Alphabetically...

Ambitious... Well, as a rather positive person, I always think that things gonna be better, or, it could have been worse. But, something really hit me big time, the fact that, after 3 years +, things are not better, and I think it's hard for me to even imagine if it is possible for it to be worse. I'm talking about the situation at somewhere. I think it's really hard to see the whole picture when ones eyes and ears are covered.

Black Friday... So, on Thanksgiving day, many of us hung out at my apartment, watching Forrest Gump, til 3am, I went to bed at 1+am, and woke up at about 3am, and then, Wei Ping, Jason and I went to Meijer for Black Friday's deals. I was there to pick up a Wii. And true enough, and fortunate enough, there weren't a huge line by the time I got there at 3.15am. I was 8th in line for a Nintendo Wii, and they promised to have at least 30 systems. So, I'm happy. After waited for 2 hours +, plus thanks to inefficient checking out and the floor manager was really dumb. While waiting in line, I talked to some of the people, and many of them were actually there to buy a system and turn around to sell it on eBay. Due to the shortages, I think by doing so, they can earn about $75 - 100. Come to think about it, I'm not sure if I'm willing to sacrifice a good sleep for that.

Credit card... Credit card companies have been flooding my mailbox with pre-approved account. Thanks, but no thanks. I already have 3 credit cards, I only used 1 and the other one serves as a back up, and the 3rd one is virtually dead. I never got the card, and I requested for the card to be resent to me, but never got it. It's a Old Navy, GAP and Banana Republic credit card, and since I don't really shop there much, I didn't bother to ask them to resend it again. Well, maybe I'll ask them to resend it to me just for keep-sake. Also, I read that, on average, American adults have 6000+ credit card debts. That's a lot of money. Imagine with more than 100 million adults in the States, and that's an average figure. That sums up to more than 600+ billions of credit card debt. The interest charges that these people are paying huge. Guess that's why I'm getting so many credit card offers as it's a lucrative business for these banks.

Deers... How often do you see a deer? Well, if you live in the woods, you will see it all the time. Here in Northwood, my apartment place, I think I've encountered them like more than 10 times now. Last Wednesday, they were right in front of my apartment building and I managed to take some pictures.Are those stars?
Nope... deers!!! What a nice formation.
Them scurrying away...

End of semester... It's December already. In 2 weeks time, I'll be done with classes and finals, and not before long, it'll be my very last semester as an undergraduate student here at the University of Michigan.

Football... Capital One bowl... Orlando, Florida on New Year's Day. Guess that's how i'll be spending my 2nd half on my Christmas break, visiting my friend in Florida and go to Capital One Bowl.

Guitar Heroes III... The picture below only shows the 'guitar', and if you pay a closer look, you can actually see the game and the box of it. So, this is what had been consuming my life lately. I'm ok at that game, just OK. Have 2 songs left on Hard, and beat 4 songs on Expert so far (prolly after 20 hours clocked on the game). I did have about 20 hours worth of experience on Guitar Heroes:I, but that was quite sometime ago. But, this version is definitely much harder than the previous 2.

Heroes... The other thing that had been consuming my life was Heroes, the TV series. Well 2 different heroes are consuming my life. Guess, I'm destined to be a hero. :)

Inefficient...

JPA...For those who knows, enough said. For those who don't, well, it's better that you don't know.

Krispy Kreme... Doughnuts' holes are amazing...

...

Mountain Dew

N

Orange Juice... It's actually really good. Not only does the two mix well, the fizzling OJ + caffeine really give a good kick to my tastebud.

Running... So, I ran for 7.5 miles the other day, and 4.5 miles the next day, and my left knee ached for several days... And today, I ran for 8 miles. :) And my left knee is aching again... I could have pushed for another 2 miles and make it 10-mile run, but I figured I can do it on Thurs.

Sleep... So, even though I can afford to sleep more right now, somehow, I just don't do it. And still only getting on average 5 hrs of sleep.

Thanksgiving dinner... I had 4 Thanksgiving DinnerS this year. First one being in the cafeteria, the 2nd, at my buddy's house, which I prepared a Sweet Potatoes Casserole. It was my first time preparing it, but it turned out rather well. Well, it's hard to screw up something like that. :)
Boiling the sweet potatoes...
Mashed and baked...
Marshmallows to top it...
And also, I brought a mini-keg to the dinner... It's a 5-liter baby Heineken draught keg. :)


Wii...
The system!!!
The focus...
Wii... = Muscle Sore...

Look at the huge motion while Keng Yang and Wei Chieh were playing Wii Tennis... No accident from Wii yet... hopefully it will stay that way. Guess we can really get 'fit' by playing.


Work... I've been working a lot more recently... Well, since I've some free time. Why not?

Alright, this posts is weird... Trying to hard to fit it alphabetically is not so good an idea... :)

Random thoughts and more...

