seeing something that you like, how's that possible for you not to buy it? I can't... and that's why it led to the 2nd part of the title...

2)the force of getting tired... well well, walking is tiring... and walking with bags of 'harvest' is even more tiring... well, probably not in the 'under-one-roof' mall, but definitely a strip mall... (a strip mall is basically a large spacial mall, which spans and expand horizontally instead of vertically... so, it's basically a few acres of shops... and shops... and more shops...

so, seeing that i'm heading home at the end of this month, after 20 months away from home... yup... twenty... my fren and I, being typically traditionally brought up Asians, decided to go and get gifts for our family members... so, we planned a couple of week ago, and rented car for the trip to a huge outlet mall not too far in American standard (1hr 15 mins driving away - effing far in Malaysian standard)... so, early in the morning, i woke up at about 9.30am... as i was expecting a wake up call from my fren, i just laid in my bed, under my warm comforter, staring at my cellphone, waiting for the call... it came 5 minutes later... and they told me they were heading to my place to pick me up... wth... that's not a wake up call... that's a get-ur-ass-down-here call... :) so, i brushed up and answered a call(nature's call), and i'm off...

went to pick up others... (the rented cars were amazing... an Chevy Impala(TM) /(R)... and a Pontiac Grand Prix (TM)/(R).... we set off for Birch Run at about 11am...detour to the post office for Ivy to send something home... (expensive...damn) and started our journey to Birch Run at about 11.15am... reach Birch Run Prime Outlets (R) at about 12.30pm... had lunch at BK(TM)... and we started shopping at about 1pm...

first off... to Levi's/Dockers (TM), where I got a belt, a wallet, a shirt and a t-shirt... and after long consideration, another pair of Jeans...next off... to Nike... where I spent soooooooooo much there... and bought 2 pairs of Nike(R) Free shoes(1 for me, 1 for my bro)... 1 hoodie... 1 sport jacket(my bro's), 2 head bands (my bros), 1 football, 3 pairs of socks...next... it's Banana Republic(R) time... i bought 2 shirts...
and then, it's Aeropostale... where I got a steal... really...
and last but not least... some cookies... really good ones...
.... and that's my limit... i can't spend anymore... because I'm exhausted monetarily and mentally... and also physically... and I'm proned to make bad mental judgement... and will be regretting later... (the fun of shopping??) and I just walked around at about 5 hours later.... and $250 lesser...

it's hell of a shopping trip...

so... what's weekdays and weekends again??

lolz... puzzled by the title... me too...

apparently, college students, especially seniors, like to have their Fridays off... so, they can start partying on Thursday night, and then Friday night, and also Saturday night... Sunday to recover from the long weekends... you know... all the tiring(physically and mentally) games (like beer pong, flip cups, dices, drunkball)... you need a good day to recover from it and be prepared for school the next day...

So, i was scheduling for my classes next semester, and I was browsing through all the classes, and I gave it(making Friday off) a try... and I did managed to have such a schedule easily... I didn't even try... those classes that I want are all coincidentally on Tuesday and Thursday, and another additional one on Monday and Wednesday... so, if I were to take 4 classes next semester, I will be having Monday and Wednesday and Friday off... but a crazy Tuesday and Thursday... but, if I were to take 5 classes next sem, which is not an easy task, I would be having one class on Monday and Wed, crazy Tuesday and mad Thursday, and Friday off...
so, do I want a crazy weekend (meaning, weekend starting on Thursday and ending on Monday, and attending 7.5 hours of classes on Tuesday and 4.5 hours of classes on Thursday, with Wednesday free to recover from the Tuesday brain damage...) or taking another class on Monday and Wednesday... same Tuesday and Thursday...???

no matter what it is, I'll be taking my Friday's off... so, is Thursday the new Friday?? and eve better, Tuesday is the new Monday? and Wednesday... an offday... so, i'll be like go to classES on Tuesday, rest on Wed, go to classES on Thurs, rest on Fri, Sat and Sun, and not to forget Mon... and repeat the week? go to class on Mon, go to classES on Tues, go to class on Wed, go to classES on Thurs, and rest on Fri, Sat and Sun???...

way to go... while others are piling up their classes, I'm spending my time how to schedule a perfect timetable... :)

so, all about the classes... what classes am I taking next sem?
well, tentatively, there are:

Math 520: Life Contingencies I (Tues & Thur)
Math 523: Risk Theory (Tues & Thur)
Econ 403: Advance Economic Theory (Mon & Wed)
Acct 471: Accounting Principal (Tues)
IOE 452: Corporate Finance (Tues & Thur)

so, basically, this is all about my classes coming Fall semester (starting September)... :) damn... those huge class numbers are pretty intimidating... hopefully, they are not too bad... or else, I will have to drop one of them, guess which one... try to spot the odd one out, and i'll be dropping that one... :)

the usual, last week, and whatever's on my mind...