On this post, my minds really wander all over the place. And I actually save this post twice and continue writing it over several days.

Quoting Thomas Friedman: "... democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can’t take root."

Amen... it's one of the reasons some countries are less democratic than others...

Brave... courage... It's amazing too see how brave and courageous a person can be. Thanks for teaching me that. To be able to stay so strong and still manage a smile and see life in such a way, really makes me see myself and see things from a different perspective. I'm really proud of you, and I know you will understand this when you read this.

Drinking... well... I can't believe I finished an entire bottle of wine yesterday... A bottle of light white wine... (only 9.5% alcohol)... a bottle of Blue Nun Riesling... really good for the price... I recommend it.

Emptiness...Since the exam and all, I had been really 'free'... in the sense that I'm feel like i'm empty, so much so that I dreaded the feeling of having nothing to do. Really... So much so that I'm looking hard, really hard for a game console to fill in the void. I am actually considering should I start studying for CAS 5?
And I'm pretty pissed that Nintendo Wii is still so hard to find after about a year of its launched. That's unacceptable. I will be camping outside Meijer this Friday early in the morning to make sure that I get one, or else, Sony will have my money as I'll be buying a PS3 instead. Take that, Nintendo... I'm pretty sure you lost a bunch of perspectives customers who got frustrated searching for one but to no avail.


Framing effect... Context effect... many times what you wanna say depends on how you say it. Let me put this in a picture for you...
Which square is darker? A or B??

Well... this might be a mind-f*ck question.. It's possible that A is definitely darker than B, but, just to play a psychological game, I can still ask this question, hoping that some of you might think otherwise... So, which square is darker? A or B??

...


...


...

Actually, they are of equal darkness... See it for yourself... the two lines are linking the 2 squares are monotone, and they match with the two boxes without any change of shades... so, they are of equal darkness... surprised? Well, because in the first picture, the thought of the box B in the shadow have our mind think that it's actually of lighter color, hence, we see it as a brighter box as compared to A. Interesting? So, many times, it's not what you say that it counts, it's how you say it that makes a bigger impact.


Procrastinating... So, I'm taking this behavioral economics class... which talk about choices, and why people choose to make those decisions... In this world, they are two kind of people in general... those who are naive, and those who are sophisticated... So a naive person will always procrastinate until the very end, because they will always think there will be a better time to do it later... and later and later, until the very last minute. On the other hand, the sophisticated ones will think that if he/she were to procrastinate it a day later, he/she will continue to procrastinate further, hence, he/she will end up doing it at the beginning. Who am I? I'm both... for important and formal stuff, I'll try my very best to do it at the very beginning (for those of us from Chinese primary school will know how many of us tried to finish our holiday homework at the very first second we got it...); while for the less important, and not-the-end-of-the-world-if-not-done work, I'll procrastinate.

So, there you go... after about a week of procrastinating, this post is finally ready to go...

4th and out...

Well... another year, another loss to our most hated rival, OSU. Oh How I Hate Ohio State...

So, yesterday morning, my day pretty much started at 9am... after breakfast and all it's 10.30am, and I headed off to the HUGE game of the year...
On my way out, saw this creature scampering around outside my apartment...And also, taking some time to appreciate the fall color....

And it took me quite awhile to find a parting spot down in Central campus... and on my way walking to the stadium, near the Bell tower, i took this shot...

Getting closer to the BIG HOUSE, the crowds get stronger, and the chant and all gets more vulgar and creative...The game is big enough to attract the ESPN Gameday crew...
Walking towards my seating area....
The marching band forming the Block M...
Damn the fans in reds...
The Wolverines entering the field... reaching for the GO BLUE banner...
Told you the fans are creative... It's an inflatable GIANT PENIS reads "Tressel Likes Penises"
(Tressel being the head coach of OSU).
Me watching the game... Manage to fake a smile...
Game over... the worst stats put up by the Wolverines as far as I can remember...

The endzone that we didn't reach today....

After the game, I stayed back for the post-game show...



And we were thinking about winning the game and be able to play in the Rose bowl...
Thank you BAND...
So... that was how I spent my Saturday afternoon... standing in the cold ~2 Celcius, in the rain!!! for ~5 hours...It was painful to witness another loss, and Class of 2008, the class with all losses to OSU... It ended the season with a really bad note... and most possible scarring Coach Lloyd Carr's otherwise impressive record... (this is possibly his last game as he is expected to be announcing his retirement on Monday). Hopefully, we will get Les Miles as our new coach, and we need to, have to win next year...

D... 5...

What about the title? D? What D? Well, D is after C... that's what it is. Or maybe I should put 5, since I'm very possibly venturing into P&C actuarial, which uses the number, instead of letters.