So... how u guys doing?

Well well... last week was just any other week, just with less meeting and with better weather....nice... it was in the high 50s and mid 60s in the afternoon for a couple of days(that's about 15 - 20 Celcius...) the entire campus jumped to life in a matter of days, where u can see girls in skirts, ppl playing frisbee and throwing football everywhere... sweet...

so, i told u about the monday trapped in the elevator...and then, came Tuesday...

nothing much... as far as I can remember, it was just like the usual work, classes and back to my room... more basketballs... and some other stuffs...

Wednesday... work, classes, went to this really amazing documentary, The Future of Food, where I learned a lot about genetic modified food and many of the issues around it... it was really an eye opening documentary... and I think watching documentaries had really expand my horizon... (first Invisible Children, now The Future of Food... and prior to that, there's another one about Food = Waste)... amazing...

got back, and bought the season football tix (i'm not sure when I did this... more like I did it on Tuesday night...) :)

Anyway... so, came Thursday, work, classes, quiz (last quiz),, got back my MacroEcon paper, which I bitched about last week, but well, since I got a not bad score, and the marking was pretty lenient, due to the fact of lost of 20 minutes in the exam, I'm cool about it, but i still maintain my position that I would have done slightly better in the exam with the 20 minutes... but hell... Forgot what i did that night... NOPE... wait a sec... I went to play Laser Tag... a hall event organized by my fren's sis... quite a number of us (Joe, Doug, Alicia, Dane, Jarred, Alex and I) went Laser Tag at some where not so near... but since transportation provided, and it only cost $5... It was really fun, and I did pretty well... in my first round, free for all match of 30 players, I came in 3rd... not too bad for a first timer... and in my 2nd round, in a frantic match, which I hated the rules, of 29 players, I came in 10th... not too bad... but it was really intense... i was sweating like hell after the two matches... really... it was insane... went there and started playing at about 9.45pm... came back at about midnight, and reached the dorm at about 1am... hell... and I'm supposed to wake up at 6.30am to work tomorrow morning... and checked my email... and great news... and I'll be home for the entire summer due to the currently undiscloseable great news... I called home at about 1.30am... and dang.. chatted with daddy for awhile.. and fiddled around with my computer and all, slept at quarter past 2...

woke up the next morning at 6.30am... not feeling my legs... they were still pretty numb from yesterday night's Laser Tag... somehow scrambled myself to work, and after that, quiz and discussion... fell asleep in discussion... right in front of my GSI... :) way to go...
After the quiz, we went over it with the GSI... and i got the quote of the week...So, one of us asked a question about whether the Beta of the APT can be negative... and the GSI went... let me think about this, but a couple of us think that it's definitely alright because stocks can be negatively correlated with the market, hence, it's perfectly fine for a stock to have a negative beta with the market... after like 15 minutes... he agreed that beta can be negative... and the punchline... "I overthink about the question just now. Over-educated people tend to overthink too much." WHAT THE HECK... way to give yourself a pat on your back... lolz...

Another thing I did was me buying my flight tickets going home!!! yeah... finally, i got a confirmation of my flight date home (on April 29th... reaching KLIA in the afternoon of 1st of May!!!) and will be coming back (most probably) on the Aug 20th... finally, after 20 months away from home... i'm going home!!!

That afternoon, had a surprised birthday party(sorta) for my friend, Doug... at night... went to Bubble Island... and then, went party with Dane... had some beer... played a couple of beer games... got back to my room at about 3.30am... dozed off... woke up next day at about 8.30am, decided against going DP... not feeling well... a bit hungover...

in the afternoon, did nothing much, other than watching bball matches... and at night, drank some beer, watched family guy... just chilling with my frens...

Sunday, just worked and worked... and was really tired... did nothing much...

woke up Monday... started doing homework... way to start a week... well, pretty productive i should say... not too bad... classes and all... watched NCAA finals at night... at about 10.20pm, fire alarm went off... blardy hell, apparently, some girls forgot about their popcorns in the microwaves and burnt them, and the smokes triggered the firealarm... for the dunno how many times... thanks. dad called me at the perfect timing while i was walking down the stairs... chatted for awhile... got back into the dorm about 10.45pm... the game was boring... UF dominated the game... completed my homework around midnight, did some practice exam questions preparing for the upcoming midterm on Thurs, and went to bed at about 2am...

woke up this morning... feeling not too bad, work, classes... and back in my room... no big deal... and here i am updating my blog... :) i think i need some pictures up here... i'll try to get some... check back soon..