This following joke is kinda relevant to what's on my mind now. Making a decision on what's after college...

From Daily Yiggles
"College Grad's Starting Salary
Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources Person asked a young engineer who was fresh out of MIT, "What starting salary were you thinking about?" The Engineer said, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package." The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5 weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every 2 years - say, a red Corvette?" The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?" The interviewer replied, "Yeah, but you started it." "

So, finally, I'm finding life. Finding a life of my own other than studying for the actuarial exam, which I finally took this morning. If I were to fail this exam, I only have myself to blame, for procrastinating. Instead of the advised 400-hours of studying, I did about 200 hours. And, instead of following my plan, of studying from Aug til Nov, I did start in August, just to stop for 2 months, before I finally picked it up again in late Sept. After the exam, my brain was really fried... I found myself unable to read a paragraph longer than 3 sentences. Really!!! But, it's over now!!!

Also, in between classes, I had about 20 minutes, and so, I took a walk to Starbucks, and asked the barista for something strong... and he recommended me a ice black eye. For those new to Starbucks lingo:

REDEYE = Cup of Coffee with 1 shot of espresso
BLACK EYE = Cup of Coffee with 2 shots
DEAD EYE = Cup of Coffee with 3 shots

And after that, I can feel my heart beating hard on my chest. Maybe I should try the dead eye next time. :)

After the class, I went to the computer lab to start working on my Stats assignment, due tmr, wait it's 12.11am now, so, it's due today. And I'm going no where with it yet. And, at the same time, I went to ActuarialOutpost.com, and check on the PAK (popular answer key) of the exam I took. Damn, actuaries are efficient. As they can only start discussing about the exam after 5pm, they had a PAK of a sample size of more than 60 by 6pm. I compared my answer to it, and guess what?!?! I'm borderlining passing again!!! At the moment, I'm assuming that I failed the exam, so that I won't be disappointed when the official result is announced... and I will be surprised if I were to pass it. Yup. My defense mechanism: disappointment averse...

Really. Taking exam during a semester is really much tougher than I expected. All the other stuff going on really make it much tougher. Especially if you are crazy college football fans... coz, that really makes ur week a day shorter. Be it home game or away game, it doesn't matter. And not to mention all the assignments and midterms peppered around the exam.Oh yar, studying for actuarial exam is never green. I opted the lighter and more condensed study guide, and it's 1200 pages thick.... There's another study guide by a different author... and it's 4000+ pages...Sorry for killing all the trees!!!

So, finally, after C, I can finally get on with my life. I finally realized how much I had been sacrificing to make time to study for the exam. The 4-5 hours sleep per day on average. All the tv series. The buying and playing of Wii. The weather and the falling leaves. The running (you really can't run when you don't have enough time to sleep). And not to mention, the joy of doing nothing...And also, all the invitations to bars and parties...

So, back to my life...What's better way to kick off your life than to do 3-week worth of laundry? LOL...

And, also, making plans for holidays, and also, writing emails that I didn't get to write. And also, cherish everything around me more.

So, all those words... BORING rite?

Here are some pictures...
An ice cold brewski...
Also, when i was studying, I had quite some tea... 4-6 teabags a day... And hence, I had to get a new box of it. And, because it's a box of 100 teabags, and there's only 3 rows in the packaging, they got me wondering, how do they separate 100 teabags into 3 rows? Intriguing? At first, I think, well, must be 33-34-33... or any of the 3 combinations of that. So, I counted them, and to my surprise, it was 34-32-34... Interesting...
Also, while taking that shot, I find it to be a rather background for my OSU at Michigan football ticket. Well, according to market price, this ticket is fetching USD$300... but well, I'm not sure I'm willing to sell it at that price. Yeah... I'm serious about it.

Well... the fact that it's gonna be my very last home football game added a lot of sentimental value to that game. And, I'm hoping that we will pull off an upset against the national top-ranked team, and beat OSU for the first time in many years... and to top it all off, a chance to rush the field...All these possibilities really add up to a lot...

Maybe $500? Maybe...

THE DUCK IS DEAD

Quoting Yiggles of Yugster:
A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest.

After a moment or two, the vet shook his head sadly and said, "I'm so sorry, your Duck Cuddles has passed away."

The distressed owner wailed, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. The duck is dead," he replied.

"How can you be so sure," she protested. "I mean, you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something."

The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room, and returned a few moments later with a black Labrador retriever. As the duck's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom.

He then looked at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head. The vet patted the dog and took it out, and returned a few moments later with a cat.

The cat jumped up on the table and also sniffed delicately at the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.

The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck." Then the vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman.

The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill. "$500!" she cried, "$500 just to tell me my duck is dead?!!"

The vet shrugged. "I'm sorry. If you'd taken my word for it, the bill would have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it's now $500.00."


"must be a duck..." ~insiders' joke...